1) Re. ''method wars' are a waste of time,' the last thing I have to say about any of this for now: I get the desire to champion multiplicity, frivolity, do what you want, etc. in lit. studies. I'd even say these can be generative. At the same time ...

2) I think it's a contradiction--maybe even a form of hypocrisy--to say on the one hand 'do what you want, we do whatever, we're frivolous, this is pointless' and on the other hand 'we need more tenure lines, more institutional support, our grad. students need a living wage,' etc

3) This is the point in these discussions where people championing frivolousness, multiplicity, and the idea that talking about purpose and method are a waste of time (are themselves frivolous?) will inevitably say some version of 'whatever, organize, strike.' ...

4) So then what are you striking for? 'Living wage for grad. students! Healthcare for contingent faculty! More tenure lines!' ...

5) More tenure lines for what? More institutional support for what? 'Frivolity! Pointlessness! Do whatever you want, man!'

6) So, people will do this dance, sliding back and forth between the attitude that the field owes no one anything outside the field, that it has no articulable purpose worth stating or fighting over, that any such question is too high-level for a besieged discipline ...

7) And the urge to fall back, organize, and make demands. If you press on one end and talk about method, people slide to the other and talk about activism; if you press on the activism (for what?) people slide back to the other end and say (in effect) 'for whatever we want to do'

8) And this is where, for me, I think it just doesn't line up--again, maybe is just straight hypocrisy--to declare yourself a champion of grad. students and contingent and vulnerable colleagues, and to say you want--you demand--a future for this field ...

9) ... but then to turn around and categorically dismiss the discussion about what the actual thing is we'd be advocating for more of. It's a privilege of the tenured (and to a lesser extent tenure-track) to do this dance. I don't blame contingent colleagues for dismissing it. ..

10) But I think tenured faculty--and very much those more powerful and influential in the field than I am--owe more and should do better in this discussion.

11) As I've said numerous times, as a joke (The Method Wars Did Not Take Place) and more seriously, the stuff we're calling 'method' is just...not. So I get fatigue with talking about whatever it is we're calling 'method.' But at some poin I'd like to talk about method. /end

Addendum: Because I know I'm going to get this kind of shitty reply:

I'm not talking about 'should'--before any of this, universal healthcare, reparations, and UBI--that's 'should.' I'm saying if we give no reasons to have our demands met, they *won't* be. Reasons alone won't do it, but are essential to it.