How is the learning the liberal arts brainwashing? The entire point of a broad education is the exact opposite, it teaches you how to think and what to think about:
> And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out.
> How is the learning the liberal arts brainwashing?
In theory, it's not. In practice, though, liberal arts in many colleges gets tied up in "political correctness" and other junk, and winds up containing a fair amount of what might be considered brainwashing.
> The entire point of a broad education is the exact opposite, it teaches you how to think and what to think about
That's exactly why it's a perfect vehicle for brainwashing. I can make a pretty good attempt at brainwashing people under the guise of teaching them how to think and what to think about - if I'm so inclined.
There's an element of the left that wants to win the argument, not by having better ideas, but by silencing the other side. (The right has these types as well, but they seem to be more prevalent on the left.) Teaching university kids "what to think about" is a perfect chance to exclude the other side from the realm of what thoughts are worthy of being thought.
Now, there are also professors who are excellent liberal arts teachers, who are teaching what liberal arts are really supposed to be, and that is very valuable. But don't kid yourself, there are also professors who are using liberal arts to indoctrinate.
http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/david-foster-wallace-in...
> And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out.