re: #74 iceweasel

(and ‘failed’ here is a wholly relative term; it’s all about the perceived prestige within the tiny community— and this is a community where no matter how clever you are, someone is always more clever than you.)

Classicists (proper) are not numerous in this country. At least relative to other academic disciplines, such as in the science or engineering, the faculties of which exploded in the 20th century while in the meantime the Classics slowly faded into obscurity.

Heh, at one time everybody studied Latin. Who does that anymore? Even when I took 2 years in HS (decades ago) it was very rare.

On top of that, most people in this country who study ancient Greek are in Bible schools and what they are studying is just canned recitations of the NT and comments on NT Greek. They really aren’t Classicists.

So yes, VDH was in a relatively small academic discipline and no doubt the competition for tenured position at the leading schools is extremely difficult to get.

Yet I don’t know for sure if VDH could have or have not secured such a position, so I’m not going to judge him on how his academic career turned out. All I do know is that he has turned to punditry, and very shallow punditry at that.