Not too long ago, I was having drinks with some high roller high society types when the subject of ‘college’ came up. I was asked what my major was in college and graduate school. When I said anthropology, the dickhead who asked the question busted out laughing. Loudly. To him it was funny. I knew he was (is) a dickhead, so I took it in stride.

What he said underscored an inescapable reality, however. Over the years, my anthropology degree has had its greatest value as a foundation in organizational theory and behavior, which I have used to teach management, leadership and organizational behavior in Business Schools, not in departments of anthropology. What does this say?

As more and more undergraduate students migrate to majoring in Business–there are more business majors today than ever before–there are subsequently fewer liberal arts majors than ever before. Does this matter, as my instinct wants to ask? In reality, probably not!

Science, Technology & Society

A new generation of liberal arts programs has come online in programs called Science, Technology & Society, and this seems just right. Cultural, philosophical and sociological issues today are inseparable from technology and commerce. Particularly among GenYers and Millennials, heavy issues no longer stand alone in isolation from the media through which our lives are lived. Technological literacy is oxygen in a wired world.

The universities rolling out these STS programs–University of Texas, Stanford, MIT–are also leading universities in computer science and MIS, as well as the traditional liberal arts. Rather perfect. Absent from these programs is a discrete focus on business, or management. Does it matter?

I don’t think so. Today, if one knows how the wired world works (technology and science), and has a core intellectual and philosophical foundation (society), then this is probably enough to go out in the world and do just about anything. As Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Michael Dell (and many others) have clearly demonstrated, business can be learned on the job.

Call it Liberal Arts 2.0.

The Butcher