Comments by "Mat Broomfield" (@matbroomfield) on "Camille Paglia: 'Universities Are an Absolute Wreck Right Now'" video.

Art history, are you kidding Camille! If there's one course that everybody should take, it's not some wishy washy art history course. Science. Maths. Maybe even an intro to biology or cosmology so that we know our place in the universe.
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Hmmm, so understanding carbon dating, DNA, the origins of the planet, the chemical origins of life, how the brain works, understanding our response to our environment, being able to analyse the brain and the physical things that occur during human interaction, and mapping the changing face of our planet all have nothing to do with us as a species, and none of that is facilitated by science?
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That all sounds great in principle but it's not remotely true. If you study art prior to the 18th century virtually none of it was making social commentary by depicting the lives or values of the average person (except as twee stereotypes) because art was not created by, consumed by, sold to, or targeted at the average person. At best, art depicted the values of middle to upper class people or a religious elite. It's only over the past hundred years or so that the great majority of art has bothered to concern itself with the lives of the masses. There are exceptions of course, but I would say that this was a truism.
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"worth living" well there's a subjective term in itself isn't it? I agree that what makes humans generally contented is the quality of our relationships, listening to music, watching movies, although personally I find the pursuit of knowledge to be a massive driving force (and one that is dismally missing in the majority). But to go back to the original point, Camille did not say that people should pursue careers in the humanities - she said art history. She said it was the most important course that people should study. Please justify such a statement.
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Poetic words but I don't agree with them. Religion gives false hope to those who have lost family members, and those who are fearful of their own mortality. What art fulfils that role? Religion, rallies people together against the other, what art does that?
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Yes, they were some of the exceptions I considered when I made the comment, along with hieroglyphics and greek/roman murals and frescos. But honestly, what of ANY relevance have you learned from a cave painting Dave - how to hunt deer? I don't say it's not fascinating, but Camille suggested that this was an ESSENTIAL course. Do you really think that studying cave paintings or Mayan sculpture or Baroque religious works is more important to our modern lives than understanding the way the universe works?
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Hmmm, I have my doubts on the importance of such things Camille, but even if I grant you that, please explain how art represents "the ideas that have shaped human history" as opposed to the ideas that a small elite wished represented.
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Bravo - couldn't agree more.
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I don't agree Dave, although it's easy to think that given the large amount of symbolic and religiously themed art, but I'm sure that upon reflection, you could think of 1000 pieces of non religious art over the past 2000 years if you had to. Landscapes, sculptures and portraits would instantly fill most of that list. And it's those categories that lead to my original comment. I certainly agree though, that religious themes have been a very visible consistent theme, but even if you looked at music, whilst the works of Mozart, Handel, Hayden and others have strong religious themes, other composers of every era did not. And again, why did these composers create for the church? Was it because they represented the values of the common man, or was it because the religious were the only ones with the wealth to commission them?
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Yes an excellent point Dave. I find religious art to be heavy and overblown in general, like the religions it represents, but your explanation makes perfect sense.
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Wow bitter much? I can't even imagine how ignorant you'd have to think that the Chinese have zero creativity. China invented paper, silk, gunpowder, colour printing, chemotherapy, e cigarettes, fibre optics, fireworks and thousands of other things. As for creativity, China has a long history of painting stretching back far further than anything the west had to offer. Whilst Europeans were still living in mud huts, the Chinese had government, writing and arts.
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It always makes me laugh when someone derides using Wikipedia as a source of information. What did you expect me to do, phone my local Chinese embassy? Go take a 4 year Chinese studies degree?! I'll certainly grant you that the magnitude of Chinese inventions has lessened, although you might argue that being fabricators and synthesisers of other people's inventions is just as useful to society. If things had remained in American hands, nobody would be able to afford them.You know why America pumps out so many inventions? Capitalism, and what a double edged sword that is. America has been at almost constant war with someone for over 200 years. Its citizens kill each other in huge numbers. It has the most entitled population on the planet. They are still in the grip of religion. Their economy is a threat to the entire planet, and the costs of coping with a single illness can be enough to destroy an entire family. So perhaps a little less anti Chinese smugness, huh?
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