Opinion

They're the jobs of the future, but hold the humanity

By Dan Dixon
Updated July 2 2021 - 2:42am, first published June 20 2020 - 5:47pm
Tehan's policy would harden a class divide wherein the vocabulary of the humanities would become the exclusive domain of the elite. Picture: Shutterstock
Tehan's policy would harden a class divide wherein the vocabulary of the humanities would become the exclusive domain of the elite. Picture: Shutterstock

This semester, I was asked to deliver a university lecture on 16th-century Frenchman Michel de Montaigne, the world's first essayist, and did so from my couch. It dealt with the following questions, among others: Is lying the worst of all vices? Why do we place such value on certainty? Can self-deprecation be a subtle form of self-aggrandisement? Why do we value friends? These are worthwhile questions, and the space for this kind of inquiry is diminishing, but my government, it would appear, views such inquiries as at best indulgent and at worst dangerous.

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