I am the fortunate beneficiary of a multi- and inter-disciplinary humanities degree, having studied English Literature under professor Malcolm Bradbury at UEA in the early 70s. Course modules made deep connections between ‘Literature and Economic History’, ‘Literature and Psychoanalysis’ and a range of interdisciplinary hybrids.
It wasn’t until several decades later that I became aware of how much this synthesising way of looking at things, trying to make sense of them and strategically planning them had derived from that unique education.
Such a course is probably unthinkable now that university courses have been progressively turned into vocational training for the supposedly peachy elite of late capitalist job roles. The quaint notion of a ‘liberal education’, one that aims to develop the whole person and enable them to flourish more thoroughly throughout their life, is all but dead.
The sheer need for synthesising skills is ironically greater than ever, even within the narrow confines of work as it is currently defined. Technology is driving complexity, systems and ecosystems proliferate and a plethora of interdependencies need to be plotted in order to make pretty much anything happen. One of the reasons neoliberal economies are prone to faltering so dramatically is a lack of any synthesising analysis that is equal to the complexity it is dealing with. The response of many neoliberal economists to the 2008 financial meltdown was simple to throw their hands up in the air and say they had no idea how or why it happened.
Most crucially though, as Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams set out meticulously in Inventing the Future, the ‘folk politics’ of localism, temporary autonomous zones and so on are not able to impact a complex global phenomenon like neoliberalism. Systematic, synthesising, four-dimensional thinking styles, analysis and action planning are fundamental to formulating and implementing a coherent and workable response.
That’s the real reason why we need to transcend the intellectual niche-basis of contemporary education – it is nothing more than the principle of specialisation in the realm of work being foisted on the realm of the mind.
It’s a neat way of making it even harder for us to figure out the essential question of ‘what’s next?’
