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

Frugality

I have never been able to spend money with the reckless abandon of some of my peers.

There always seems to be some reason to save money rather than spend it. Over the many jobs that I have had, I have compulsively saved. In my current job (lucky that I am to have one) I am saving approximately 90% of what I am earning. This has gotten to the point that it feels like I am working for no actual reward. A bank balance becomes a meaningless number that rises and has no real consequence.

Why do I constantly avoid spending money? While the cliché of saving for a rainy day may ring true for me, I think it is a more complex process. Abstract rainy days are easily ignorable. What is not so easy to shrug off is predictable events in ones life that will require money. There is always something on the horizon that may need funds. This is even beyond recessionary scaremongering. We always find a reason to save.

Sometimes this frugality seems like an excellent idea. It is a practical application of forward planning and thinking. Yet at the same time, working and using up precious time for no real reward, or an imaginary one in the future is more than problematic. Money controls us in this way and we cannot escape its grasp while we allow it to dictate our lives. Money is simply a medium. When we earn it we should spend it and make those imaginary numbers mean something.

I am not saying that we should all drive ourselves into poverty with excess, simply that we should enjoy ourselves more while retaining our forward thinking.

-The English Student

Hollow Statistics

With unemployment hitting a record high percentage it is very easy to become blinded by these statistics.

The number of job losses hitting this country are dilligently reported by the papers and the figures relating to unemployment are frequently changing and always provided. The rate of unemployment benefit has become a subject of much political debate as politicians attempt to curb the massive economic crisis the country faces. But do any of these politicians actually understand the reality behind these statistics?

I faced a relatively short term of unemployment. For approximately 2 months I was without a job and even for that brief period I was hit by the debilitating effects of unemployment. It is extremely difficult to motivate yourself when you have no job. Your self worth plummets and you question your value as a person. Shame sets in and it becomes extremely difficult to face the world. This especially hurts when on public transport, surrounded by working people that have an opportunity to contribute to society. It truly is terrible.

Trying to summarise these emotions with statistics and figures is also terrible. Obviously governments cannot practically review every individual circumstance and must try to gain an overall understanding of a situation in order to make an overall decision. But the vast majority of these politicians have no idea what unemployment is really like. These statistics are meaningful for the person affected by them but are hollow for the people who have the power to affect the situation.

Until politicians find empathy behind statistics there will be a massive rift between them and the unemployed and struggling voters.

-The English Student

Becoming Raskolnikov

Dostoevsky presents us with one of the most troubled and warped characters in literature: Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov.

This former student wanders the streets of St. Petersbourg, wallowing in his self-imposed depression and inhaling the noxious elements of the city. In an attempt to gain the capital he needs to avoid working in his future he robs and kills two women. The majority of the novel is then devoted to Rodyo's internal struggle with his conscience and external struggle with the police. But throughout the text it is disturbingly easy to empathise with this character.

Rodyo is in search of a small amount of capital that will allow him to live without the constraints of work. With this capital he would likely return to his studies and pursue intellectual enquiry in his areas of interest. Members of contemporary society often feel the same way. Every person who plays the lottery, gambles in any way or commits a crime for monetary gain hopes for the one big payout that will give them freedom. If I could study and write without monetary fear I would be a much happier person.

But Rodyo suffers from a serious character defect that points to the folly of this strategy. His arrogance and feeling of self-importance allows Rodyo to destroy other lives if it benefits his own. While we all want economic freedom we would be obligated to forcefully take the capital of others to get it. The one huge payout that is always on the horizon is not worth the destruction of others who only seek the same thing.

It is useful to empathise with Raskolnikov; but we must strive not to become him.

-The English Student