by Jon Lackman | 20 May 2010 | Uncategorized
On the lighter side, the Santa Barbara Independent reports that a recent debate at UCSB asked
the audience to imagine that a zombie outbreak has taken society to the brink of extinction and UCSB, the only remaining safe house, has room to admit only one more member. Seven professors [from the departments of Education, Philosophy, Film and Media, Art History, Mechanical Engineering, Geography, and Mathematics] were then required to argue that their discipline is the most valuable to society, making them best equipped to rebuild civilization and earn them that coveted last spot … An audience vote determined the winner …
Art historian [Laurie] Monham argued for the importance of the visual. “There is no purpose in using language to talk about something that makes no sense,” she said. “The irrational needs a place here.” She went on to say that an art historian is needed to provide avant garde stratagems to work through problems and to “tell us what we’ve done and what we haven’t tried…because the education system is working hard to make us all zombies” …
In the end, the philosopher won.
The art historian didn’t even make the top three.
Great This American Life story about a similar debate at Montevallo University in Alabama:
http://tinyurl.com/yb7fc4y