For the past few decades, humanities and social sciences majors have been ridiculed as useless and a waste of money and time, while STEM majors are celebrated and encouraged since their contributions to society are more tangible than the humanities or social sciences. This cultural belief has led to the decline in students graduating with humanities majors, while STEM majors skyrocket.
As people flocked to the field, universities began removing humanities and social science credits from their STEM curriculums. Now, our STEM majors are primarily educated in their respective fields without being educated on ethics, history or the effects of their discoveries and inventions. Albert Einstein said, “One must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise he with specialized knowledge more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person.” Equipping people with the ability to craft the future without the ability to know what the future will look like is inherently dangerous.
This inherent danger has manifested itself in the Trump administration. In his farewell address, Joe Biden warned of an oligarchy taking shape in America as Donald Trump assumes office. Love him or hate him, his warning materialized within days of the Trump administration. Technology billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Effiency have ripped the floorboards out of American politics, shutting down entire agencies and stripping billions away from the national budget, much to the chagrin of Congress, the judicial branch and the whole political establishment. With this, Silicon Valley has staged a bloodless coup against our government right under our noses.
Fossil fuels, the military-industrial complex and hundreds of other industries have their hands in our government through lobbying. Wherever you find money, you’ll find power. However, Elon Musk is giving a press conference in the Oval Office instead of ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods or Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet.
Silicon Valley billionaires’ revered status in our society is the reason they managed to blatantly hijack our government. It’s easy to believe that these “tech bros” have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, taking America and the world with them to a brighter, post-humanist future. We gave them everything we had to do this, and they have taken us up on our offer.
STEM is massively important. Without it, we wouldn’t have modern medicine, architectural wonders or moon landings. This is not a column against STEM majors or humanity’s greatest achievements, which wouldn’t have been possible without them.
Therefore, when you ask why Trinity makes you take a class in American politics as a computer science major, consider our country’s state, where a technocrat with no prior government experience dictates where your tax dollars go. STEM is wildly important, but our society’s idolization of studies with a clear line to employment, contribution and profit has led us to our present situation. Perhaps if Elon Musk had taken a couple of classes in American politics, America’s position in the world would not be in such peril.
