Northern Trites

cherryfloat:

ponypuns:

persisting:

i am super DUPER unimpressed and unconcerned by lists about “most useless majors” especially ones which contain my own major (anthropology.) two reasons:

1) who the fuck defines “useless” exactly? and

2) which is somewhat informed by the former: in many places where higher education is a concern, people are still socially trained to view college education and “viable” majoring as a way to ensure one makes the maximum amount of money possible, and in some cases the maximum amount of money AND the maximum amount of public recognition, community significance, fame, what have you. the benchmark for “i’ve made it” in the us is “i bought a house” which as many of you obviously know is a ludicrously wasteful or unnecessary aspiration in many of YOUR countries, even just in your cities. i say this a lot (because i hear it a lot) but when people say “there’s no money in that field” or “well you won’t be making a lot in that career” what they mean is “you will not be making enough to own a multi-story home in a wealthy part of your country, as well as several nice cars that look the socially acceptable version of cool, and you won’t be able to take expensive vacations to exotic* destinations very often just because you want to, and when you have your required three children they probably won’t be able to go to nice private schools, and you’ll probably have to save carefully for their college funds.” and so on.

the model assumes that these are your end goals, and that not achieving them is failure. the problem is that none of these things are things i want, and they’re not the things many of my friends in these other “useless” majors want or wanted. 

what i would like, very simply, is to be certified at a job that i enjoy, at which i can make enough money to live quietly and out of the goddamn way of those people in the suvs who are rushing their kids to soccer practice. i don’t intend to have children. i don’t intend to buy a house. i don’t think i can ever or will ever want to take a vacation out of my culture or immediate surrounding without being aware of the impact of my tourism, and of yours. i’d like to be able to occasionally use my money to do something i enjoy — which are generally things like “see a friend who doesn’t live right next to me” or “buy a video game i like” or “go to the museum.” 

more than those things even, though, i want to be a person who listens to everyone else. to me that’s more or less what anthropology is. with the degree i am pursuing, those things will be entirely possible. that’s all that matters to me. 

this isn’t to say that people who want all those other things are bad or wrong, only that the human experience isn’t universal, even in the same cultures. (guess where i learned THAT.) so… i’m not worried, or ruffled enough to argue, or insulted, or any of those things. i’m not going to make broad sweeping statements like “WELL SCIENCE IS GOOD BUT ART MAKES LIFE WORTH LIVING” (for one, anthropology is a science, too! we’re here looking for concrete answers to the words “what” and “why”!) i’m just going to say: hey, don’t worry about it. if you’ve got passion and you’re happy doing this, fucking do it. you’re going to struggle some, probably. but you’d probably do that too with the nice house and soforth. life does that.

*i’m an anthropology major, this word is abhorrent to me. just as first world/third world is (STOP SAYING “FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS” YOU GUYS THE “THIRD WORLD” IS ON THE INTERNET RIGHT NEXT TO YOU AND THEY FIND IT OBNOXIOUS AND BELITTLING) and also “primitive.”

This is basically how I feel every single time I see a “useless major lol” comment.

this! also i’m so glad someone finally said “first world problems” (as well as the terms first world/third world in general) is pretty condescending.

also hi mirai your ask made me look at your tumblr….. 8)

THISSSS i don’t even WANT a huge house and load of kids and that, i just want to live in a safe, nice enough place and be with people i like. trying to squeeze everyone into the same ambition just does not work.

(via lemonkiwi)