So, I was watching my local fox affiliate this morning - yes, I know. Please don't give me that look. My wife watches it for local news, and it covers my daily commute.
Anyhow, they did a short bit on a new Master's degree being offered at universities - in intelligence analysis. And I thought to myself (as well as expressing to my wife, who promptly "shushed" me so she could find out how much intelligence people get payed) "That has got to be the most useless degree to have right now".
(More below the fold)
First of all, I am surprised that such a degree program even exists at this point in time. I would think that "intelligence analysis" would be in such low demand that it wouldn't even be worth offering a class, much less an entire masters program.
In this country, it has been shown, for about the past four years, that any analysis on intelligence doesn't get used. It gets cherry-picked. For intelligence that matters, the only way it gets used is if it fits into the narrow worldview of the administration. If it's outside of that worldview, the intelligence is minimized, marginalized, or just plain tossed in the garbage.
And, generally, the people who are qualified to work in intelligence are, well, intelligent. If you're smart enough to actually apply for this degree, you should know that your end job under this administration is going to be to say "yes" a lot, with the occasional "slam dunk" thrown in. Why bother spending two years and several thousand dollars getting a Masters in that? I can do that right now!
Hopefully, this sort of degree will actualy come into demand in a couple years, when we can take a serious look at our information infrastructure, boot out the crony appointments, and get some people who are actually qualified for their jobs in there. But right now, I feel sorry for the people who put forth the effort to design this educational program.