In Defense of the Useless: Why the Humanities Matter More Than Ever

It's become commonplace—even profitable—to make fun of the liberal arts in an America where the social compact is eroding, where personal brands take precedence over morality, and where billionaires pretend to be visionaries while hoarding resources like dragons.

“Get a real degree,” they say.

“Learn to code.”

“English majors will end up broke, bitter, and living in their parents’ basements.”

We’ve heard the script. Over and over.

And it’s wrong.

Not merely erroneous, but dangerously incorrect.

Because it's not just the world of work that seems to be collapsing around us.

It’s meaning. It’s truth. It’s the ability to think clearly, argue ethically, and imagine a better world.

And those things don’t come from crypto startups or hustle culture or twelve-week product management bootcamps.

They come from the humanities.

The War on Wonder

Let’s be honest: America no longer values what can’t be monetized.

Curiosity? Too slow.

Critical thinking? Too subversive.

Ethics? Only if they boost shareholder value.

We’ve become a culture allergic to ambiguity. Addicted to certainty. Obsessed with outcomes. And the humanities are dangerous precisely because they don’t give you neat answers—they teach you how to ask better questions.

Apparently, that poses a threat.

In a time when tech giants want to colonize Mars while Earth burns, we need philosophers asking why.

When AI scrapes every human utterance to produce sanitized, soulless mimicry, we need poets reminding us what words are for.

When politicians rewrite history to serve their own interests, we need historians to hold them accountable.

And when entire groups of people are erased, ignored, or criminalized, we need the full moral and narrative force of literature, art, and cultural criticism to say: They were here. They mattered. They matter still.

Against the Algorithm

Let’s be blunt: the world doesn’t need more frictionless content. It doesn’t need more influencers teaching you how to optimize your morning routine or scale your side hustle.

What it needs—what it’s starving for—are people who can:

• Read between the lines.

• Spot a lie wrapped in language.

• Defend the dignity of the unseen.

• Remember what we’ve forgotten.

• And remind us what it means to be human.

The humanities don’t make widgets. They don’t generate buzzwords.

They make citizens. They build conscience.

That’s not useless.

That’s resistance.

The Real ROI

You want return on investment?

Try this:

• The humanities train you to listen. To analyze. To debate without dehumanizing.

• They give you cultural literacy, moral complexity, and emotional depth—qualities in tragically short supply.

• They don’t just help you make a living. They help you make a life.

But sure—let’s keep funneling kids into marketing degrees and calling it innovation.

A Final Word

The American experiment is limping along, exhausted and overleveraged. The air is thick with self-promotion, cynicism, and algorithmic noise.

In times like these, the study of the humanities is more than an academic pursuit.

It’s an act of rebellion.

So if you’re studying philosophy, literature, history, art, or political theory—don’t apologize. Don’t downplay it. Don’t accept the narrative that you’re wasting your time.

You’re not preparing for a job.

You’re preparing to hold a mirror to a broken culture and ask, Is this really who we want to be?

And that question?

That question could save us.

RG