IT is a sign of our age that not just the processing times of Large Language Models (LLMs), but the very arc of humanity, is racing ahead at warp speed. It feels impossible to keep up with technology, political developments, the cultural zeitgeist — even morality, as it becomes harder to distinguish between right and wrong.

One area where the pendulum swings erratically is with regard to what is valued in education. Over the past decade, there has been a devaluing and defunding of the humanities in favour of STEM subjects. But it’s possible to detect the pendulum’s reluctant oscillation back towards the humanities. This will not surprise those who have benefited from a humanities education. The contemporary world needs the skills that the humanities impart: critical thinking, analysis, communication, empathy, foresight.

Literature, history, cultural and social studies have evolved and proliferated against the backdrop of war. The Crimean War alone spurred war reporting, long-form journalism as we now recognise it, anti-war rhetoric and the career of Leo Tolstoy. Conflict — and the collective trauma it generates — has fuelled cultural production, the bedrock of the humanities.

As the 21st century is defined by perma-war — not just proliferating conflicts but also genocide — so will it be defined by collective trauma, which will be exacerbated by pandemics, climate change-induced disasters, food and water insecurity, internal displacement, illegal detentions, censorship, mass migration, etc.

Trauma is the real crisis of our time.

Trauma is the real crisis of our time. According to the WHO, 970 million people globally in 2019 were living with mental disorders, anxiety and depression the most prevalent among them. In 2010, these disorders eroded $1 trillion from global GDP (not counting up to $8.5tr lost to other mental disorders and substance abuse). These numbers are expected to double by 2030.

Such collective trauma demands processing, ideally through art, writing, poetry, historical and sociopolitical analyses. Censorship due to increasing authoritarianism, the swing away from the humanities and cuts to government funding for cultural production have reduced access to these outlets. But as natural disasters become commonplace, conflicts intensify and the sense of global complicity in the horrors unfolding in Gaza becomes unavoidable, there is likely to be a return to cultural production and a revival of humanities as a means of making sense of the traumatised societies in which we live.

In the coming years, as the backlash to today’s authoritarian energies rumbles, the humanities will also be recognised as key to saving democracy. Writing in the New York Times, Mary Harrington recently highlighted the socioeconomic and political implications in a decreasingly literate world (adult literacy scores in OECD countries are declining; half of all Americans did not read a book in 2023; today’s digital environment comprising bite-sized info nuggets and AI-generated slop is antithetical to “concentration, linear reasoning and deep thought”).

Harrington points out that “an electorate that has lost the capacity for long-form thought will be more tribal, less rational, largely uninterested in facts ... and open to fantastical ideas and bizarre conspiracy theories. ... Such a public affords new opportunities for corruption”. She describes a world in which oligarchs and authoritarians perform “rituals associated with mass democracy” and manipulate a TikTok-addicted public while increasingly devising self-serving policies that people are no longer capable of analysing, critiq­u­ing, rejecting or sup­­-planting.

She also points out that the elite, recognising the harmful cognitive effects and socioeconomic disadvantages of no longer being able to think, are reverting to schooling based on long-form reading, banning smartphones for their children, and encouraging creativity. Today’s elite pursuits may hearken the second coming of the humanities.

Even our AI-enabled future dystopia requires fresh regard for a humanities education. Engineers have already done the hard work of building LLMs. Needed now are global frameworks for governing and regulating AI, approaches to ensuring that AI is moral and ethical, and a growing ability to predict what it might do next. These are tasks for critical thinkers, philosophers, anthropologists, and artists, not engineers.

Admittedly, the path to a humanities education may be radically different than what my generation experienced, as universities continue to lose funding and become politicised intellectual minefields. As young people increasingly choose social media detoxes and privilege in-real-life interactions, we may find ourselves back in the world of the intellectual salon. In all scenarios, the humanities will persist.

The writer is a political and integrity risk analyst.

X: @humayusuf

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2025