Writer's Block Magazine

Among many students, it is a deeply held belief that scientists are somehow superior. We envy the engineering boy, who just graduated and will earn the highest salary in the country; and the gifted medicine girl, straight A’s, will try and discover a cure for cancer. They are not just better, they are smarter. After all, we would not be here if it were not for science, right? But who does that “we” really refer to? What is, essentially, the concept of humans that some part of the scientific community claims to be pushing forward?

I once read that there is more to us than mere biology. That if we were to take some random flesh and bone, together with all our inner organs and systems, and attempted to make a human, it still would not quite be as whole a person as the one that is reading this. Sure, I was thirteen and impressionable when I read that, but I still hold it to be true. There is a “something” in us that we cannot quite ignore, and we have not been able to for a while. Religion has always thought so, Spiritism thinks so, and most of us do as well. Even the most scientific ones. We not only want to believe in this “something”, but also go at great lengths to justify it in the most intricate ways. Maybe it is the blind following of the horoscope, the hope that the stars have determined our personality and give us a purpose even before we are born. That, aside from being a chemist, you are also a Capricorn. It can also be the hyperfixation with shows, books, music… There is no evolutionary reason as to why a human, a primate, should binge watch Game of Thrones instead of searching for food or reproduction. But we do. We have the time and the will, and moreover: it makes us happy. And, for the fortunate ones that embrace their somethingness, it goes beyond that. The more you fuel your soul, the more fulfilled your life is. 

Think about what Van Gogh, Shakespeare or Beethoven would have thought of this extremely scientific view of life. Or worse, what would have happened if they had accepted the “science is superior” speech that is growing among some student communities. What a sad world we would have, it would be closer to a zoo than a true human society. We need art, culture, and music. We need Latin and jazz bands, The Nutcracker and a historical memory. And though I have just been amalgamating the humanistic and art areas as one, it is the latter the one that I feel the proudest of. Because it is the path that I chose, obviously, but beyond this, because it keeps on reawakening. Having taken humanities courses in high school as well as music lessons for ten years, I believe that humanities are an incredible treasure that some people constantly try to dump into the trash. And, on some occasions, these disregarded disciplines are the most beautiful and useful of all.

Of course, I am not saying that the scientific field is worse than the humanistic one. Progress and evolution will always be key to the advance of the human species, and we will be forever grateful to those that make it happen. Some of the arguments that these extremist scientists use are true. A painting will not save anyone from dying, and a wound cannot be healed through poetry (at least, not a physical one). However, others are just based in prejudices and the excitement linked to superiority. Where I come from, the Humanities kids were often looked at as the freaky ones, who had walked the easy path and did not have to take a Maths course. But it did not occur to them that maybe our passions were fully developed only in the Latin course. Maybe they did not have these kinds of passions themselves – I will never know. But for the people that love languages, history and culture, the feeling of discovering something new is utterly superior. To finally see that sentence magically translated in your head, to connect that bridge between what was happening at the time a theatre piece was written, to read a line that shakes your beliefs to the ground… or to write one.

They might just be little things, for sure, but no one can deny them. Everyone has their little humanistic (or artistic) interest in them, everyone has experienced a life-changing reading and would love to speak whichever foreign language. It is in the practical side, the academics; that not so many people feel attracted to Humanities. And that is great, because the balance should not drop to either side. If you, reading this right now, do not agree with me at all, you have every right to do so. But you could try to understand, try to empathise with that spark in your friend’s eyes when they point out that fact about Greek mythology. We will try to be grateful for your addition to this society as well, we promise. All of us need to cohabit peacefully, recognise the advantages that the other area of studies gives to our world, and nourish our souls the same way we do with our minds. After all, the name comes for a reason: Humanities are what make people humans.