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Rescuing the humanities from itself : Comments
By John Armstrong, published 11/2/2011Let's sub the job of lecturing out to YouTube and let teachers get on with helping students to cultivate habits of mind.
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Overall, I think the humanities lack ideological diversity and a strong leadership personalities. I see it as a field in which criticism is directed at people outside of the humanities but there is little self-criticism or ethic of self-improvement within the humanities. The visual arts are much of a muchness.
I attribute the problem as stemming from the importance of relationship building for career progression. This naturally builds groups of like minded thinkers who are conservative in their conformity. I saw the same thing in China where guanxi (social relationships) govern every facet of Chinese life and lead to a stifling of discussion on a series of important issues. In both countries, to have individual opportunities in the bureaucracy you must champion the agreed political ethics of the bureaucracy.
The only solution that I see is to break up those groups in the recruitment process and to cultivate an ethic that ideological conflict is not something to be feared in universities, but something to embrace. Furthermore, the humanities should lead Australia by setting the example, not criticizing from the sidelines.