OK, I must admit that I avoided the ‘humanities’ in school. I failed to see the value, and I apologize.
In a TV program called Northern Exposure, one episode portrayed a person saying, “If a cat and a piece of art were in a burning building, which would you save?” The answer given: “The cat, because art is dead.”
But another character chimed in saying: “No, art is not dead, art is alive. Without art, there is no cat”. Etc. There was more, which pointed out that “art” describes the world around us.
My interpretation of this conversation was that art lets us recognize things with descriptive words and record things with visual representations, thus allowing us to have economic systems and governmental policies, build structures, and even describe the world around us in the most complex scientific terms.
I suppose the value of all ‘Humanities” may be viewed in a somewhat similar fashion. The study of History or a Language in themselves might seems valueless. But they have value, and though some may consider them somewhat esoteric, these subjects can help those with more lofty goals achieve things beyond what may be achieved by those with little or no interest other than getting a specific task done.
Maybe it is the need for immediate gratification and personal gain that makes the Humanities look less valuable in today’s world. But the knowledge that may sound “pretentious” may be based upon good or bad decisions made by others in previous times that ended badly, or at least did not promote issues that are desired in the modern world.
After recent administration and christian-fundamentalist’s bumptious attitude toward all that is good and decent in American life; and lack of respect for... anything, rather than their own “elitist” fear and hate filled idea of the world, we really need to value these people who value the Humanities.
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OK, I must admit that I avoided the ‘humanities’ in school. I failed to see the value, and I apologize.
In a TV program called Northern Exposure, one episode portrayed a person saying, “If a cat and a piece of art were in a burning building, which would you save?” The answer given: “The cat, because art is dead.”
But another character chimed in saying: “No, art is not dead, art is alive. Without art, there is no cat”. Etc. There was more, which pointed out that “art” describes the world around us.
My interpretation of this conversation was that art lets us recognize things with descriptive words and record things with visual representations, thus allowing us to have economic systems and governmental policies, build structures, and even describe the world around us in the most complex scientific terms.
I suppose the value of all ‘Humanities” may be viewed in a somewhat similar fashion. The study of History or a Language in themselves might seems valueless. But they have value, and though some may consider them somewhat esoteric, these subjects can help those with more lofty goals achieve things beyond what may be achieved by those with little or no interest other than getting a specific task done.
Maybe it is the need for immediate gratification and personal gain that makes the Humanities look less valuable in today’s world. But the knowledge that may sound “pretentious” may be based upon good or bad decisions made by others in previous times that ended badly, or at least did not promote issues that are desired in the modern world.
After recent administration and christian-fundamentalist’s bumptious attitude toward all that is good and decent in American life; and lack of respect for... anything, rather than their own “elitist” fear and hate filled idea of the world, we really need to value these people who value the Humanities.
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