alt Hacker NewsEven in our "productivity at any cost" society, sometimes people still study things that they find interesting. That's probably a good thing, in the long run.
Even in our "productivity at any cost" society, sometimes people still study things that they find interesting. That's probably a good thing, in the long run.
Scale matters, and there are aftereffects on the society as a whole.
Historically, societies which produced a lot of ideologically minded professionals (such as clergy), tended towards implementing that ideology top-down. I am on board with Turchin's theory of elite overproduction here, and gender studies is modern equivalent of catechism.
To choose a less ideological example: personally, I love Egyptology, but I would be a strict opponent of producing as many Egyptologists as aerospace engineers. Chances are that the superfluous graduates would push for an Egyptocentric department in every public institution and half of private ones.