Heh heh.
But what is richly ironic is if you were to ask those majoring in the "humanities" this question;
"List the top 5 things you want to buy or purchase in the next month"
they would list things that are NOT produced by humanities majors.
I guarantee you that they would list things like;
1. Ipad
2. Iphone
3. XBox
4. Sushi
5. Clothes
What is further ironic, if not hilarious, they would be unable to link this as to why there is no demand for "humanities majors" and why they can't find jobs.
ht
18 comments:
Last I checked, economics was in the humanities... lol. Just sayin' is all.
Humanities produces the least stupid graduates. It's a curriculum that really does weed out the fake intellectuals from the real. That said, there's no doubt they're not great for gdp.
Bah! go to the sushi restaurant, and you'll see plenty of humanities majors involved in making your food.
You think nobody would say: go to a movie or buy a book or buy some music?
What's the point of having an Ipad without interesting content on it? Where the best content is being produced by people that very likely have humanities degrees.
How about xbox games designed by people with no artistic or storytelling skills?
One truly versed in the Humanities, say Victor Davis Hanson, might say,
"I want an electrical engineer and computer programmer and a automechanic to make me a laptop, and I-Pad and a car, and in return I will teach them
how propaganda works and how it preys upon their naive and good-natured credulity.
I will teach them what constitutes force beyond the material part; I will teach them how to make war and when they must make war.
"Such are the principal benefits of education in
history and classics. Such are the benefits of reading Thucydides and Churchill, and Caesar and Tacitus."
Yes, Economics is usually taught in the Humanities. Sorry, Captain.
yes, but their lives are worthless without the tools to communicate.
yes, but their lives are worthless without the tools to communicate.
These degrees aren't worthless, but they aren't priced correctly. A four year liberal arts degree should cost less than 10,000 dollars in tuition (rough guess as to the value a degree like this adds to a person's career hopes).
The fact people are paying four to ten times this amount (and thus wiping out any advantage these degrees, which I really do believe help people think and problem solve, provide) is the real disaster.
Just like in housing, a house isn't worthless, but the bubble made many houses worthless.
Of those items, most are produced in Asian factories. Designed by engineers, games produced by code monkeys. BTW some of the best graphic arts for games is comming out of Korea.
Only Sushi is produced locally, and doubtfully produced by a humanities major, that takes real skill and talant. Maybe served by a humanities major.
Saying studying the humanities leads to people being better at creative writing is kind of like saying studying kinesiology leads to people being better professional athletes. While there is no doubt that some people might receive some benefit from the degree, the vast majority of people's success in these fields is completely unrelated to these degrees. While there are individuals who could be considered "high-character" athletes or writers, and are successful based on their drive to improve their skills steadily over time, most people who are particularly successful in these fields demonstrated natural talent at a young age and a desire to improve their skills over time; and their higher education has little to do with the success they have received.
This is one of the reasons why when you look into the backgrounds of authors they all seem to have such diverse lives, and have studied such varied subjects. I have personally known a couple of published authors, one with a computer science degree the other with a physics degree, and they were successful in a large part because they enjoyed telling stories and writing for others; and their skills developed from constantly writing.
Hey 'nony,
Economics is one subject that could easily move to business faculties in a way that something
like, say, Gender Studies, could not.
I challenge your assertion that Humanities produces the least stupid graduates as having no basis in reality. Your average Humanities graduate cannot differentiate between correlation and causation. They generally possess so little in the way of intellectual curiosity that someone openly challenging a professor in class rocks their world. They cannot articulate their positions, never mind defend them in a cogent manner, because they do not actually understand what it is that they are espousing, much less that there may be consequences attached to said beliefs. And as for weeding out fake intellectuals from the real...try submitting a paper to a humanities prof that argues against his pet position and see how far that gets you, no matter how well researched and presented.
Having both a degree in Humanities (Poli. Sci.) a real degree (Engineering), I do have a basis for comparison. My GPA on my B.A. would have been much higher if I'd been willing to intellectually prostitute myself. On the other hand, I had an offer for Grad School off my Engineering degree.
