The true love in my life has always been, and still is, literature. The creative arts, the freedom to create something of beauty for the sake of expression, this has been the shining light of my life. Pens, pencils, paper, books, journals, libraries, bookstores, stationery shops, words, sentences, paragraphs, stories, thoughts, theories… the joys, the promise, the potential of an escape into the realm of thought and magic and mystery in a world where people are obsessed with power and wealth and competition in business, this is the pleasure of life. I see art as a purpose in my life, it brings meaning to a meaningless existence without purpose. Two centuries ago it was frowned upon for women to write and, even though this has changed, there has been a continuous war on the humanities as far as I can remember. So many people write my masters degree off as invalid because it is a Master of Arts and not one of science or business. In 2017, the humanities are under a greater threat than we have ever known. Our freedom to choose is under threat. Faith is preferred to reason, and everything from the right to choose to have an abortion to studying the arts is under threat.
I have had faith in the liberal progression of the western world ever since I was old enough to be aware and I have always believed this would continue to lead to greater freedoms, to protection and care for people, and that we would learn to work as one towards greater goals such as environmental conservation and increased education. I thought that we would progress beyond the belief in spirits in the sky that we hope to save us and guide us, I hoped we’d grow to understand that the random placing of stars at the time of our birth does not influence our personality (do you think a child born on the same day as you in war-torn middle east has the same personality traits as you?)
I fear for our freedom as a whole. Gender studies and gender politics are important but right now we have a much bigger problem and this is just one way of us being divided. We’re so busy fighting in small groups that we miss the bigger picture… we are, as a humanity, seeing our freedoms stripped, our rights removed, our planet die… and we are without a shadow of a doubt heading towards war.