My, this is a good idea

Rosa Eberly at The Blogora offers academics a useful prompt:

you are a professor. you have a phd; your days are divided among the different kinds of people who need to see you -- the people you supervise, students, colleagues, the higher-ups, people who want something from you, loved ones, community members, categories not exclusive.

you have a "discipline" or some combination of commodified kinds of academic expertise.

1. make a list of at least one thing -- generate as many ordinals as you like, not worrying about hierarchy -- that you think your discipline(s) or kind(s) of expertise have done to damage democracy.

2. then make a list of at least one thing -- generate as many ordinals as you like, not worrying about hierarchy -- that you think your discipline(s) or kind(s) of expertise could do to sustain democracy, its habits and practices.

3. finally -- or not finally -- talk with a colleague, a student, someone, anyone, about this exercise and your lists.

I only saw the post a second ago, so I'll have to think on it, but I'll be posting a response, and I encourage others to participate in this activity as well. Andrew Cline responds in the comments to Rosa's post.