> No real classics in the last 40 years
What's your definition of a classic? 40 years is a bit soon to tell if something is a classic, in my view. You need it to stand the test of multiple generations.
> students aren't majoring in HASS at all anymore.
Some are. Some aren't. In the past, some were, and some weren't. So... not much change.
> At a high level HASS is more non-penetrable than any hard science where you can plug numbers in and test whether or not the equations they give you actually work.
Yeah, that's because HASS isn't hard science, so it doesn't work like hard science. If you expect it to, that's your fault, not HASS's.
> Universities are now job training institutions where people go for credentials and get out, nothing more.
Some do. Some don't. Perhaps more do than used to.
> The students there don't join any of the extracurriculars or sports teams, they just get their STEM degrees and get out.
Some do. Some don't. Same as before.
> So HN, have the humanities and university system failed society?
You really sound like you came here with your own view (and an axe to grind), and you want HN to endorse it.
The humanities have in fact failed society, but not at all in the way you describe. People not going to extracurriculars has nothing to do with whether the humanities have failed society. (Extracurriculars aren't the humanities, and college students aren't society.)
First, the humanities have failed society by being hijacked. All the various flavors of Critical Theory have hijacked the humanities. They largely aren't the humanities any more; they're cheerleaders (and indoctrinators) for a particular narrow subset of views. They should be thinking and teaching much more broadly than that.
Second, the humanities seemingly forgot how to speak to the broader society, or else forgot the value of doing so. They speak (so far as I have seen) to each other, and to humanities students, but they speak little to the broader society. (Though it could be that, when they do so, I don't recognize it as "humanities", which would mean that they are in fact doing it well rather than badly...)
