In Appreciation Of Humanism

I’m proud to say that I’m not very easily proven wrong (at least in my opinion), and if I am, I very rarely take any remarks personally. I enjoy a good debate as much as the next one. I’m also very set in my vision of what the world is all about and what constitutes a “good life”. However, one Wednesday evening a couple of weeks ago I was struck silent by a debate with my two good friends. We were in the pub having a couple of beers after a day of studies and work, and we got into a discussion, where each of us tried to justify to the others why we study what we study and why we think how we think.

The premise was promising for a fruitful debate: I was the humanist; the linguist; the “mind over matter” philosopher. My friend number one (let’s call him Tom) was a student at the Helsinki School of Economics; the economist; the one who one who could reduce all existence into an equation, where on one side is Money and on the other side is Happiness. My friend number two (that’d be Harry) was a graduated engineer; the one who would assert that technology is the future; the “we must build machines that will build machines” utopianist.

So we’d drink a few beers, exchange common pleasantries, until Tom turns to me and says: “So Simo, are you still wasting your time with your linguistic studies, or have you finally started on something actually useful?”

BOOM! Struck Silent I.

Tom was always going on about how the future is in global financial markets – a very stereotypical, and often parodied, frame of thought from an HSE student. Life was all about harvesting material and making money. Money is great, I like money. Material, too, is great. But hasn’t it always been said that money should be a means, not an end? But what got me most about Tom’s simple and innocent question was the fact that that’s how they all must see us humanities students. By all I mean everyone else. Since our selected branch of academic study doesn’t really lead us anywhere (except to teaching, another blatant stereotype), they must all think we’re mad! We’re wasting our lives learning about art, literature, history, cultures, languages and other “spiritual gibberish” (direct translation from one of Tom’s comments about humanities) and that’s why we’re wasting golden opportunities.

Harry, even though in a far more lukewarm manner, soon sided with Tom. Harry agreed with money being of paramount importance, but disagreed with it being used as an absolute value. Harry didn’t believe in my choice of studies either, but he did appreciate art and how some people might get their kicks out of the “spiritual gibberish”, even if they’ll have to live in poverty for all of their lives.

Poverty? Golden opportunities wasted? Struck Silent II.

So, here I was, struck silent twice in the course of 10 minutes. I was forced to defend my vocation, if not for myself, then for all the other humanities students, whose dreams and ambitions people like Tom and Harry were set on shattering. So here’s what I think about it all:

I believe that in a world full of people like Tom and Harry, humane values are of the utmost importance. Economics and technology, while extremely important in sustaining the machinations of our society, would soon wither away if not accompanied by an understanding of humanity, its history, its love for beauty and literature, the many wonderful creations of the human mind. The ability to understand and study things in the metaphysical level is what separates us from robots. Being human is the necessary evolutionary backbone that we humans need in order to provide the society, fuelled by economical and political laws, some sort of frame of reference. If you look at history, you’ll notice that it’s most often organised by technological inventions (and wars). The arrowhead, the wheel, the writing system, the printing press – each invention echoes the fulfilment of a need; something necessary to better the lives of people. Art and humanities can thus be easily dismissed as having no such purpose. But that leaves the question why do we need people like me? What can be so profoundly interesting in something as vague as the human mind?

An understanding of humanity is something that every single person, regardless of profession, needs in order to survive. Tom and Harry can’t possibly justify their own vocations if they dismiss the history of their own professions. Tom and Harry can’t possibly state that art and culture haven’t shaped the world and even their own lives. Tom and Harry can’t possibly be so blind that they’d like to live in a world where instead of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos you’d only hear the rattling of coins in the cash register or the steady hum of an electric regulator.

The world needs economics, politics and technology. Our mode of thought at least since the days of colonialism has been predominantly economic and technological. I’m not going to refute that, because it really is a fact of life. But the future – my friends – the future is in humanism! The human mind is the centrepiece of all creation. In the throes of globalisation I believe studying art and all the other “spiritual gibberish” is more important than ever before. Cultures are being overrun by their bigger and stronger friends, and work must be done to ensure cultural preservation.

