Digital Humanities

Cynicism at Its Finest: Aka Nothing Will Change

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 3  

In  “The Dark Side of the Digital Humanities” ,  Lauren Berlant’s term ‘cruel optimism’ is used by Chun to argue that DH is nothing more than a means to an end from a disciplinary perspective. In other words it serves as a bastion of false hope for present-day humanists much like the “American Dream’ myth that surrounded/continues to surround after WWII and into the present. Neoliberalism, like Marx’s Communist Manifesto looks astoundingly awesome on paper, but when put into practice the consequences can be dire in the sense that there are unintended consequences that force people to favor their technological toys over the hungry souls that utilize them.  The Age of Consumerism which was a direct contributor to the cementation of the American Dream into the cultural mindset through TV shows like Leave it to Beaver,etc in the 1950s-1960s seems to have destroyed the economy, but also the hope of many people who don’t have the luxury of being born prior to the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s. The technology used in globalization, and by extension, neoliberalism has also destroyed us in a similar way… The means of production and those who control them have not been changed. Those who suggested the adoption of philosophies such as Neoliberalism have not exactly been in touch with those who such policies will directly effect. Reagan, Clinton, and Thatcher although arguably brilliant politicians, did not approach their socio-economic plans through a lens that the 99% can relate to.

This myth of the American Dream, of the “cruel optimism” of DH plays out especially well now because of the fact that the very measures put into place to help citizens achieve it are no longer available to the generations that came afterwards. In much the same way, DH might have a similar future because it takes money to have DH just as it takes money to have consumerism. Consumerism ultimately caused a few deep recessions and Americans still cling to it in vain hoping that the economy,etc can get back to being awesome (If it ever was such a thing) Digital Humanities may very well cause its own destruction simply because it has the money to start things, but not finish them. These two things when taken together sort of remind me of how a teenager thinks, only about the short term benefits, an in the moment life approach as opposed to something well thought out and rational.

To be quite honest, I  am not sure what the solution is… I would say that we need to get rid of the Neoliberal mindset that occupies both the world’s and academia’s scene, but I don’t know if that would fix the problem. I don’t want to retreat into a sociological argument here, but I think that the problem is ultimately impossible to fix once the metaphorical ball has begun rolling in the NL direction because it is not within a human’s natural tendencies to want to do more than they have to in any regard… What I mean by this in terms of a DH or Neoliberal case is that the odds are pretty slim of anything changing because if someone can have something done for cheap, they are going to jump at the chance. Money is in short supply and if DH relies on the cheap labor of undergrads, grads, etc , then it might very well be the future of all academia if it doesn’t destroy itself with the pesky funding thing. I suppose for the sake of wrapping this up, I would suggest the very simple solution of not falling prey to the neoliberal threads which currently make up the university system as a whole. What I mean by this is do everything humanly possible to avoid the exploitation of the labor force, regardless of whether it is an undergraduate or tenured faculty member. Look into the future of DH instead of getting caught up in definitions and dissension among the ranks (faculty members having fights over who belongs, who is okay to talk to, etc.)

I say all of this and have no idea how it will come to pass because I fear that much like the current socio-economic trends that plague the world, the university is too far gone into the dark side that is neoliberalism and a death omen for all. There’s no way to truly fix the system unless you obliterate it. The cruel optimism, the tiffs over definitions, etc will not go away as long as new disciplines and sub disciplines emerge from the ones that are already tainted by this sad blight that is called -either appropriately or innappropriately- Neoliberalism.

This entry is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.