2021-02-26 23:23:33
Y'all noticed I've been posting a lot of stuff in the vein of "it's not all about rationality, storytelling is more important and effective than pure facts" right?
Well I just got home from a protest the other students organized. My college -
which is a liberal arts college - has cut music majors entirely, has slashed the budget for art, history, and English to save $500,000 because the new science building is going to cost them 1.7 MILLION dollars over the next decade. Additionally, our president is a shady racist bastard.
When the main speaker came and asked me why I was here, I said "I am an Environment and Sustainability student, but my minor is in Diversities and Humanities, and I am a writer. Writing is my passion. I am here because I am not here to be turned into a
fucking drone."
A lot of what we were shouting was in the vein of:
"What is life without art or music? Fucking boring!"
"We are here to enrich ourselves."
"We are not here to be turned into corporate slaves."
"What happens after the liberal arts are cut? The soft sciences go, and all you're left with is 34 engineers. Try making money off of THAT."
This is why I place such an emphasis on *not* emphasizing rationality and logic. When those attributes get emphasized as "productive," other areas of academia, OF LIFE, suffer. The arts suffer, music suffers. And if there's anything I've learned this semester and from what I've shared, environmental storytelling is paramount in actually getting people to care about the Earth, not academic journals and fact sheets. Emotions are human.
256 viewsW̶i̷t̵c̸h̸b̶e̴a̵s̷t̸ ̷K̷a̵t̵h̴e̶r̴i̶n̶e̶ BLM/ACAB, 20:23
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