Beyond Selidor

A couple of weeks ago, my sister graduated from university. She did the same undergrad course that I did, Arts at Sydney Uni, although she did a regular BA (her major ended up being Modern History), while I did Honours in English Literature. The way Sydney does graduations is that you graduate with all the people who did your major, or Honours in your subject area, so I graduated with the English Lit people, and she graduated with the History people.

I was talking to her about her ceremony (which I missed, due to being on the other side of the world), and she mentioned that the speaker (a philosopher) had done 'a great speech where he said that Arts was just as good as Science'.

I was greatly amused. At my graduation (although I have some vague memory of Malcolm Turnbull being there in some official capacity), the speaker was also a philosopher. He was, I suspect, the same one who talked at Mim's graduation, and I'm pretty sure he gave a version of the same speech. But I interpreted his speech in a very different manner.

To me, his speech was quite insulting. Patronising, almost. 'Arts is just as good as Science! Don't believe anyone who says that it has no value! Don't worry, none of you will end up working in McDonalds!'

My problem was that I didn't see the need to reference Science at all. We were Arts graduates. (Remarkably successful ones, too. Of the people who did Honours with me, I can think of six PhD students - one in Cambridge and one in Oxford - a couple of succesfful journalists, some public servants, one who ended up working in finance, one who went into advertising and a couple who ended up teaching. Not a McDonalds worker in sight!) Saying we were 'just as good as Science students' implies already that there's some need for reassurance, that we, on our graduation day, might feel unworthy. I actually found it deeply insulting. If you can't talk about the importance of the humanities without it being at the expense of science, you obviously don't think very highly of the humanities to begin with.

My reaction - and my sister's opposite one - is obviously entirely down to perception and personality. I'm a pessimist who always suspects people are secretly mocking or despising her. She's an optimist with a 'don't worry, everyone will love you' attitude. Her glass tends to be half-full, while mine is always half-empty.

But it was amusing to see our different personalities laid bare in such a direct manner.