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”I find it amazing that you would find the humanities ‘dehumanizing.’”

Thanks for the ping, betty. Like you, I’m amazed.

I’m amazed that anyone but a Liberal would think that most college-bound students are at an acceptable level in the basic skills of reading and writing. On this very forum have we not heard, from almost every side, that America’s reading & writing skills are in a miserable state? Is this not the case? Correct me if I’m wrong. I would be very glad to hear that I am mistaken.

I’m amazed to read that Bill Bennett is an empty blowhard. I didn’t know there was any other kind of blowhard save an empty one, but it’s shocking to learn that friend Bennett is to be found among them. But, then, again as usual, we read the accusation stripped of any attempt to make the case, as though the accusation proves the fact. Of this latter I am not at all amazed, for it is a standard Liberal schtick.

I am amazed to read that the humanities are "dehumanizing." I wasn’t aware that there was anyone of discernment left in America incapable of making the distinction between the humanities and what in most universities is quaintly identified as “the Humanities Department” (more often some bastardized title being substituted). Anyone who has followed the battles of Dr. Mike Adams with the University of North Carolina surely must understand the distinction without a need for coaching. And, of course, there are many on this forum who have no need for the example of Dr Adams either, being themselves participants in the battle.

We all know who is in charge of our universities and our public schools. It is not Conservative Christians. Yet we learn that it is the fault of Conservative Christians that our universities and schools are overflowing with Socialist/Marxist garbage. I am not merely amazed to hear this; I am astounded.

And then once again I am propelled well past mere amazement to learn that self-evident truths and the consent of the governed are but pointless words and useless philosophy.

I stuck in the bit about humanities being dehumanizing as a bit of a tweak. I think of word-manipulation, including my own, as a fairly low level of human thought. Human, but barely so. We learn to speak as infants and learn to read and write very young. Word manipulations are used by the dominator classes, the lawyers, the politicians, the clergy, the talkshow hosts, the suits, those who would tell us what to do and think. I just find it generally pretty empty and absent of meaning. Math, the sciences, and engineering, OTOH, make more sense to me. They convey meaning to me. They provide me with evidence, by conveying meaning, that there is another human at the other end of the communication, in a way that often the word-centric domains do not. When I hear the word-manipulators croaking out their dominator-class nonsense, I recognize them as human, but just barely, and I sense that they are trying to drag me down, dehumanize me, not uplift me with fresh insights and meaning.

Of course most kids read and write poorly. They're even worse at math, though. The point is, people can think up complete nonsense and package it in words, and need little more than a third-grade education to do so. Further practice at reading and writing makes their words more elegant, but in most cases appears to add little to their cognitive content.

Bennett - he's full of opinions and obvious enthusiams, but I haven't seen any serious thought out of the guy. He does argue well. I just don't put much value on that. He's a suit. He talks like a suit. When I hear him it's just nails on chalkboard for me.

I guess it comes down to a "two cultures" divide (C.P. Snow's term for a problem he identified but expressed badly). I'm constantly astonished that people would privilege word-manipulation over an understanding of natural sciences and math. To me that seems like inverted values. Likewise (or just more specifically) I wonder why anyone would privilege philosophy over them. I don't see philosophy as foundational. To me it's an epiphenomenon that surfs on other, more substantiative fields, almost as a, dare I say, parasite. (First humanities "de-humanizing," now philosophy a "parasite!" I'm in trouble now...)

"...self-evident truths and the consent of the governed ..."

I don't know what it is about these evolution things that cause people to go all nonlinear and start making snide insinuations about one's bona fides as a normal patriotic American. What next? Accuse me of not liking apple pie? Kicking puppies? Liking the French?