In a Technocratic Age, Study of the Liberal Arts Is Even More Important

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Alongside the breakdown of the family, the decline of the church, and the fragmenting of local community over the last third of the 20th century, I want to propose that the loss of the liberal arts may be having comparably deep consequences for American society.

In the aftermath of Columbine, numerous commentators noted a quiet tide of hopelessness that has moved in and surrounded many American young people's lives. Yet, the diminishing of the liberal arts since the late 1960s has been largely overlooked as a cause.

Central to the failure to address this problem has been society's lack of clarity as to their significance in the first place. Whereas …