On liberal arts

The UC system has always been able to boast about the well-rounded education that it affords its students - nerds can feel free to shove electrodes up their dick while free-thinkers and pretentious hipsters like myself can read too much into things and still earn a diploma. When you pay upwards of 30 grand for a four-year experience, you better damn well be getting the most out of it. It’s important that everyone get some degree of education, whether it be going to clown college or dropping out of high school, having an educated populace is the last line of defense between the civilized and the Bible Belt.

When the budget is strained, most of the time universities scramble to cut the fat from their programs - getting rid of non-essential employees, slashing funding for programs to ribbons, and my favorite, downsizing liberal arts education while keeping everything else the way it is. Studies in the humanities during economic downturn face a significant wane in interest, as students turn to the practical majors that ensure job security after graduation. It makes sense, certainly, to want to be able to pay back the loans you take out for a pricey education, and the college degree is no longer the surefire ticket it was to a cushy lifestyle of champagne and hookers.

Even though my major is looked down upon as “worthless” in most circles compared to say, a biology major, liberal arts is still absolutely essential to having a well-rounded education. You can learn about the exact sexual organs of pigs all you want, but that information is purely technical. It doesn’t engage critical thinking. It doesn’t force reasonable discourse. These are crucial skills that take time to hone and perfect. If you’re dedicated enough, you can memorize a physics textbook, but that does nothing to further your ability to hold an intelligent conversation. Even if you can suck off a pig with the ferocity of a vacuum cleaner, if you don’t know how to think, your boss at Hog Suckers Inc will find you to be a faceless drone. So yes, liberal arts are mostly worthless except for the crucial skills that nobody thinks about. There certainly should be some reconciliation between the practicality of the sciences and the skills of the liberal arts, and steps have been taken at campuses elsewhere to bridge this gap. Tiny steps off of an impending precipice, but steps nonetheless.

Liberal arts education is slowly becoming a luxury. I’m no prophet, but I can see a day where universities become tailored towards the job market, creating a student body designed specifically to work, while the pockets of indulgence at Reed or Swarthmore graduate with their noses in the air, yet still unable to make anything of their 200,000 dollar diploma. But hey, at least they understand what Joyce was trying to do with Ulysses!