Now, Now settle down children. Play nice, as my old Nun used to say.

Name drop (42) Robard.

I see the "OGC" (Old Gentlemen's Club) is out in force, Pages 18-22. Studying their Navels & mumbling in their Brandy. Much ado about nothing.

I was lucky enough not to go to Uni., judging by the conversations here, & what I have observed over my last 68 years.

My thoughts on the Subject of Humanities is, that if one wants to Study the Humanities then you pay for it yourself. Providing the only remuneration for the Teachers. The Government should not have to subsidise what is after all, "A Hobby Subject."

What Qualifications have I got? Trades; Fitter, Turner, Boilermaker, Electrician, Electronics, Computer Tech., Woodwork ( I designed the Chippie Course for TAFE.) Cert. Business 11, 20T. Forklift, 25T. Overhead Crane, 25T. Mobile Crane, Any Articulated Vehicle, Heavy Vehicle Licence, Weapons Instructor, Tactics Instructor, Qualified in Tactics, Echelon, Administration & Logistics, Signals, Map Reading & Air Photography, Security & Control, Mil. Law to WO2. A couple of other things I won't go into. Now retired.

What do I do now apart from annoy people like you lot. I read old works of Art; Aeschylus, Herodias, Carus, Erasmus & many others. Something I have been fascinated with from a kid reading about the Old Greek & Roman Gods.

At the moment I am putting together "The History of the World Timeline" It started out from the " World History with Atlas" by Webster's Reference but found it missed a lot, so I now have Collins, Cambridge, Pears, Scientific Articles, Wiki, etc to cross reference & add any missing bits I find.

This is a Hobby, just like your study of Humanities is a Hobby.

At least what I did in life was useful to" People" in the great scheme of things. What does your particular study do? Not a damm thing, but lead to circular argument over nothing, as seen here over, "My PhD is better than your PhD."

YEBIGA,

You had me going; for a while there I thought you had a modicum of intelligence, but all you have is a daft notion (or rather it has you) you couldn't possibly hold if you were even modestly conversant with the thinkers you feign to know.
I'll leave you all to your fantasies, which despite my efforts are undisturbed.

On the contrary my dear Squeers
I am intimately familiar with the authors i cited because they constitute the true essentials of any humanities course. Those also inlcude the classical greek works mentioned by Jayb. In other Words the dreaded western canon which has been betrayed by the worst kind of academic sophistry.

To aid me with understanding how the humanities have become corrupted - and to counter the accusations of ignorance which routinely are the sole pathetic retort by todays symptomologists i exposed myslef to the theorists: the works of Adorno, Althussa, Baudrillard, Foucault, Derrida, Lacan, delueze/guattari, Zizek, Lyotard and others. All who in their unique way are misanthropic.

Thus, whilst I may exhort Jardine to snap out of his narrow ideology, or disagree with jayb vehemently, I cannot accuse them of being dishonest to themselves. Whereas, chris, aristocrat and yourself are what might be called a 4th generation language - in computer speak - the binary codes and the basic programming which operates reality are a mystery to you. Contemporary humanities have invested themselves almost exclusively to this higher layer of abstraction. This would be largely ok, if like in computing there was a functional proof that the higher language actually added value.
As it is, no such proof is possible and rather what we have is a series of disconnected insights which offer effects without causes, an eternal present with no history. The very essence of the humanities - the human condition - absent.

It is unpleasant to hear, because to accept this is to reject a very heavy investment. It must fill you with great anger with yourself and all those around you who have fed this mendacity. But the conclusions I draw are self evident, they are not mine, they emanate everywhere.. Throughout history, time after time, human progress is punctuated by stupidity. We are right now stuck in the middle of a great punctuation of stupidity. In all our stuttering steps forward the humanities have played a key role in leading great transformations from the renaissance, the reformation, the enlightenment.

I hope this conversation doesn't stop here. OLO's not known these days for insightful conversations - and having spent time on twitter in lieu of being aggravated by the normal fare on this forum, it's uplifting to stumble upon YEBIGA, Squeers and Aristocrat indulging a philosophical bent.

I can't join in because I'm uneducated on such matters.

Jayb mistook you for me, YEBIGA, when I trounced off in a huff...I have to say I'm flattered by that.

"....We are right now stuck in the middle of a great punctuation of stupidity...."

Great line!

YEBIGA "The end result is that those indoctrinated by this symptopia, like Squeers and Aristocrat, are incapable of logically framing the human condition absent oppressors and victims."

Nothing could be further from the truth. One of my sole missions is to remove this particular lens from Humanities and Social Science courses.

YEBIGA "Whereas, chris, aristocrat and yourself are what might be called a 4th generation language - in computer speak - the binary codes and the basic programming which operates reality are a mystery to you."

Gotta love how you place yourself as the objective mouthpiece for reality, but then supply absolutely no evidence for this assertion. Rattling off a bunch of names (who I have spent some time studying) doesn't constitute knowing reality.

Jayb, we get it, you didn't study in the Humanities, you don't want to study in the Humanities, and you want to deny others to study in the Humanities. There's nothing for you to add to the discussion.

Thus whilst university students study identity politics
Right Wing think tanks apply the true skills of the humanities to persuade with reason - however false - to overturn enlightenment ideals - one at a time.

Whilst, humanities students dispute the death of the author or the text
Right Wing think tanks have persuaded the community that all public assets should be sold off

Whilst, humanities students study the ills of colonialism, indigenous dispossession, the evils of white history
Right wing think tanks have persuaded the community that the unemployed are welfare cheats, refugees are terrorists, torture is ok, wars are ok

Whilst, humanities students study the society of the spectacle, delueze and guattaris psychobabble
Right wing think tanks have persuaded the community to accept an ever increasing concentration of media ownership, and the assent of oligopolies. Office workers routinely working 60 hr weeks.

In other words, contemporary humanities has excused itself from every significant development for the last 35 years. This is an unforgivable betrayal. The right wing think tanks have not excused themselves into psychobabble. They routinely dip into the wisdom of the humanities to obtain their own ends. They will read Hume, Smith, Adams, Emerson, Neitzsche, Machiavelli, the Bible, the art of war, napoleon, Caesar. They are arrogant enough to mould society but not so arrogant as to ignore and fail to draw from the direct works of mans history