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Why do many people have a knee-jerk reaction against the humanities? I'm genuinely curious what others think. I mean - where do they think Game of Thrones, The

by adamsea 10y ago

Why do many people have a knee-jerk reaction against the humanities? I'm genuinely curious what others think. I mean - where do they think Game of Thrones, The Wire, The Sopranos, i.e. all of our culture (popular and otherwise) come from?

danharaj 10y ago
technocracy is en vogue here and humanities experts are not seen as experts in anything """useful""", which usually translates as "economically lucrative" or ""rational and objective"".
orionblastar 10y ago
It isn't knee jerk reactions to liberal arts degrees. The world needs better books, movies, tv shows, painting, music, etc. The thing is, that was once thought a decade ago or so, was that a liberal arts degree did not qualify someone for a programming job as much as a computer science or engineering degree would. Python and Ruby on Rails made it easier to program, when it was thought that a liberal arts major can't program we used C and Pascal, pointers, had to do garbage collection on our own, had to allocate and then free up memory, etc. Programming Languages evolved with Java and C# that did away with pointers, does garbage collection on their own, and allocates and frees up memory when an object is closed. Then Python and Ruby on Rails made it even easier. Microsoft had to make a Express and then Community version of their Visual Studio Dotnet languages to compete with FOSS languages, Borland suffered and kept getting bought out, suddenly there FOSS languages got easier to use, understand, and program in. I think every degree should have a Critical Thinking class and maybe a Small Business class to learn how to balance a checking account and learn to save money instead of living paycheck to paycheck. How to run your own business and make it a startup by bootstrapping what you saved working a job.
glibgil 10y ago
They come from digital cameras, cgi and editing software all delivered over the internet
- rfrank 10y ago
  Those cameras write a hell of a script.
- vacri 10y ago
  Yeah, the thing that made me tune into The Wire was the fantastic CGI...
pnathan 10y ago
Several aspects in American culture contribute to this: - prioritization of the ability to make a buck over all else. This is an old tendency, dating back to the early 1800s. - Postmodernism ruined the general reputation of the fields it touched. The Sokal Hoax was very famous. - Most liberal arts majors didn't seem to work hard, or to work on hard problems. This in contrast to the engineering major slaving away until midnight 6 hours per week. - pg has an essay on this; I forget its name, but the "drop-out-to" lattice in college - people often drop out to easier majors. Psychology or English are roughly at the bottom of that lattice where I went to school; things like CS, Math, Chemical Engineering or Physics are near the top of the lattice. So... yeah. "Couldn't hack it, got a English degree, now serving coffee" stories show up enough to, at minimum, distort perception. Add those together, and it's a pretty potent mix for looking coldly at the humanities as a useful thing.
- jseliger 10y ago
  That's a good list. Let me add others, from the last time I noticed a discussion like this one: https://jakeseliger.com/2015/04/03/why-do-people-including-other-humanists-love-to-hate-the-humanities https://jakeseliger.com/2015/04/03/why-do-people-including-o.... I'd emphasize that many humanities people and professors are doing an impressive job of soiling the name of the humanities.

by adamsea 10y ago

danharaj 10y ago

technocracy is en vogue here and humanities experts are not seen as experts in anything """useful""", which usually translates as "economically lucrative" or ""rational and objective"".

orionblastar 10y ago

It isn't knee jerk reactions to liberal arts degrees. The world needs better books, movies, tv shows, painting, music, etc. The thing is, that was once thought a decade ago or so, was that a liberal arts degree did not qualify someone for a programming job as much as a computer science or engineering degree would. Python and Ruby on Rails made it easier to program, when it was thought that a liberal arts major can't program we used C and Pascal, pointers, had to do garbage collection on our own, had to allocate and then free up memory, etc. Programming Languages evolved with Java and C# that did away with pointers, does garbage collection on their own, and allocates and frees up memory when an object is closed. Then Python and Ruby on Rails made it even easier. Microsoft had to make a Express and then Community version of their Visual Studio Dotnet languages to compete with FOSS languages, Borland suffered and kept getting bought out, suddenly there FOSS languages got easier to use, understand, and program in. I think every degree should have a Critical Thinking class and maybe a Small Business class to learn how to balance a checking account and learn to save money instead of living paycheck to paycheck. How to run your own business and make it a startup by bootstrapping what you saved working a job.

glibgil 10y ago

They come from digital cameras, cgi and editing software all delivered over the internet

rfrank 10y ago
Those cameras write a hell of a script.
vacri 10y ago
Yeah, the thing that made me tune into The Wire was the fantastic CGI...

pnathan 10y ago

Several aspects in American culture contribute to this: - prioritization of the ability to make a buck over all else. This is an old tendency, dating back to the early 1800s. - Postmodernism ruined the general reputation of the fields it touched. The Sokal Hoax was very famous. - Most liberal arts majors didn't seem to work hard, or to work on hard problems. This in contrast to the engineering major slaving away until midnight 6 hours per week. - pg has an essay on this; I forget its name, but the "drop-out-to" lattice in college - people often drop out to easier majors. Psychology or English are roughly at the bottom of that lattice where I went to school; things like CS, Math, Chemical Engineering or Physics are near the top of the lattice. So... yeah. "Couldn't hack it, got a English degree, now serving coffee" stories show up enough to, at minimum, distort perception. Add those together, and it's a pretty potent mix for looking coldly at the humanities as a useful thing.

jseliger 10y ago
That's a good list. Let me add others, from the last time I noticed a discussion like this one: https://jakeseliger.com/2015/04/03/why-do-people-including-other-humanists-love-to-hate-the-humanities https://jakeseliger.com/2015/04/03/why-do-people-including-o.... I'd emphasize that many humanities people and professors are doing an impressive job of soiling the name of the humanities.