tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post7054279095079472232..comments2024-03-21T22:36:54.451-04:00Comments on HISTORIES OF THINGS TO COME: Dim ProspectsLC Douglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-28739782481215926092012-06-22T22:59:08.773-04:002012-06-22T22:59:08.773-04:00Did they learn nothing in 2008?
Nope.
Or 2009.
O...Did they learn nothing in 2008?<br /><br />Nope.<br /><br />Or 2009.<br />Or 2010.<br />Or 2011.<br />Or 2012.<br />Ad nausaeum, ad inifnitum. <br /><br />-JAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-63041596313614179392012-06-20T12:41:56.888-04:002012-06-20T12:41:56.888-04:00Money is just an idea, Joseph. It succeeds only in...Money is just an idea, Joseph. It succeeds only insofar as we believe in that idea and the rules we have invented around it. As such, philosophy would have a role to play in understanding how and why that idea works.LC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-58325929020532618142012-06-17T08:34:27.041-04:002012-06-17T08:34:27.041-04:00What happened to Hemingway and Twain?
And what do...What happened to Hemingway and Twain?<br /><br />And what does it mean when people defend the humanities - and philosophy! - for its role in training people in skills good for the economy?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01531570822624750279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-72820317929690829592012-06-16T15:18:03.870-04:002012-06-16T15:18:03.870-04:00Thanks for your comment, mzrad. Certainly, the Art...Thanks for your comment, mzrad. Certainly, the Arts and Humanities thrive on the Web. But there are plenty of areas of the Arts and Humanities, especially in tertiary education, which are moribund and depressed precisely because their established modes of operation have not evolved with the technology. You can see this in the debate on virtual universities and distance courses. <br /><br />What I emphasized here was a dated mentality which assumes that a certain section of the economy is more relevant, more in demand, and hence worth more than other sections. But that kind of thinking is not, as economists would assume, truly a function of supply and demand, but of popular opinion, cultivated after WWII by mass media and marketing. From the 1980s onward, especially, it was clearly the general opinion that arts and humanities are worth less and less in demand than, say, computer technicians or less useful than medical staff. <br /><br />This post was a call for us to reevaluate where we direct our demand, to reevaluate our priorities, to ask why we think one service or activity is worth more than another; we must ask why someone in the banking sector might be paid 10 or 20 or 200 times what a practitioner in the arts might be paid - especially when the banking sector is spectacularly failing.LC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-28061657815903211542012-06-15T11:14:41.682-04:002012-06-15T11:14:41.682-04:00Here's what one poor little English major mana...Here's what one poor little English major managed to do once the housing and budget crisis ate her job in Dec. 2008: she learned how to create WordPress sites, developed the information architecture for her own idea about promoting sustainable, exceptional food and drink in California's Central Coast, learned how to muddle through with Photoshop and wrote her own content and business documents. Voila! An English major with a facility with language, art, design, and other areas emphasized by the humanities suddenly has not only a Room of Her Own, but a digital printing press that allows her to step right over barriers created by others to block her way. You think a person could do that with the skills developed in the sciences alone? We write and read great writing by others: we know how to connect because we read compelling books, articles, plays, poems and such that reach us. IMHO, conservative factions would rather denigrate the humanities because we help to remember what they would likely wish to forget. We do, after all, teach Shelley's "England in 1819," which I'm sure they'd rather we didn't. Thank god I studied writing and literature: I will always, always be able to find work whether it's editing and organizing for others or creating my own content on my own site. Unfortunately, some folks tasked with promoting the value of a humanities major do a terrible job explaining to students what they can do with it. Seriously, the sky's the limit if you know how to write and can publish yourself and others on the web.mzradhttp://centralcoastfoodie.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-86449552310216043752012-06-15T02:35:35.669-04:002012-06-15T02:35:35.669-04:00Thanks, Lee. I did not intend to slam the best dis...Thanks, Lee. I did not intend to slam the best disciplines for getting jobs, more to suggest that there should be a balance, and Humanities and Arts grads be paid and sought on par. Some societies managed this, as during the Renaissance. And we look back on those societies as extraordinary societies. The only problem is that we don't have a clear economic or political model for it. Societies with established arts and humanities patrons were hierarchical and generally not democracies. Could another system be found to balance people of different skills and abilities more fairly, to the benefit of all? Perhaps the Internet will provide an answer. Or - perhaps not.LC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-11075432939027691952012-06-14T10:54:34.472-04:002012-06-14T10:54:34.472-04:00Great post!Great post!Lee Hamiltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17828712906247704669noreply@blogger.com