A Funny Thing Happened to Investors in Q2 2022, Also to Those Matriculating for Doctorates in the Humanities in the 1970s

 "Another stormy week has left investors groping when it comes to the direction of stocks and bonds. Expecting to be led out of the darkness by Wall Street’s best and brightest may be asking too much, given their performance so far this year." - Bloomberg, May 13, 2022

And the ridiculousness of reverence for projections by the Credentialed Crowd has spread to other categories of business. Already some businesses have embraced scenario planning. According to consulting firm Gartner:

"Scenarios are compelling descriptions of possible futures - not necessarily the most probable ones, but plausible, coherent and substantially different ones."

Instead of pontificating about the future - usually with heavy-duty assurance - those developing scenarios map out what is possible. In this era of the one-time unthinkables no longer unthinkable so much is possible.

My generation of 1970s Lost Humanities Scholars has been set in play by the US Government projection of a critical shortage of university and college professors in, yes you got it, the Humanities. The solution was to award the best and brightest graduating undergraduate three-year NDEA Title IV fellowships for doctoral studies. Tuition was paid, plus a generous monthly stipend.

I took the bait. Simultaneously, New Jersey Bell Telephone, where I had worked part-time throughout college, talked to me about a full-time position in public relations. Of course, back then there was blind faith in higher education. The more education, the better. I went off to pursue academic excellence.

On the way to my Ph.D. the market for Humanities professors collapsed. 

I floundered for almost four years after not landing a college teaching job. Then I did begin my first job in public relations. Here it is 2022 and I am still working in that field.

I never trusted the experts again. 

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.

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