Quote:
Originally Posted by cmdahler
I have a degree in physics, but the older I get, the less I care about things like evolution and cosmology. These branches of human learning have nothing to do with bettering society or improving anyone's life, so I rather suspect that the ones decrying the sad state of these useless fields of learning are mainly the ones who benefit from them: if enough people don't care, then precious funding to keep a lot of pointless archeology projects might get pulled, and a lot of archeologists might have to actually go out and get a real job. Perish the thought. Knowledge for knowledge's sake is a laudable goal, but only when all the other serious needs of society are taken care of. Otherwise, it's like sitting around reading a book when you have bills you can't pay because you haven't gone to work yet today. And even with all bills paid, in the end, who really honestly gives a flying rat's behind how many people understand evolution or cosmology?
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But all that archaeology can at least give you the feeling that life used to be different, and is (arguably) better now, so that you won't give up trying to better society. If all you do is try to fix problems that are in large part created and fostered by the social system of your country, and this system cannot be changed anyway, as vested interests will block nearly all meaningful change that lowers the GINI coefficient, then you will soon get discouraged.
Moreover, if studies like archaeology didn't exist to interest people, there would be far fewer people who would need or want to get a higher education, so that you would have even more citizens who are immediately cowed into submission, or impressed by the "erudition" of the political or legalistic jargon thrown at them by the politicians and/or bureaucracy.
While it is admittedly the case that many academics despise politics and politicians, and as such are likely to stay far away from politics, I don't really see what the advantage would be of having even more mediocre businesspeople who are trained to only care about their own little bit of turf, and their performance rating.