Still reading and enjoying Tom Holland’s Pax. Reached this bit about the downside of having a vast global Empire. (Hint, your Empire is full of foreigners).
I have a kid who has finished yr12 but taking a gap year because she's in that boat of not having rich enough parents to pay for everything so needs a bit more of a cash backup to do uni. Plus i also work in education doing finance for a uni and it cut me to the bone that she is choosing to do a B.Arts in history and archaeology with a language major (to work in museums, or the field . . . , or as a teacher). The student debt is horrendous (unless the uni accord fixes the stuff up the morrison govt implemented back at the beginning of covid). I'm a maths graduate and i looked at the practical part of a student debt but eventually shrugged my shoulders because they have to do their own thing and need my support. You cant push them into something they dont love (or even like) because down that path lies an unhappy human punching that work card till they punch the card of life out of here. But it was when i was talking to a mate of mine who is very sage like that i felt a bit more comfortable with the whole thing (and the point of my story). He said that studying history is something that people dont appreciate. Its amazing what you learn, about who we/they are and where we/they come from, why we do certain things the way we do. And if we dont know where we come from we cant make decisions about where we are going and it almost becomes a philosophical degree because it starts raising questions about life in general. He also added that a lot of people in power are deliberately ignoring history to our detriment.
I have seen the suggestion from people who have seemed wise to me, instead of economists advising governments on who the budget should be generated and spent we should instead employ a number of historians as the have the skills to interrogate where these proposals have been tried before and more likely to foresee what will happen more reliably. Has any budget prediction even come within a reasonable margin of error more than a few months out?
History and Sociology double major, then Masters in Public Policy. I provide advice on proposals in [redacted] portfolio areas for the government in [redacted].
I feel like that is 50% of my working life - "we have tried that 3 times and all have failed for x reasons, what are you planning to do different this time?"
There's a great New York Times cartoon that says "those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it."
As a nerd who studied history for fun while working in IT, it's amazing how the anthropology and related disciplines in the B.Arts were 100% relevant to my field and helped my career, never mind the whole learning from history bit.
History, anthropology and other humanities should be mandatory units in all science degrees, it would help people with their critical thinking and analysis skills enormously.
A lot of this goes back to the reading of encyclopedias as kids. You tend to pick up this stuff. I'm no historian, but I have a decent knowledge, especially relating to science. Those guys and girls put MacGyver to shame.
You have to wonder what our politicians and economists were reading as children and young adults.
convinced it was books like seven habits exclusively (i know a few people like that) i shouldnt judge and i try not to. Some have even come around to the dark side and started reading fiction.
I knew a whole bunch of people in the early to mid 90s who studied stuff because they were told they'd earn good money. They hated/quit their degrees because it was soul destroying even at that stage, let alone doing a job in a field that they hated.
I have a kid who has finished yr12 but taking a gap year because she's in that boat of not having rich enough parents to pay for everything so needs a bit more of a cash backup to do uni. Plus i also work in education doing finance for a uni and it cut me to the bone that she is choosing to do a B.Arts in history and archaeology with a language major (to work in museums, or the field . . . , or as a teacher). The student debt is horrendous (unless the uni accord fixes the stuff up the morrison govt implemented back at the beginning of covid). I'm a maths graduate and i looked at the practical part of a student debt but eventually shrugged my shoulders because they have to do their own thing and need my support. You cant push them into something they dont love (or even like) because down that path lies an unhappy human punching that work card till they punch the card of life out of here. But it was when i was talking to a mate of mine who is very sage like that i felt a bit more comfortable with the whole thing (and the point of my story). He said that studying history is something that people dont appreciate. Its amazing what you learn, about who we/they are and where we/they come from, why we do certain things the way we do. And if we dont know where we come from we cant make decisions about where we are going and it almost becomes a philosophical degree because it starts raising questions about life in general. He also added that a lot of people in power are deliberately ignoring history to our detriment.
I have seen the suggestion from people who have seemed wise to me, instead of economists advising governments on who the budget should be generated and spent we should instead employ a number of historians as the have the skills to interrogate where these proposals have been tried before and more likely to foresee what will happen more reliably. Has any budget prediction even come within a reasonable margin of error more than a few months out?
This is a surprisingly good idea.
Ahem. That's me. You're describing me.
History and Sociology double major, then Masters in Public Policy. I provide advice on proposals in [redacted] portfolio areas for the government in [redacted].
So it’s all your fault?
Based on what gets through, you just know that you should be grateful for what I've stopped.
Dave can only provide advice, it's the decision making idiots who didn't study history who end up ignoring his advice...
I feel like that is 50% of my working life - "we have tried that 3 times and all have failed for x reasons, what are you planning to do different this time?"
There's a great New York Times cartoon that says "those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it."
As a nerd who studied history for fun while working in IT, it's amazing how the anthropology and related disciplines in the B.Arts were 100% relevant to my field and helped my career, never mind the whole learning from history bit.
History, anthropology and other humanities should be mandatory units in all science degrees, it would help people with their critical thinking and analysis skills enormously.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/682771837/signed-print-of-my-cartoon-those-who
A lot of this goes back to the reading of encyclopedias as kids. You tend to pick up this stuff. I'm no historian, but I have a decent knowledge, especially relating to science. Those guys and girls put MacGyver to shame.
You have to wonder what our politicians and economists were reading as children and young adults.
convinced it was books like seven habits exclusively (i know a few people like that) i shouldnt judge and i try not to. Some have even come around to the dark side and started reading fiction.
I instinctively can't trust anyone who states as a virtue that they only read self-improvement books.
ha they definitely fit in that category in the bottom right of this Gary Larson (this is one of the ones of his that has stuck in my mind over the years) https://newbeautifulera.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/how-nature-says-do-not-touch-a-classic-far-side-comic/
Oh man, I'd forgotten that one! Classic!
I too have an arts degree and work in IT.
I feel like the problem is people just not listening to experts.
No regrets about my degree at all (Politics/Security, Terrorism and Counter-terrorism). It taught me a lot about thinking and people.
I knew a whole bunch of people in the early to mid 90s who studied stuff because they were told they'd earn good money. They hated/quit their degrees because it was soul destroying even at that stage, let alone doing a job in a field that they hated.
Make Rome great again
Stop the chariots
Very droll.
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose I realise in keeping with the piece it should be in Latin but ....
We are all Scipio (the Elder) watching the flames consume Carthage and musing "and one day Rome".
Reading a thing on the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs. Same story.
These Romans are crazy!
Wonder what the Roman version of the Know Nothings was.
Karen is still Karen in Latin.
Oh that's easy, they were barbarians (literally "not Romans") 😊
MI5's serving chief has recently said much the same thing about London . . .