A Security-focused HTTP Primer

The term liberal arts denotes a curriculum that imparts general knowledge
and develops the student’s rational thought and intellectual capabilities,
unlike the professional, vocational, technical curricula emphasizing
specialization. The contemporary liberal arts comprise studying literature,
languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science.1

I have been consumed lately by how little focus there seems to be in our
country on literature, history, and philosophy. It’s as if I’ve just now
noticed the site of a mass-murder that I have been walking by all my life.

I have, up until now, been a technology person. It’s how I make my living,
and it gives me a great deal of pleasure to learn how something works. This
is all well and good, I suppose, but I cannot help but feel that anyone who
spends their time doing nothing but this is wasting their lives on tools
while ignoring the purpose of those tools.

This isn’t to say that someone who understands the worthy uses of a given
tool, and then proceeds to enthusiastically build said tool, would be
wasting their life. No, rather it is someone who spends time talking about
such tools without reference to their ultimate purpose that I am speaking
of.

Science and technology are here to help humanity connect and mature. They
are our means for improving our collective pursuits of philosophy,
literature, art, history, and, ultimately, humanism. As such, science and
technology are not an alternative to the liberal arts–in fact they
are subservient to them. They are tools for improving them, not a separate
goal.

Impetus

The main thing that has me thinking about this topic is how few people I
know who talk about anything worthwhile. Politics? Nah, too touchy.
Religion? Whatever, don’t care. Books? Reading? Studying the classics?
History?

Nope. All of it seems completely uninteresting to the vast majority of
people I know. And this includes most people I know who are fairly
accomplished in technology and business. They may have a MS or MBA from a
great school, and maybe they’re doing really well at the company they’re at,
but if you ask them anything about the topics that matter you get an
expression of confusion.

My reaction to this recently has been one of disbelief and contempt. What
the hell are people doing with their lives? And don’t come at me with the “I
have kids” angle because that’s an empty, sad answer.

Most people have kids as a default action much in the same way that get a
“good” job and buy a TV and a barbecue. It’s just what you do. They end up
with some person, mostly due to random circumstance, and the rest of their
life is then determined by the conventions of their geography. Born in this
part of the country? Ah, well then you get this type of wedding, and this
type of child-rearing. It’s a neat little package, and then you die. It
makes me sad.

Nobody is asking any important questions, like “Why in the fuck am I
accepting that this is the way I’m supposed to live my life?” That’s
question #1 and nobody’s talking about it. And as a follow-up: “What are the
alternatives?” Anyone who does ask these questions gets the Charlie the
Unicorn treatment (see
shun).

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Doesn’t anyone find it strange that the way you were taught to live happens
to be the same way you think it’s right to live–with few exceptions? Combine
that with the fact that various parts of the world disagree so much on the
topic and you’ve got a real problem. So you just got lucky, huh? Lucky
enough to live in the right place where you can learn REAL values?

Of course this is a stupid question because it doesn’t occur to anyone to
even ask the question. No time for that when dancing with the stars is on.
They accept the package and take step after step on the path that’s been
built for them. And when it comes time to die, $LOCAL_GOD_OF_CHOICE takes
them to their imaginary happy place.

Repugnant. It makes me want to shake people.

…

Anyway, this post has taken a poor turn. Let’s get back on topic.

If you’re not learning the lessons of classic literature, learning about
history, and learning about the REAL questions in life–i.e. philosophical
ones–then you aren’t living. What you are doing instead is no different than
an ape collecting sticks and throwing poo at his enemies.

Don’t be a poo-throwing ape. Read books. Ask questions. ::

Notes

1 From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts