An Assault on the Humanities

The economic tide seems to be turning very sharply away from the humanities.

In various countries in the last few months, a trend of cutting back money going to this area in local culture and universities has become obvious. Governments are clawing back funding and placing it into areas that they deem to be more economically fruitful. These include most notably the sciences and the effort for these countries to create unique selling points through technology. The hope is that these measures will create new jobs and allow these countries to once again flourish.

Well pardon my obvious bias, but this is absolute nonsense. How can anyone possibly make a judgement on what projects and areas will become profitable when they are in their genesis? In fact, massive 'economic worth' has been gained through breakthroughs in the humanities, that bring in academics from all corners of the world, sell books and give more monetary value to a country's culture.

This is a fine argument that many more intelligent than I will be able to properly mount and pursuit. I find myself reluctant to give my full backing to it however, as it engages these governments in their own discourse. That is truly what is at stake here, a fundamental misunderstanding of the importance of the humanities. People are taught another method of thinking. Whether you agree or not with a certain thinker is almost irrelevant in many academic circles, the important point is how you create an argument to defend your position. Thinking outside formulaic scientific discourse is so important that an assassination of the humanities amounts to a direct attack on our ability to think and articulate new things.

This is not an attack on the humanities, it is an attack on Humanity.

-The English Student

Naive Politics

Many politicians inside and outside of the government have retired in the past month and they left office due to an unexpected failing.

It really does seem that politicians suffer from two major instances of naivety. On the one hand, these people seem to completely misunderstand why a career in politics is a good idea. Coming through college these people become empowered by the open environment and energised by an apparent will to create change. The assumption is that these patterns extend to a wider social level and that a politician can enter government and reform the entire system.

The other example of naivety comes from politicians that are already well acclimatised to the system. These people have been in the politics game for a long time and realise that new blood coming in is foolish to think that they can affect great change. However, the show naivety in other ways. These politicians believe that they are above the laws that they have sought to uphold. The system has obstructed all attempts to change so the rules are circumvented. While this may be done with good intentions it circumvents the entire basis of our democratic system,

Perhaps there is an even great example of naive politics in these areas. The belief going in to every election that we the people can actually affect life and policy is time and again proven to be false. It really does seem that it does not matter who is driving us forward, as the route has already been defined. It really is a case where the blind are leading the blind and we have given a mandate to be lead in this way.

While politicians may be naive, perhaps we are far more naive for actually believing in them.

-The English Student

In Search of an Opposition

People are very dissatisfied with our government recently, but I am far more dissatisfied with our opposition.

This week the national newspapers rang out an alarm across the political corridors of the city. The government has apparently become deeply unpopular and lost many percentage points through informal polling. This is especially worrying for the government now as they face numerous votes and electoral challenges in the coming months. In fact, many people believe this government to be practically finished.

But what alternative is there? The main opposition party has comparatively low numbers in similar polls and many would reject a government lead by the party's figurehead. It really would seem that the people of this country do not know what they want in a government. People could easily link this to a growing level of political apathy, but not all parties lost so badly in these polls.

The most quiet, inoffensive and downright cowardly party has gained a marked boost in popularity. I do not wish to engage in a tirade against this party but it is deeply worrying that the electorate deems them a good alternative without seeing any real definition of policy. The current government have set the agenda, this party simply opposes it without any self-declaration of intent. People are entitled to deride the government for their shortcomings but this certainly should not result in success for an untested and vague political party.

We need strong leaders and representation in this country but without a strong and well-defined opposition we will not get them.

-The English Student

Securalism - Society

"We have just religion enough to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another" - Jonathon Swift

Across the world, we find political leaders constantly highlighting their religious beliefs as sources for actions. There seems to be automatic acceptance when spirituality is cited with regards to government. But this innate reverence for religion (especially in politics) creates many problems.

When a ruling body decides to make decisions based on religion, the people are subject to any interpretation that said leaders come to. War, destruction and division emerge where these policies are followed. Even when politicians simply pander to a religious electorate they validate the prominance of spirituality within the decision making body of a country.

Instead of showing equal respect to all religions, governments should strive to completely seperate themselves from all forms of spirituality. While many religious people would claim that it is impossible to remove ecclesiastical concerns from any decision, this attitude does not take in to account the varying beliefs found throughout the population. These differences will not be reconciled, but instead should be bypassed.

I am no enemy of religion, but i do oppose the use of spirituality as an excuse for government actions.

-The English Student