In an article called “The End of the English Major,” the New Yorker recently noted that “enrollment in the humanities is in free fall at colleges around the country,” and asks “What happened?”
That not a difficult question for anyone with college-aged kids to answer.
It’s the economy, stupid.*
Paying for college is already a stretch for many families, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that majoring in rocket science, for example, is probably going to result in a far more lucrative career than any of the humanities, assuming those majoring in the latter can find decent jobs at all.
Of course, those are the words of a parent of three 20-somethings who all majored in the humanities and have struggled to fit into an economy that is daunting in ways it didn’t seem to be not that long ago.
Engineers, developers, coders of all stripes can find work, even though tech stocks may be down at the moment, but prospects are less clear for those who specialize in history, literature, or the social sciences generally.
There’s more than a little irony here that at the very time logical thinking as brought us AI and robotic replacements for many human activities, and we need those grounded in the humanities to keep our bearings as human beings, we are eliminating their jobs right and left.
What worries me is that by channeling so much effort into technology, and rewarding people accordingly, we are endangersing much of what makes us human in the first place.
*(James Carville.)
LINKS:
Russia’s Wagner Troops Exhaust Ukrainian Forces in Bakhmut (WSJ)
Russia’s population nightmare is going to get even worse (Economist)
How an Afghan girls’ school principal fled the Taliban (Al Jazeera)
After Afghan TV fame, a new life in Ohio (BBC)
China boosts military spending by billions as US warns of potential Taiwan invasion (Fox)
Pentagon Sees Giant Cargo Cranes as Possible Chinese Spying Tools (WSJ)
Florida bills would ban gender studies, transgender pronouns, tenure perks (WP)
Trump asks judge to block Pence subpoena in DOJ probe (The Hill)
Rupert Murdoch and Fox News sued for sharing Biden’s ads with Trump campaign before they aired (Independent)
Using A.I. to Detect Breast Cancer That Doctors Miss (NYT)
Misplaced fears of an ‘evil’ ChatGPT obscure the real harm being done (Guardian)
"Museum of the future AI apocalypse" opens in San Francisco (BoingBoing)
The AI Disaster Scenario (Atlantic)
‘It’s like finding needles in a haystack’: the mission to discover if Jupiter’s moons support life (Guardian)
California was hit with 12 feet of snow. Is it enough to ease the drought? (WP)
Bringing Back Bison Is a Genetic Challenge (WSJ)
Ocean treaty: Historic agreement reached after decade of talks (BBC)
Children With Autism 'See' This Optical Illusion in a Unique Way (ScienceAlert)
How fish evolved to walk – and in one case, turned into humans (The Conversation)
A Murdaugh family death in 1940 was also suspicious — and eerily similar (WP)
Chris Rock Eviscerates Will Smith in Live Netflix Stand-up Special (Rolling Stone)
27-Year-Old Lies About Every Single Aspect Of His Life To Keep Parents From Worrying (The Onion)
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