If we can't even coexist with the people around us without trying to strip everyone of civil rights, or getting into pissing matches about borders, we've got a

If we can't even coexist with the people around us without trying to strip everyone of civil rights, or getting into pissing matches about borders, we've got a long way to go before we start messing around with massively disruptive technologies with high social impacts. The recent social media fiascos and trends toward weaponized disinformation causing panic and hysteria should be evidence enough that we as people need to pull back and shore up the basics so we can at least ATTEMPT to try to reconcile the new avenues of life opened up by global interconnectivity of data and logistics with some of our more basic fears and prejudices to which we are ALL still subject. If the idea is for people to pull back from seeking credible opportunities and shore up "the basics" of History, English, Philosophy, Art, Art History, ... -- this is elitist and unrealistic. History provides little support for the idea, that societies pro-actively prepare themselves in this way. For most people, "the basics" are and always will be about working for a living. The question of whether it's worth studying the humanities is orthogonal to the question of how many people we graduate into them. Philosophy is a good test case. How many people should leave college each year to be philosophers, or even philosophy professors? Probably not very many (though I would be interested if you have a different answer); but that doesn't mean lots of people should not study philosophy. Many people play golf. Yet few are professional golfers or golf instructors.