Philosophical thought and linguistic reasoning have harvested human connection for centuries. Since the ancient Neolithic period, when Homo sapiens roamed the Earth, braving the environmental challenges of a world long lost, forgotten, they used the rhythms of the river, the hums of a grunt, the squashed berries upon the granite.
Their drawings upon the cave wall, infused into the rock forever, have been picked apart by scientists and humanitarians both, as the modern world continues to look for the hidden language of our ape-like ancestors.
Language, an artform shared by scientific reasoning and linguistic programming, spans across cultural history, allowing for a link between mannerism and psychology. It’s the ultimate connection between 23 pairs of chromosomes, schooled into the regality of “peace and prosperity”.
Music, a classic system of alternating melodies and rhythms, emerged around the same time as language, during the Neolithic era, acting as a powerful method of storytelling. Different tempos beat upon the stone floor, a trace of a hymn buzzing in the air. Ancient Egypt, Baroque Europe, Pop America, all genres of music have evolved across the history of the world, bringing a sense of lyrical beauty to communication.
However, as the human race bursts into the 21 century, the importance of technology has risen in the social pages, dominating the subtle beauty of ink on paper. From websites to games to educational presentations, this golden obsession with technological advance has tarnished the glimmering beauty of the Humanities; subjects borne from the very essence of philosophy, linguistics, and music.
The reliance on STEAM, the study of science, technology, engineering, art, and math, has proved useful to the systematic programming of the world. However, it has evidently, inevitably, turned the human race into an army of robots, no longer invested in the emotional process of maintaining their humanity.
The Humanities, the literal love language of the Earth, have been buried by the environmental, scientific influence of technological innovation.
Humans strive for the newer, bigger, better strands of life, sinking in a genre of eternal dissatisfaction. They too often forget the passionate warmth of the flame, burning with flavor and flair, as they are swarmed and poisoned by the lifeless, cool surface of a metallic skyscraper, offering them the distorted reflection of perfection.
Without the Humanities, imagination would cease to exist. Innovation would never grace the global stage, and technological intervention would not even be an afterthought.
This linguistic, philosophical phenomenon has gifted the human race stories – movies and novels and TV shows, all entertainment humans crave for.
The simple aesthetics of teenaged euphoria – summer concerts, outdoor movie nights, binge-watching Netflix – all stem from the magic of the Humanities.
And all the while, colleges and jobs and the government and teachers, they all want the simple, constructed skyscraper of scientific, mathematical, technological genius. All the while, colleges keep closing their doors to students invested in extending the beautification of the world, much rather recognizing and inspiring students who have engineered the next big, bright, bold thing, ready to take on the alcoves of innovation.
STEAM is stealing the history of millions, robbing the inventive futures of professors, film makers, authors, creators as they try to find a place in a world crowded by the suffocating trenches of the motherboard. Circuits have become our roads, or cities, our bridge to connection and secure understanding.
The Humanities, this gorgeous, gracious selection of subjects, has given the world a glittering glamour, fixed in the efforts of magical mystery.
From Shelley’s romantic “Frankenstein” to Mozart’s chilling symphony, language, music, and artistic passion owe their lives to the Humanities.
And humanity owes its life to the arts.