Last week, I posted a piece on Why humanities matter in the I-Cubed Economy. My point was that we need much more than scientific and technical knowledge (the point that Daniel Bell missed in The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society). If fact, we need even more than communications and social skills that have become associated with the knowledge economy.
Wes Davis' op-ed in the New York Times has a story about how half a century ago on major iconic US company -- Ma Bell herself -- stressed the need for the humanities:
The sociologist E. Digby Baltzell explained the Bell leaders' concerns in an article published in Harper's magazine in 1955: "A well-trained man knows how to answer questions, they reasoned; an educated man knows what questions are worth asking." Bell, then one of the largest industrial concerns in the country, needed more employees capable of guiding the company rather than simply following instructions or responding to obvious crises.
Davis calls for a return to that notion:
As the worst economic crisis since the Depression continues and the deepening rift in the nation's political fabric threatens to forestall economic reform, the values the program instilled would certainly come in handy today. We need fewer drifting straws on the stream of American business, and more discontented thinkers who listen thoughtfully to both sides of our national debates. Reading "Ulysses" this Bloomsday may be more than just a literary observance. Think of it as an act of fiscal responsibility.
Amen to that. And Happy Bloomsday!
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