Introduction: The Extreme Mainstream

[L]iberal arts education will will itself into anachronism—as it is already accused of doing—by focusing exclusively on forms of cultural production that are not widely shared in public culture. The domain of popular representation will pass as fact, unavailable for argument, debate, and analysis, or it will become an arena of technocratic competence where the focus will be on how to manipulate or manage it, but not analyze and interpret it. (4-5)