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i think you are failing to see the value — much of what the academic community produces is a public good. i agree there are huge problems with higher education
by currymj 6y ago
i think you are failing to see the value — much of what the academic community produces is a public good.
i agree there are huge problems with higher education, but I think if all humanities departments were disbanded as you suggest, you would miss them after they were gone.
Look at how terrible and shallow a lot of journalism and popular nonfiction is. Imagine if that was the highest level of thought available on most topics. Nothing but Medium posts forever.
- seibelj 6y agoYou are asking me to debate a straw man - “The only alternative to $200k a year to study English is no humanities at all”. I think if universities were forced to innovate, the same value and product can be provided at a vastly cheaper price. We shall see if I’m right, as there aren’t any alternatives.
- currymj 6y agoi think it might just be a misunderstanding then — i assumed no state funding of the humanities would mean completely eliminating those departments at public universities.
- mola 6y agoThe tuition prices are because of market forces. Ivy league schools created brands and market themselves across the world causing huge (not very justifiable) demand, together with their lobbying for the structure of tuition loans this situation was created. Universities shouldn't be judged as businesses, it's the exact opposite of their reason for existing. You need freedom and leisure not tied to economic pressure to do research and create a reflective infrastructure for humanity. It was always subsidized by the ruling class, be it a king, or the society via taxes in democratic times. The thought that everything is a business and should be analyzed as such is just shortsighted and lazy thinking.