Oh, the humanities

Guy Rundle (“The bonfire of the humanities”, May 19–25) pinpointed yet another of our civilisation’s institutions that is in decline, the university. His analysis is odd; perhaps idiosyncratic. Would he have us pity the poor

Gen X academics who were hoodwinked, perhaps, by baby boomers? Yet he says that Gen X people, following Whitlam’s supposedly lamentable transformation, “joined when academia was a real and radical proposition ... but now find that academia is ... the very worst place to be”. If his implied timeline is to be believed, Gen Xers only have themselves to blame. Surely by now they’d be running these institutions, and for the better? Were the Gen Xers the mob who decried discipline boundaries, who became masters of nothing and gained invaluable experience in university administration? Perhaps they should’ve been careful what they wished for. Rundle wrote only of the humanities, but I’d argue that all the disciplines are ill served in contemporary universities. Many mathematics, physics (and all physical sciences), economics departments and so on, have been shut down or cut up. Thank you Guy Rundle for entering an important debate about our way of life. No thanks for your irrelevant categories and lack of diagnosis of the issues. I offer a starting point. Universities are about training people to think. People should have a demonstrated modicum of expertise to gain entry. Ability to pay is not expertise and suitably qualified students are not customers.