It’s Academic at this Point

Hello, you have A Way with Words. Good morning. This is Bob Felton from Reno.

Hey, Bob. Welcome to the show. How can we help you?

Well, I was looking at a phrase, actually a quote from a famous advertising guy. It says, if your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic. And that phrase is academic, or it’s all academic or it’s just academic is often heard in a dismissive way.

People dismiss the relevance or the importance of whatever an effort might be by simply saying, well, that’s all academic.

And I was wondering where that phrase came from, how it became used. Does it sound dismissive to you to call it academic or as a way of belittling it?

Absolutely. Yes, I think that’s a common way that you hear it.

Yeah, just kind of theoretical.

Exactly, not realistic.

And what are some ways that you’ve encountered academic like this?

Well, I think that you’ll hear it in the business world sometimes to have people say, well, that’s fine, but it’s just academic, that kind of usage.

Yeah, I’ve encountered it similar to that, where it’s definitely a way of, I think, short-circuiting the conversation, reducing the discussion so that somebody with a strong will can get their way without having that will be challenged.

That’s an interesting perception. I would agree with that.

I’ve also seen it used in situations where it didn’t matter anymore whether or not you discussed it. It was done. What was done was done, and there was no fixing it, no going back, no redoing it.

And in that case, the conversation about what you could do to fix it is academic. It’s just, it’s done, right?

Yes, yes. I’ve heard it used that way as well.

And the answer to why we say this is actually really simple, because academia is a place where things are discussed. Academics really are about conversation. They’re about professor-led discourse, more or less.

And it has traditionally been so, at least in the European slash Western Greco-Roman tradition. It has almost always been about discussion.

And so basically you’re saying, if you’re saying it’s academic at this point, you’re saying all that’s left is the talk, right? It’s all over but the shouting.

I guess so. I guess so. Do you know anything about its origin?

I’m looking at the Oxford English Dictionary, which takes it back to the early 19th century of the sense of not leading to a decision or just theoretical.

Theoretical. You know, formal and therefore now in a weakened sense of no consequence or irrelevant.

Right.

And that weakened…

Inside that ivory tower.

It’s interesting that it goes that far back.

Mm—

Mm—

Well, Bob, thank you so much for your call.

Thank you.

All right.

Take care.

Thanks, Bob.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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