The INHUMANITIES

You’ve got to care…

I read a well-written and provocative article on the importance of the Humanities recently.

The author certainly made a strong case about the continuing and perhaps increasing relevance of the Humanities. He didn’t need to persuade me that the Humanities are NOT an academic enterprise.

But after reading the article, I realized that he’d left out the one thing that could persuade more people than hundreds of similar articles about the importance of the humanities.

The INHUMANITIES.

Why should we learn about the humanities, whether literature, history, or the like?

Well, it would be nice to do something about the inhumanities, of which so many exist. If human-created misery is so prevalent, whether warfare, greed, cruelty, or ignorance, how do we combat such terrible things?

But, we need to do more than say, study the humanities.

We need the equivalent of vocational training to fight specific inhumanities, and then after someone's trained, they need to go out and work in a field of the humanities.

What fields?

Well...

We need The arts of peace and diplomacy to solve the issue of war.

We need the arts of sharing in order to bridge the brutal disparities that exist between neighbors and between countries.

We need the arts of language and story to overcome the appalling ignorance that marks so many, even, and, in particular, those with educational resources that should be sufficient to solve the issue, but fall short due to a lack of will.

Well, where does speech fit into this vocational structure?

Right in the middle of it.

No matter what we are speaking about, whether it’s a burning issue, on behalf of a candidate, to help people in a particular business solve a problem, one universal ingredient is required.

We need to care.

I challenge anyone to make a speech that will move anyone, despite the quality of its content, if the listeners are not sure that the speaker really cares about what he or she is talking about.

Speaking in such an unconcerned manner marks the specific inhumanity of indifference.

The next time you speak, no matter what your subject matter, I challenge you to do your part to stamp out indifference.

Stay tuned.