Last time I made passing reference to cultural decline in a discussion of the “monastic option” as one way of dealing with that. This decline is apparently more than just a general cultural disdain for Greek mythology or Shakespeare and the like. Thanks to Daily Kos, I noticed this little bombshell from the Daily Tarheel, in which we learn that the University of North Carolina is cutting 46 degree programs, although some of them are apparently getting absorbed into other programs, whatever that means.

It is true that a lot of them are “artsy” programs and gender/ethnic studies loathed by conservatives, but there are also a lot that have to do with teaching. Kos gives a full listing:

Appalachian State University: Family and Consumer Sciences, Secondary Education; Technology Education; Mathematics, Education

Elizabeth City State University: Special Education, General Curriculum; Middle Grades Education; English, Secondary Education; Political Science

East Carolina University: French K-12; German K-12; Hispanic Studies Education; German; French; Public History; Special Education, Intellectual Disabilities; Vocational Education

Fayetteville State University: Art Education; Music Education; Biotechnology

North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University: Comprehensive Science Education; Physical Education

North Carolina Central University: Theatre; Jazz

North Carolina State University: African Studies; Women’s and Gender Studies; Business and Marketing Education; Physiology

UNC-Charlotte: Child and Family Development; Special Education, Adapted Curriculum; English Education; Mathematics Education

UNC-Chapel Hill: Human Biology

UNC-Greensboro: Mathematics, Secondary Education (BA); Mathematics, Secondary Education (BS); Economics, Secondary Education; Biology, Secondary Education (BA); Biology, Secondary Education (BS); Composition; Latin Education; Biochemistry

UNC School of the Arts: Film Music Composition

UNC-Wilmington: Physical Education and Health; Music Performance

Western Carolina University: Health Information Administration

Winston-Salem State University: Biotechnology; Elementary Education; Teaching English as a Second Language and Linguistics

Now this is bad enough on the surface, but the reasoning behind this intellectual purge is where it gets truly ugly. Steven Long, one of the Board members, explained, “We’re capitalists, and we have to look at what the demand is, and we have to respond to the demand.”

What is interesting is that many of the classes in, say women’s studies and African studies are highly popular, but degrees in those areas are being eliminated. Make of that what you will, but I think the key here is the quip about being capitalists and the response to demand, to which I ask, “Whose demand?” It doesn’t take a genius to tell that the marketplace is a lousy judge of value, at least on things that really matter, and even less so given how easily it can be manipulated to create spurious demand, or suppress legitimate demand.

But meanwhile, there are two other odd pieces that appeared within about 24 hours of this one. Slate reports that a group of anti-science GOP house members want to cut between $300 and over $500 million from NASA’s budget for the study of earth science, specifically that part that concerns global warming. If you’ve seen any of the hearings and other claptrap that is behind this move, this will come as no surprise. But there it is; Texas is drowning under floods resulting from global warming, just after suffering a massive drought (ditto), but the know-nothings refuse to even allow us the means to get some solid answers.

Finally, there’s this strange item from The Daily Catch, a site that covers ocean-related issues (Hat tip to Mike Bear for the reference):

[The] CIA reportedly is ending a key program that shared the agency’s climate change data — some of it gathered by surveillance satellites and other clandestine sources.

Investigative magazine Mother Jones broke the story last week that the intelligence agency is shutting down the Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis program. MEDEA allowed a select group of scientists access to classified information about climate change. Mother Jones said that the data included not only satellite observations, but also ocean temperature and tidal readings gathered by U.S. Navy submarines.

What is going on here? I doubt that all three items are directly related, but there seems to be an underlying current that is trending away from not only an informed citizenry, but an informed government.

Further indicators of decline? Probably. My inner hippie says that “teach-ins” and the like could make a dent, although this is not a realistic expectation. It seems that our society has engineered itself, or maybe innoculated itself against the idea of people working to understand and figure out for themselves what is behind the social and economic problems they face every day. Watch for more stuff like this. My prediction is that the tempo of constricting information is accelerating.