This was what I was supposed to say to Tom and Harry, but I was still suffering from Struck Silent II, and could only mumble: “Stuff it guys”. Tom and Harry got the best of me then, but maybe after writing this article I can direct them to read it and thus get my say in the debate.

While walking home from the pub I saw a magnificent sunset. It lifted my spirits, because I knew that Tom couldn’t capture it with any amount of money, Harry couldn’t recreate it with any amount of machinery, but I, the lowly humanities student, could just stand still and watch it in awe, capturing a piece of it in my mind forever.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Student Board Members Are Demons Not In Disguise

Recent research sheds a poor light on the popular extra-curricular activity of being a board member in a student union or organisation. When only ten years ago such student activity was greeted by staff and students alike with praise and gratitude, student boards are now condemned as being obtrusive breeding grounds for know-it-all attitudes and full of socially incompetent suck-ups, whose only way of finding a friend is by mail-order or kidnapping.

“The change happened overnight,” claims Ned Huggins in his doctoral dissertation The Student Union Killed My Academic Career – A Case Study Of Social Incest, “The days of greeting student actives as motivational mentors and inspirational tutors were over. Social independence and solitary drinking have replaced conformity and Tuesday night pub crawls.” But what initiated this change in attitude? Huggins extrapolates from gathered data that the change originated from changed perceptions within the student body. “Students grew tired of watching the little social groups formed of board members gathering in the cafeterias and library corners, giggling like a bunch of pot heads and quoting out-of-date movies such as Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail and Kieslowski’s Three Colors -trilogy,” Huggins writes.

Anguished students give similar testimonies about board member behaviour in classrooms. “Yeah, they’d always sit front and centre, and whenever they raise their hand to comment on something, everyone knows it’s just to say some funny anecdote about last weekend’s after-party or something. God, I wish they’d just bleed to death the whole lot of them,” says a distraught female student who wishes to remain anonymous.

The general consensus is that the boards of student organisations have become “exclusive cattle sheds of unethical values and social incest – a breeding ground for unwholesome attitudes of self-indulgence and mindless conformation,” says Huggins. Far too many students claim that their interest in being a board member almost killed their academic careers. Partying and hanging with the same in crowd day after day cut short the studies of too many promising students.

When asked about these claims, not one board member wished to give a statement. One board meeting was even infiltrated by a reporter, but he had to leave before any valuable data was gathered because of the smell. No longer a smell of success, attributed to board members during the glory days, it was more like a cabbagesque-gymbaggy-deadfishy kind of smell. Judging by the lack of cooperation, it’s highly probable that the board members admit to these claims and feel the need to seclude themselves even further from the healthy student environment that waits outside the door.

To battle student organisations in the hope of eventually disbanding them, a flyer campaign has been set up by various University faculties. In cooperation with authorities and concerned mothers, the last remnants of student boards should be rooted out in a year’s time.

As a thought-provoking testimony, the words of young Timo Karsa echo forever in the minds of students. Karsa gave his State of the Student Union speech late September, and his words will never be forgotten:

“For in this, the darkest hour of our day, a light can be seen. I say to you, my fellow students, do not throw away your chains! Do not cast down your buckets where you are! For far too long have we been exploited by student boards and their mindless dogma. I once was a stupid, disease-ridden, socially incompetent board member, but now I am a thriving student with a full life of bodily pleasures awaiting me. Raise your voices! Shout so that the walls may shake and the ground may break! Shout so that every last one of the board members is drawn from their putrid holes under the ground to be hung, drawn and quartered! Sound your barbaric racket over the rooftops of this campus! Shout NO to game nights and fancy dress parties, for they are evil! NO!”

Technorati Tags: ,