So there I was, surfing the hinternet while imbibing my morning coffee in order to make sure that it was safe to leave the house without running into armed gangs of terrorists, rioters or thieves, local or Feral Federal police of all varieties, swarms of poisonous insects, rampant viral plagues or a turn in the political weather that bodes ill for the survival of the republic. And what did I find? Featured in the pics portion of the Daily Bleats Beast? A survey titled The 13 most useless college majors.
Now being a big fan of the collapse of the American educational system, that was a must-click for me. I didn’t expect much in the way of deep content…I never do from the Daily Breast Beast and I am rarely disappointed…but instead I found what I consider to be proof positive that the whole U.S. system has now reached ground zero and is about to go completely negative. Minus numbers only, from now on. Bet on it.
Read on to find out why.
I quote:
In just a few weeks hordes of freshly minted college graduates will be thrown out into the real world with one huge question on their minds: what now?
Some, unfortunately, will be saddled with the unsettling feeling that their degree is not marketable in this tough economic environment, but for students with a few years to settle on a major, The Daily Beast looks into the numbers to find the 13 most useless college majors.
This year we started with new research (PDF) from Georgetown University–which drew from two years of census data to determine the prospects for myriad majors–to narrow down our list to more than three dozen popular college majors. We also used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, equally weighing the following categories to determine current and future employment and earnings potential for our final ranking:
Recent graduate employment
Experienced graduate employment
Recent graduate earnings
Experienced graduate earnings
Projected growth in total number of jobs, 2010-2020
I expected to find a list of basket weaving-level majors…you know, specialties in which you can totally fake an entire career, like business administration, political science, advertising, economics or meteorology?
But NOOOOOooooo, good friends. Instead I found a recipe for total and absolute cultural collapse.
Here they are, these “13 most useless college majors” in the order that they were ranked by one or more undoubted experts at useless fakery, NewsWeak NewSpeak Newsweek-style pseudojournalists.
1. Fine Arts
2- Drama and Theater Arts
3- Film, Video, and Photographic Arts
4- Commercial Art and Graphic Design
5-Architecture
6. Philosophy and Religious Studies
7. English Literature and Language
8. Journalism
9. Anthropology and Archeology
10. Hospitality Management
11-Music
12-History
13- Political Science and Government
O frabjous thirteen!!! If an alien force were to try to take over this culture, would acts of this sort not be the finest possible way to break our spirit, to subjugate us to a Borg-like ClompuKulture, to forestall any possibility of a revolt against Skynet’s wishes?
With the possible exceptions of Political Science, Hospitality Management and Commercial Art, what we have here is something saying “Do not enter into the study of human culture on any level whatsoever. Resistance is useless. History is over. You are now part of The Great Machine. Over and out; have a nice day.”
And we wonder why nothing that happens in this system any longer seems to make much sense.
A “progressive” president who signs a bill that wipes out any chance of real dissent in this country.
A “conservative” candidate for president who advocates the implementation of real freedom/the end of the Permanent War State and is non-personed by the media as a result.
A culture so debased that shit-daubing is considered art and any notice of real creative work is usually relegated to little ghettoes of the media like The New York Review of Books and some droning, semi-geriatric PBS talking head’s dribblings.
It’s over, folks. This little article? It’s just another expression of the truth from one of the many fat ladies who have been singing their rancid songs into our foolish ears for well over a century now.
Nighty-night, America.
Don’t let the bedbugs bite.
They might be drones.
Later…
AG
It’s all there folks, implicit in that article.
That flying insect in your kitchen?
The one you just can’t seem to catch?
If you can’t stand the silence, stay out of the kitchen.
Peace.
It’s what’s for dinner.
AG
P.S. Does this upset you?
Call your local Cultural Counselor.
Your priest,.
Your philosopher.
Your poet, your historian, your artist.
What’s that you say?
There aren’t any left?
Oh.
Nevermind.
Over and out.
based on earnings. If college were not so expensive, it would be a less urgent discussion.
