The memory of the academy is long, and its scope is national. Disagreements of no real consequence are remembered for entire careers, mutating and multiplying among allies and advisees into a kind of poisonous gas that can sour the air of an entire sector of the profession for generations. The author maintains that there is no other profession, apart from politics or film acting, in which one's past is always threatening to intrude on the peace of one's present life. Academe is full of bitter disputes and personal antagonisms. Everything an individual says can be held against him, and he is required to say things all the time. It is a hard lesson for academics to learn that freedom of speech--without the most vigilant forethought--is really the last thing one wants to exercise if one desires a reasonably secure and successful career as a professor. To speak freely is dangerous, but to not speak freely--in the context of the moment--undermines one of the reasons for being a professor in the first place. The prudent advice for ambitious young academics is to keep their mouth shut, stay away from practical activism, and write only with great precision on acceptable scholarly subtopics. They should create nothing that can be used to simplify, typecast, or otherwise condemn them as "unprofessional."