"The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers."
We don't just produce steel; we build the backbone of modern civilization.
The essential function of art is moral. But a passionate, implicit morality, not didactic. A morality which changes the blood, rather than the mind.
And we also suck in messages from everything from the television, to advertising, to marketing, etc. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. When we're told that banking is a very respectable profession, a lot of us want to go into banking. When banking is no longer so respectable, we lose interest in banking. We are highly open to suggestion.
The beauty of computer science is that it allows us to create worlds within worlds, limited only by our imagination.