What will happen to a society that no longer asks the "why" and "what for?" questions? What is the place for the Gospel in a society for the only realities are those which can be measured, predicted, and assigned some market value? How does "grace" translate into Consumerese? Ultimately, is there any difference between communist China purging itself of its intellectuals, and capitalist America letting its intellectuals slowly starve?
Can we be human without the humanities?
Mark Regenerus writes:
"Universities' investment in the humanities—which are critical to the function of asking the "why" and "what for" questions—is giving way to market-based decisions, like rewarding income- and prestige-generating disciplines (like the sciences), professional schools (like law and engineering), graduate programs, restructuring core curricula, etc.
The result is that very many young adults are no longer even asked to wrestle with issues of faith, religion, values, and ultimate beliefs. They're just in college to get good grades (for graduate school) or to earn technical or professional certification in order to boost their career start. And universities seem okay with this because it pays. All the while, humanities professors are a shrinking share of the faculty, and they're increasingly rewarded not for becoming intellectuals but for specializing in narrow areas of interest and research. Be more like the hard sciences, we're told."
I see an analogy between deism and the Market. James Sire called deism the "isthmus between theism and naturalism," because it was parasitic on the premodern values and beliefs. But like any unstable element, it eventually shifted toward the more stable state. Eventually there came a time when the Jeffersons gave way to the Nietzsches.
What will the world look like when all that remains are the true values of the market--survival, greed, power--untamed and untempered by any "whys?" or "what fors?" Are we entering a new but more prosperous Dark Ages? Will there be postmodern monks who keep learning alive in a world-turned-market? If so, where will they come from? Who will they be?
1 comment:
Good questions there. Funny you should ask, because I was up half the night thinking, crying, and blogging about such things. Check it out if you like.
I am a grad student at a urban Christian Liberal Arts institution that shall remain unnamed. When we who are supposedly preparing for lives of "significance and service" start asking too many questions or heaven forbid start trying to change something, we are often told implicitly to sit down, shut up, and capitulate like all respectable grown-ups have done before us. Speculation is all very well. But leave your neighbors and the neighborhood well enough alone.
If you're ever in the Chicago area, please drop me a line because I think we would get along.
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