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Nothing is Sacred: Except for the old pillar that holds the
building
(A response to Dr. Peter Rowley)
Dear Dr. Rowley, I am but a humble student of Classics far
removed from the location in which
this debate is taking place. I have only my voice, and no pull
amongst students or faculty anywhere.
Furthermore, I am writing this response in lieu to the behest of
my own person, not the backing of any
group, not even the one pertaining to the saving of Classics are
Royal Holloway. Allow me to say, in
addition, that before this group came about, I had neither the
slightest clue nor cared to know of any
universities like the afore-mentioned. Why do these trivial
facts matter to you? It matters because one
cannot effectively counter a man he does not know; and now that
we are acquainted (for I have read
about you indeed), I will resume my apology (in the Greek sense,
of course) to your post.
First and foremost, you are absolutely right; about everything.
Integration does not mean
disappearance of the department, men not of Classics are just as
smart, or even more so than those
within it. We classicists (forgive the title, I am a mere
student, but this is more a point than a show of
hubris) are more romantic than most, love good rhetoric and look
down on other departments for their
highly constituted courses that teach job-specific skills. Yes,
Dr. Rowley, we can craft a lovely sentence,
appreciate the boring phrasing of the Republic and form the
backbone of a department in decline not
only at Holloway, but around the world. That said, are you not
doing the same thing by writing that our
department is not worth keeping intact? Would you not defend
your department if it were to be
integrated with a related science? You would indeed, and reckon
your grammatical composition would
indeed increase if you thought that with your next letter there
was not only an appeal for justice, but
hope for the future success of your petition. I hope you will
approve of the epitome I made of your
arguments, and understand that I have read them
carefully,considering their ponderous words you
place forth. I hope that you can grant me the courtesy of
listening to my own words.
Classics is important because we have been studying it since man
was man; we look to Rome, it
looked to Greece, and it looked to Persia, which undoubtedly
looked further back into the unknown
reaches of unrecorded history. But what is important about
Classics is not History, we have a
department for that. What is important is that there are men who
learn from the wisdom of others;that
there is a need to understand ourselves as human beings, and
that the classicist addresses that problem.
Yes, Dr., Philosophers do that; but the men whom I study as a
classicist are those who begun the study
of philosophy, not only that, but of biology, astrology,
mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. There is no
science or art (you may argue all you want but dig deep enough,
and you will find the connection) that
does not derive from the mind of the wondering man, these
original thinkers embodied in the likes of
Pythagoras, Lysis, Socrates or Plato. These studies, Dr., highly
romanticized indeed, provided the basis of
our modern world; yet we humans, encased in the hubris of our
limited professions, pretend to know
that which we dont know. Indeed, we think that now we have no
need for the original thinkers;for we
have men who specialize in all fields they of old had to
research on their own; and thanks to that we are
much more advanced that we have ever been. I would argue, Dr.,
that we are in a state of scientific
advance far beyond our wildest imagination, and yet we suffer a
retardation of the mind that inhibits
our ability to be people; to care for our constituents, and
promote freedom and justice in the world.
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Classics has never been the main pathos of any modern man of
science, but it has been the basis
for 99.9% of them. Forgive my seemingly random number, but I
borrowed it from your analysis; for the
student who does not study classics directly is indirectly
learning it every day. Your yourself are learned
in Plato, you know of Spartans and Athenians, of philosophers
and stoics, of the Gorgon and Hercules.
Yes Dr., any child will more than likely learn mythology before
anything else, whether the ones provided
by the ancients or a modernized version in the form of religion,
state politics or local culture. Do you
assume that this knowledge can be researched and understood with
the destruction of the Classics as an
institution? I would argue in the negative. Men have twisted
history enough, by taking a department
away you are not simply downsizing; you are destroying our
capability to remain uncorrupted by the
generalities of standard history.
Furthermore, I will tell you that cutting Classics at Royal
Holloway will do nothing to the
profession overall, indeed you may vote to destroy it
completely, carry out the deed yourself and drag
its limp body behind your chariot. You may order the Classics to
commit suicide by drinking the
hemlock-like cup of budget cuts until those that come out of
Holloways halls are neither educated nor
prepared for a world that expects them to know of these romantic
and ancient facts for daily use. I cantell you that the decision
will be soon resented and the department will live on in other
institution,
perhaps to the point that Royal Holloway will find the necessity
to restore it in the future. But rather,
despite the arguments that can be made about world culture, this
is a contest that must be won on one
concept alone: principle.
Yes Dr., the principle that tells us no man should be told what
to do in life; a concept of freedom
which ties back to the very men that created it, and which those
in the department of Classics study and
try to understand, a department for which you are proposing
budget cuts. Democracy, freedom and
justice are unequivocally Greek, and only the Classicist will
understand the moral principle of it, read the
words in their original form, spend countless hours doing
thankless work interpreting the meaning ofideas written long ago
and that will help us carve a better world into stone. Once more,
we are not
physicists, mathematicians, philosophers, biologists or the
like. We are thinkers, Dr. Rowley, taught to
do all of the above by rational methodology. We dive into the
minds of ancient men to find the answers
that our generation seeks so desperately today, transferring the
knowledge and hoping that in the
emptiness of our halls we can find the ear that will listen, the
leader that will care, the curious who will
apply. Romanticized indeed, wouldnt you say? A load of bollocks
as you so wrote it; but let me say
this: smart men can be very dumb; and human beings who
understand all about the dangers of fire
constantly burn themselves in the flames of misunderstanding and
ignorance. I would like to see smart
men become wise men, a much more complicated process, and one to
which your 99.9% of university
graduates do not adhere.
Thus, the reason to oppose Royal Holloways integration of the
History and Classics departments
is this: let one men die, and when the culprits hear no voice of
lament, they will think it no problem to
kill. If I, so far removed from England and so unimportant,
allow the Classics at Royal Holloway to fail,
what I am saying is that it is no problem to cut these
departments elsewhere. My silent lamentation is
equal to condemnation for the department I love so much,
regardless of location. Royal Holloways
leadership must know that they cannot destroy their Classics
section without the lamentation of those
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who oppose it, thus we send a message to other universities that
may be thinking about the same cuts,
and make them understand that we will not go silently into the
night. You will find that this is a much
more powerful reason than the easily countered budget cuts,
peoples apathy, students want of money
and their pursuit of the careers that will easily provide it,
etc. Yes Dr. it is all about money in the end,
and Royal Holloway will do what it must, but I will not add my
silence to those of others who think it
unimportant. Classics gave me a fine writing education, along
with rhetoric and love for the ancients, I
might as well put it to use.
Finally, your defense of unbiased discourse is ridiculous. What
you are is an Earth Sciences
Researcher at Royal Holloway; nothing wrong with that. What is
wrong is your inability to show yourself
as just that, an unapologetic man that seeks the benefit of your
employer, as I seek the benefit of mine. I
like to dig holes in my spare time, my children do rather enjoy
it, that doesnt make me an Earth
Sciences expert, or does it? I am North American and Castilian
Spanish, give me Gibraltar back, or I
will tell President Obama to cut trade with England. Please Dr.,
do not mock your own understanding
with such useless words as you concluded with. Let us cast aside
the masks of our personalities, for if
nothing good comes of this debate, you will not lose and neither
will I; the world will lose and that, Dr.Rowley, is what is
intolerable about the bollocks of integrating Classics into
History.
Juan A. Caballero Prieto
