The Humanities: America's Great Formative Tradition Succumbing to the Financial Crisis

America's greatness as a nation has had many pillars. The industriousness of its people, the braveness of it soldiers, the fervor of its visionaries, the national sense of shared community and destiny, its ability to right its wrongs, to name but a few. Yet paramount to our pillar of nationhood has been our understanding and reverence for the humanities and the great lessons of the human mind and the experience of history, the formative dimension of classical thought and instruction. No, not everyone was or has been a classicist, but our founding fathers were immersed in their text and learning. It formed their character and was instrumental in forming the new nation. It was the humanities and the lessons learned through the struggles of the nation's young history that saw us through difficult times and made us understand the nature of where we are heading and imbued us with the knowledge and fortitude to overcome vicissitudes of the moment. The humanities taught us we were not alone in our moments of challenge, and through that knowledge we evolved the inner fortitude to see it through.

The humanities have provided an enormous resource and strength to our nation and our history as a people. And yet today, at this very moment of crisis where so much is at risk we stand ready to undermine one of the fundamental pillars of our society. An article from the New York Times "In Tough Times Humanities Must Justify Their Worth," informed that more and more colleges and universities are cutting back on their teaching of the humanities, their staffs and classes. The question of their worth and importance is raised in an increasingly complex and technologically demanding world. As example, college staff job listings for such as English and literature have had the sharpest declines in 34 years.

Given the implosion of what had been solid American values, that in recent years has mutated to the ugliness of rampant irresponsibility, self interest, greed, and civil and criminal fraud that have become the root cause of the financial meltdown, a renaissance and respect for the humanities that has in the past steered the nation to greatness are more urgently needed now than ever.

One need only go back to the Bush presidency to understand what lies ahead for a nation unschooled nor caring about the great texts, lessons, and values of history, art and literature. Here was a presidency of stubborn self-righteousness tempered by only a cursory understanding of the nation's tradition in the humanities. It was the presidency of a single-dimensioned man, forging through his mandate without the building blocks nor the strength derived from the past knowledge of the full spectrum of human experience which are the great lessons of life, to be tapped for wisdom, strength and guidance. Not in a single moment was this presidency able to invoke the brilliance of the English language and its profound well of inspiration and elucidation. The culture of others was too often misunderstood or simply not considered, and the guidance of mythologies past (what benefit might a rudimentary knowledge of the Icarus myth have wrought?) with their lessons through the ages were simply ignored nor ever learned at great risk in blood, treasure and morality to the nation as a whole.

As millions of dollars are being funneled to educational institutions throughout the land it is essential that the humanities not be ignored. That in some form or other they become basic to any degree of study. The rootless morality of current years cannot be allowed to continue. Not to impose conversion, but simply to teach that it is there, and that in the history of this nation there exist a set of values that constituted our founding and from whence those values were carried forward for more than two and a quarter centuries, and became core to the shaping of the nation's character. That without the respect and commitment to the humanities, the grimness and obduracy of the Bush presidency will become the paradigm for the evolution of the nation's future destiny. And that must not happen!

Comments

[joebiz]

Good post. Victor Davis Hanson wrote Who Killed Homer? A classic in the field.

[magicwanz]

The lack of the humanities in our public schools' curricula is linked, I believe, to Tony Schwartz's blog titled: "Our infinite capacity for self-deception." These days, having a liberal arts degree is almost as laughable as being a liberal. The tide is, I hope, turning. Our business leaders' obvious lack of conscience in their behavior leads me to the logical assumption that they must be weak, indeed completely lacking, in the humanities. They are souless machines with a narrow, heartless focus on profit at any cost.

[January]

While the argument in favor of the humanities offered here is couched in terms of its results (and the answer to the NYT requires that), it is not "usefulness" that the humanities aspire to. Yes, paintings do cover holes in the wall, and music can soothe us in the dentist's chair. Even poetry can embellish a greeting card, and a novel can pass the time on a trip.

But are we to be measured by our usefulness? No wonder some philosophers look upon wage slavery as the emblem of human failure and degredation. And no wonder everything is for sale, including the Lincoln bedroom, the lives of our military, and the minds of journalists who are supposed to be independent.