I graduated from college without debt. My philosophy degree and history minor were valuable under those circumstances. But with $100,000 debt, I’d have to be a moron to study those subjects.
And “earnings” are the rewards that a semi-capitalist/totally PermaGov-dominated system gives to those who most efficiently embody the values it wants to propagate.
Greedy, high bullshit-quotient and easy to fake professions? Big money.
Subtler, more morality-oriented lives? Back of the payline, sucker!
Again…the end of the road for a culture. Take away the morality, the striving towards some sort of honor and what’s left?
Josef Mengele is what’s left when all’s said and done.
Bet on it.
AG
What I’m saying is that education is too expensive.
I’m not arguing that it’s not a problem. I’m arguing that it is.
But you’d have to be crazy to go a hundred grand in debt just to study Aristotle or Shakespeare.
The humanities are becoming obsolete because of the cost of education.
And, yes, that has a very negative effect on our culture.
What was Ron Paul’s plan for this again?
Ron Paul’s plan?
Slice trillions of dollars off of the massively theft-inflated federal budget.
Bring the Permanent Government to its knees.
Stop the immoral exploitation of other, less well-armed lands.
Bring the troops home and employ them along with the rest of the people of America in cleaning their own house…their own system…in as local (and thus as efficient) a manner as possible.
Morality as action.
But…don’t worry, Booman. It ain’t gonna happen.
Not even close.
So it goes.
You write:
Oh.
“Just” to study Aristotle and Shakespeare, eh?
Oh.
But going $100K in debt to become a legal thief is sane, right?
Yup.
Guess so.
Look where it’s gotten us so far.
And this is just the beginning, Booman.
Just the beginning.
Watch.
We are now entering an election cycle where…once again…the two candidates and their respective parties are playing the usual bad cop/good cop con, both as usual working towards the same ends for the same controllers. No matter which one wins…and the fix is still in fairly deeply for Obama, bet on it…at the end of the next four years the U.S. will still be an empire in decline. The biggest bubble of all…the so-called “American Dream”…will continue to deflate as it becomes more and more difficult to steal from progressively better armed ex-colonies, and the turmoil inside of this system will continue to get worse. The surveillance state will be in full nanny bloom four years from now because that will be the only way to control a population experiencing ever more rapidly accelerating economic problems.
O’Romney or RoBama…same story, just different tactics.
Welcome to the 21st Century, bro’.
Is that a lead pipe in yer pocket or are ya just glad t’see it?
AG
There’s a decent argument to be made that the American Empire has been in decline, at least relatively speaking, for two, if not three, generations. And that overall, that’s a good thing.
I agree with a lot of what you’ve said in this thread. However, I’m not sure Mengele, with his degrees in anthropology (a “soft” science) and medicine (a “helping” profession), is the best example for making your point.
(Not to mention that the Nazis would likely argue that “striving towards some sort of honor” was central to what they were doing.)
Well there used to be a principle around saying: those that can, do; those that can’t teach, whatever it is. Not so good in today’s employment market with teachers being bounced out of school systems by the tens of thousands.
A revision is necessary to this wise old saying: those that can, do; those that can’t, learn to slice baloney. At least it is honest work.
Slicing baloney is honest work only if said baloney is not so contaminated with chemicals and antibiotics that it is totally poisonous to the consumer.
There is no way out here, shergald. When all the options allowed on the table are false ones, the only true option is to leave the store.
Bet on it.
AG
Sorry. I guess my cynicism failed to come through. So in agreement with Booman it is now absurd to get a degree in a nonpaying or jobless field, because you will end up paying yearly interest on that 100 grand loan for the rest of your life. Bush saw to it that educational loans are no longer dischargeable through bankruptcy, his gift to the financial industry.
So it is then “absurd” to study anything but subjects which offer a sure monetary return.
There go the arts and the human sciences, just for starters.
Plus architecture, anthropology archeology and history as well.
O what a wonderful world this will be!!!
Let’s all become bankers.
Or…
Your choice.
Our choice.
Damn sure which course I’m taking.
You?
AG