Saturday, May 4, 2013

Rebel? No. Insubordinate? Hell Yes.

As much of a fan as I am of the Rebel Alliance on this May the Fourth, I have to say that I have never launched or participated in a rebellion.  However, insubordination is entirely different.  I am reminded of this as I caught this thread at Business Insider (h/t to Doctrine Man).

In the rededit thread cited in the BI piece, folks are telling tales of "the worst thing they said to a senior officer or NCO."  Check it out--heaps of fun.  So, I got to thinking--what was the worst thing I said to someone who was above me in the chain of command?

The one tale that comes to mind is when I was at TTU, and our department was in receivership--which meant that our chair was a Psychologist.  I was the adviser to the undergrad poli sci association, and then wanted to hold a debate in advance of the 2000 election and have a GOP and a Democrat debate each other since we could not get Bush and Gore.  The chair said no, as it would be too controversial.  When I found out about this decision, I went to him and reminded him that we are a political science department, where we do things like talk about politics.  He was not pleased to be reminded of his limitations.

While I have had more than a few chairs that I might wanted to have "corrected," I have had only two that I have been mildly "rebellious" towards: the psychologist and this guy.  I am sure friends can provide examples of what might be the worst thing that I said to either, but my memory is lousy.

Given that academia provides a heaps more unaccounability than the military chain of command, I am sure plenty of folks have good tales of the worst thing they said to someone in administration, right? 


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