Agayek said:
Edit: Also, there are a lot of people who study fake majors (like Art, Music, etc), and they don't tend, or need, much in the way of math classes so it's somewhat understandable. Depressing, but understandable.
This is an attitude that I never understood. I understand that you say so mostly in jest, but you must be partly serious even to have thought of the statement in the first place. Why is natural science more valuable than, say, social science?
Agayek said:
I term anything where the ultimate goal is to not really produce anything useful (or where the value is subjective) as a "fake" major.
I can honestly not think of one single useless subject, or one where the value is entirely subjective.
I could argue that advanced mathematics is useless, because it seldom reaches practical application and instead becomes numbers for the sake of numbers. The same goes for advanced physics. There
is a value in it, however, because it has long-term applications and indirect effects. So does art and music - which also have direct effects to boot, as a musician is bound to produce music and a painter is bound to produce paintings.
Agayek said:
I will say, though, that any and all politicians are, as a group, basically useless though. If only because the US government has very successfully jaded my views on such things in recent years.
Err... I'd like to know how you reached that conclusion. Politicians
enable everything else in society, as they distribute common resources and dictate common policy. Politicians, as a group, are not only absolutely essential to society, but also probably the most underappreciated and exposed professional group of all.
That the US government stinks is first of all subjective - and I believe you critizicised "fake majors" earlier for having subjective values. Second, even if that is true, it is hardly the politicians' fault. They're elected to enact certain policy - and the voters decide what that policy should be through the general elections. If they
didn't enact the policy they were elected to enact, they wouldn't be doing their jobs properly. If you disagree with your national policy, take it up with your national populace, not the politicians. It's the populace that make the final decision.