Most of those who I encountered in the course of my Humanities degree with much on the ball tended to be from a real faculty taking their obligatory humanities optional courses. The most useful thing my humanities degree did for me was to save me four courses on my real one.
As one who is actively working in the IT sector, trust me, the people who are designing and providing the best content for mobile devices graduated from a real discipline (Comp. Sci., Engineering or Architecture). Frankly, it is a mystery to me as to how you conflate artistic and storytelling skills with a degree in humanities when there has been a demonstrated correlation between creativity (like artistic or musical ability) and mathematical ability.
I feel sorry for Stanley Fish - he apparently truly believes in producing academic graduates who are independent thinkers (see "Save the World on Your Own Time"). He was on TV Ontario last year "debating" other professors about keeping their policital views out of the lecture hall. Some of these other "professors" were your run-of-the mill left wing nut bars who looked upon Fish as some fossil, and were shocked, yes, shocked, that there would be any suggestion that they should not express their political views to their students in the classroom; and, let's be honest, there's the rub: these liberal arts departments are now almost exclusively populated by left-wing nut bars, who view it as their mission to produce more left-wing nut bars.
If these liberal arts departments were populated by more Stanley Fishes or Victor Davis Hansons and less Saul Alinskys, then maybe people like me might encourage our children to enroll in some of these courses. It is ironic, but not entirely surprising, that these departments are not even supported by the people whose political views they have catered to for years now. In the end, however, as we know, and as these funding cuts show, "the facts of life are conservative" (Maggie Thatcher).
"How about xbox games designed by people with no artistic or storytelling skills"
You don't acquire artistic talent or uncover a gift for storytelling in school in the same way that a singer doesn't suddenly discover his voice during voice lessons.
Pop Quiz:
Complete this sentence with what is *least* likely:
"You roll out of bed in the morning, drag yourself into the shower and spontaneously..."
a) "...start humming a new tune with no formal music training."
b) "...come up with a new story with no formal training."
c) "...design complex, efficient algorithms involving multi-dimensional math and architect a million-line, gigabyte-size piece of cutting edge software with no formal training."
While you can indeed teach yourself software design, the materials and languages you will use to self-teach necessarily come from people who have advanced training in computer science or engineering.
As someone with a degree in arts (in French) as well as science (in Computer Science), I daresay that I could have learned the contents of the B.A. with a library card and reading list. That's certainly not the case with the B.Sc.
It is hereby duly noted that economics is in the humanities.
It is also hereby duly noted economics may be the "exception to the rule" not on account I studied it, but the private sector actually pays for economists as they do produce something of value.
To those who say that economics is in "The Humanities" I say "that depends on the college." Here at Westminster the economics department is part of the business department. Of the other colleges I'm knowledgeable of, economics is usually in the social sciences department (with history and sociology, sometimes psychology) where humanities is more foreign languages, literature, and the like.
I would also have to agree with Taylor in that most if not all of the "learning" gained from taking humanities courses is far easier to gain simply from reading (especially with how much lit classes are governed by PC over literary merit these days) than more technical pursuits (though your mileage may vary even there; I tend to get more from math textbooks than professors).
The only worthwhile humanities degree is the honorary one.
Here's how the humanities ought to work. A person devotes his or her life to a worthy cause. In the end, he or she has become a "humanitist", without ever realizing it or trying.
In universities, humanities departments should focus on raw facts, like a hard science. You can't institutionalize spontaneity.
There are a huge number of authentic looking fake university degree certificates that can easily shape your career. Those who are looking to buy fake degrees can visit backalleypress.com.
.Fake Degrees
"You think nobody would say: go to a movie or buy a book or buy some music? "
HHHHHEEEEELLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOO.
YOU DON'T NEED AN ART DEGREE TO MAKE ART.
YOU DON'T NEED A DEGREE TO WRITE GOOD BOOKS, MAKE MUSIC, OR PRODUCE A FILM. DEGREE NOT NEEDED.
I'M AFRAID THE SAME ISN'T TRUE FOR ENGINEERING, PHYSICS, AND THE LIKE.
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