The humanities have fallen in love with data. Let me put a finer point on it: those who use the humanities as a profession have had to turn to “evidence based” metrics in figuring out what it means to be human. As an actual human, I’m feeling data fatigue. Some of us aren’t good with numbers. Our teachers encouraged us to move into the humanities. Now, at an age of not young, many of us are being instructed that we now have to get good at numbers because numbers are the only truth. I have philosophical and spiritual objections to this, but you can’t get a job as a philosophical and spiritual objector. Numbers don’t, and can’t tell the whole story. The term “calculating” used to be used to describe a person without feeling. Now we’re all just calculators.
Whither can we go to experience true humanities again? Professorships are “measured” by success factors. “Key performance indicators” are applied to the gods. There are immeasurables, but they can’t be slotted neatly into our computer’s algorithms, so they are swept off the table. If you want to wear a white collar, you have to put business first. The soul is dying, but that’s just fine as long as we can keep the body alive. You see, the humanities used to be about those things that can’t be quantified with “evidence based” metrics. How it feels to be in love, or why we cower in the presence of an unseen deity. How do you put numbers on artistic inspiration? Sure, we can “measure” aspects of Beethoven’s seventh symphony, but they don’t explain what it’s like to listen to it.
Kowtowing to capitalism feels shameful to me. But challenging capitalism is like pacifists standing up to those with assault rifles. Greed derives its power only from getting everyone to agree on its objects of value. The humanities try to argue the point, but those with control of the money are in charge of hiring. And they do it with their abacus always close to hand. I never learned to use a slide rule but calculators were required to graduate from the academic track in high school. Now when I’m being asked to apply that kind of thinking again, I have to cast my mind back nearly half a century while my human brain dreams of reading and writing novels, viewing paintings, and listening to beautiful music. But it’s a work day, and when it’s all said and done, data rules. Look for no empaths in upper management.