The humanities are about what is not for sale. Sure, its creators have to make a living. But we build museums and libraries for their efforts because we know the market cannot serve creativity and so take their work off the market. It's called culture, in the sense of being enculturated, elevated, mature, fully human. How has "fully human" been subsumed to "billionaire"?

Yes, it is what the humanities develop that is missing in our midst--maturity, self-understanding, appreciation of creativity, wonder at human potential. The clincher is that we just happen to live during a time of the greatest, the greatest expansion of scholarship in human history. You'd never know it by what the pop media tell us about.

[Romeover]

I will lay a great deal of the blame at the feet of Fundamentalist Christianity, which seems to incite in its followers (at least the ones I know) the belief that one should read ONLY the Christian Bible, that faith is all that is necessary, and that learning is unnecessary.

[RanceSpergl]

Myself, I like the humanities.

[politicky]

Mr. Learsy,

Noble of you.

There are almost 7 billion people on the planet. Family planning aid to countries where people live on less than 2 dollars a day and rudimentary education of the girls there might, umm, perhaps be a bit more practical in terms of survival of the humanities?

Or at least the human race, eh?

[johnie2xs]

Mr. Learsey; It is always a pleasure to read your thoughts. I only wish you were more widely read and followed. To further make your point, I'd like to include my thought that I submitted to a posting regarding something Steve Martin has done, that also appears here on the Huff. He took it upon himself to participate in something that, by right, should be the SOP of our nation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/15/steve-martin-offers-to-pa_n_175047.html

I think these postings dovetail well with your thoughts.;

1st)What is it about the Conservative mind, that it has no room for the creative process?

The rich and powerful like to think themselves patrons of the arts ,as long as it is of the old and established variety. This hasn't always been the case, but it seems to be now with the influence of the Religious Right. Do they not realize that if their ancestors had had their motivation, that which they now value within the available art of the world, would not exist!

Conservatism should be a moderating force to the Progressive inevitable; not the other way around.
To attempt to chide a Static Conservative thought to movement, is like attempting to put wheels on the Empire State Building.

Toward a better understanding, check the definitions below;

http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/liberal
http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/conservative

[johnie2xs]

2nd)

Further I think with the hopeful revamping of our educational system, curriculum's should be nationalized (Like Europe), and not be at the whim of local school boards, and their parochial concerns. Let school boards be concerned with lunches, buses, and crossing guards and leave course studies to a national model. A patchwork educational system, as is in place now, has little continuity and only confuses. The only continuity that exists is in the testing, and that pretty much says it all, because in itself, it is badly flawed.

[JimBozo]

Er, Dude, it's been a while since I had Latin in high school; but I think the proper word is "curricula". Curriculums is a secondary, degraded usage by people who didn't study Latin in high school. Curriculum's is totally wrong, as it implies the possessive.

Full credit for the sentiment, though.

[johnie2xs]

Admittedly, I didn't do very well in Latin. The phrase "By the skin of my teeth", comes to mind.

Thanks for the correction. This is what I love about being a Progressive/Democrat. We can manage, and accept constructive criticism.

The only excuse I can muster would be the exposure of eight years of malapropisms.

[Pero]

Fairytales for naive readers on American "humanities".
Look at Latin America and replacement of democracy with genocidal dictators for a century,
look at removing secular US-educated economist by oil companies and bringing back Pahlevi "monarchy",
look at all mediaval but "moderate" dictatorships - from Saudi to Egypt.
Look at the 50-year horror on Palestinians that is supported by our "humane" stream of billion dollars to oh soo democratic nuclear power there.

An overflow of American humanity all over the Earth....

[JimBozo]

Dude, did you actually read the post? Or just run a Google search for "humanities", looking for an opportunity to rant on your favorite hobby-horse? Whatever; your comment is totally off-topic, however righteous it may be.

[suec03]

It was by majoring in Latin American Studies--an interdisciplinary major combining humanities (Spanish, Portuguese, history) and social sciences (political science, economics, anthropology) that I became aware of the history of US government involvement with Latin American governments, as well as the history of the slave trade and economic dependency. To put it in your terms, through studying history, I learned about "inhumanity."