A Rising Dark Age, Indeed

I've suggested before that Western civilization - in particular the United States - is about to enter a new intellectual Dark Age.

To date, this has been driven by dolts like the current denizens of the White House, and these guys who seem to think that actual rational thought and exploration isn't essential to understanding the world around us.

Then I stumbled across Richard Cohen's recent column in the Washington Post and just about fell out of my chair. I couldn't believe that this moron would actually write that mathematics is unimportant.

Perhaps Mr. Cohen hasn't sat down and solved a single variable algebra equation since high school - I don't know - nor do I care. High school algebra isn't that complicated. As PZ Meyers points out, algebra isn't about solving pithy little word problems, it's about abstract symbolic reasoning.

In a world that is being flooded with data every moment of every day, success is built on one's ability to see patterns in the information flowing past your eyes; to synthesize that into something that has meaning for you. Otherwise, you wind up being an idle lump of organic matter on the sofa - staring mindlessly at the pap spewed forth by big money media and obediently purchasing whatever gewgaw they are trying to foist upon you.

According to Mr. Cohen, Most of math can now be done by a computer or a calculator. On the other hand, no computer can write a column or even a thank-you note -- or reason even a little bit..

Truisms mostly. Without Mathematics, Archimedes would not have deduced that the world is round; Galileo would not have been able to describe the basic form of our Solar System; Newton the mechanics of terrestrial physics and a plethora of other topics. Without mathematics (and some pretty advanced math at that), the very computers that "can do most math" wouldn't exist. (Come to that, we'd likely be living under a Nazi jackboot right now, because Alan Turing and colleagues wouldn't have cracked the "Enigma" machine codes in WWII)

It's the underlying assertion that Cohen makes that irritates me so much - that one doesn't _need_ mathematics to get by in the world. Mathematics by itself is of limited intrinsic value to most people, but along with History, Literature and Writing, it forms a foundation for young minds to understand the world in which we live.

Telling a high school student that it's "Okay" to fail at mathematics because it isn't "directly meaningful" merely demonstrates the writer's utter lack of ability to comprehend anything beyond their own (apparently) limited intellect. It's not "Okay" to flunk out on maths. In our world it's a seriously life limiting thing - unless your career aspirations don't go beyond working the front counter at McDonald's or standing at the front door of the local Wal*Mart.