This rant brought to you today following the news that 53% of people in the UK feel Humanities-based subjects are a waste of time. This rant is not happy. It is opinionated, unashamedly biased and sometimes has swearing. You have been warned.
**I should also make it clear that this rant is aimed at a generalised group of people. I am quite sure there are people out there on the Science side of things who don't share the opinions of their peers. To those people I say: hi, maybe we can form a sanity club.**
Dear general population of the UK, let me firstly say: fuck you.
No, really, fuck the lot of you.
Humanities subjects are a waste of time, are they? Really? I mean, it's not like Humanities includes foreign languages, law, branches of psychiatry, drama, art or anything else that makes and defines our culture. It's not like History is at all, you know, important or anything in allowing us to understand what people did and why they still do it. It's not like English isn't in every word, in every paper, in every book, in every poem we ever read. It's not like the politicians of our country studied philosophy at university, or Latin, or law. It's not like anyone needs to understand a dead language in order to get the development of our language as it is today and to better our knowledge of why we speak the way we do.
In fact, let's use that as an example.
For a very long time now, Humanities has been derided as the 'useless' side of academia. I mean honestly, what are you ever going to do with a Classics degree? (Apart from, you know, be a Professor, better our understanding of the past, be an archaeologist, a journalist, a member of Parliament, a member of the civil service, help conserve world heritage, write a book... need I go on?) I have a friend and we've known one another since we were eight; we're both twenty three now and she's doing a PhD in Chemistry and I'm doing one in Classics. She's a lovely person but we had a discussion the other day where she asked, genuinely puzzled, what Classics was actually for.
My response?
Oh, just an understanding of the entire human race as we know it today.
You think I'm exaggerating? Let's look at it this way. The scientific side sneers at the humanities side because we don't understand how the universe works, how to write an equation or how to dissect an atom. Or, to put it another way: Pythogoras? Plato? Hypatia? Any of these ringing a bell? No? How about Socrates, Homer, Galen? Let's see, I think that's pretty much covered what I'd consider the important side of things. (Maths, Science, Study of the Universe, Medicine, Philosophy and Literature.) We learn from history to get an understanding of why our world is the way it is today. Yes, ok, I can't explain to you how the Big Bang happened, or how laser eye surgery works, but I don't sneer at the people who can and that's why I find it really offensive when people ask me what good my degree will do. I can tell you where our philosophies come from; why we speak the way we do; I can explain military strategies that are still used today; I can speak and read five different languages that aren't my own, two of them dead; I can pick apart the Bible and the history of Christianity; I can explain why people tick, just because of their history and subsequent cultures.
So why am I being told my degree isn't useful?
Finally, let's think about this another way: Humanities funding has been cut by more than two thirds. Example? My friend, the one doing her Chemistry PhD? She lives at home with her parents, and she's been given government money of £15,000 a year (plus fees) for her degree. She doesn't need the money (her family are extremely well off) and she's got three fellow students out of three in her department on the same funding. Turn to Humanities and, oh wait! The Classics department has one grant to give out to one student out of both the MA and PhD schemes, and that grant? £1250. And that doesn't even cover half a year's fees. It's happening everywhere, because the government have dictated that Humanities is a waste of time, and we should be investing in more Doctors and Dentists, Scientists etc.
I work in the NHS, and guess what government? Your system is oversubscribed. There aren't enough places for newly qualified Doctors. There sure as hell aren't enough for physiotherapists, pharmacists, dentists or research posts. I know, I've worked in HR and they're turning down thirty to forty people for one post. (And that's just the ones who've got to interview).
So why can't we have some more Humanities funding, please? Why has it been tossed aside with yesterday's rubbish? You need linguists and analysts and researchers and drama and English just as much as you need the other side of things. Why can't we have a balance? Not everyone is scientifically minded - I'm sure as hell not - and people need an alternative, because if every single person turns to Science, whether they're good at it or no, then what you're actually going to see is the death of culture. Goodbye TV, goodbye films, goodbye plays and books and modern lanugages. Goodbye philosophy (we don't need you), goodbye art, goodbye architechture. So long, museums and heritage.
Not like any of them are important.
So what fucking good is my degree?
Just an understanding of life as we know it.