Jay Havaldar | In defense of impracticality

A Numbers Game | An ode to the unemployable

By Jay Havaldar 06/15/15 4:13pm

I write today from Berlin, exhausted from an incredible week of beer, wieners, culture and history. One of the most awe-inspiring sights to see in the city is Museum Island, which boasts a collection of everything from Byzantine sculptures to early Modernist paintings spanning five museums. There was an almost infinite wealth of knowledge available for just 12 euros — and yet, most people will never see it. A small plaque next to a collection of ancient Greek coinage explained that there was a website containing detailed information on every coin. Each of the over one thousand small pieces of metal had its own dedicated paragraph online, complete with sources and pictures. The plaque was a tiny part of one exhibit — I wonder how many thousands or millions may have missed it.

I sympathize with the archaeologists and historians who have worked tirelessly to amass this incomprehensible collection of information for no practical purpose. Those majoring in the fine arts and other less “employable” subjects at Penn are frequently asked to justify their choice. Engineers can claim to be forces of technological good; businessmen can claim to be offering services to change the world; nurses can claim to save lives; but what, for example, does the philosopher do? In a time when a culture of excess is forced to reconcile itself increasingly more often with a reality of scarcity, can we afford to engage in this sort of study?

On the way to Berlin, there was a museum in Prague that exhibited art by children documenting the Holocaust. Both children and adults recorded their anguish in hopes of clarifying and understanding it, even if it was clear that no one was there to listen. There is, in some sense, a human need to do the impractical, the selfish and the profoundly creative — even in times when other, more basic human needs are neglected. An artist is fulfilling his or her human need, pursuing their passions in a healthy and constructive way. Especially at Penn, we shouldn't ridicule such a benign form of self-indulgence. In our harsh pre-professional environment where many choose their professions in order to make the most money, the self-centered decision to be a fine arts student is hardly the worst we can do.

There is also a greater purpose in accomplishments in fields such as philosophy and art. The Egyptians built the pyramids, the Greeks built the Parthenon and the Indians built the Taj Mahal — and to this day they are remembered as some of the greatest human achievements we have ever seen. Great art lasts far longer than the artist, and oftentimes even longer than entire civilizations. Those who create and study great art are, for themselves and for the cultures they came from, achieving nothing less than immortality.

There is another reason we ought to be encouraging the work that is done by those who pursue the less “practical” majors. No one knows what the future holds; work that was not significant in its time can be rediscovered much later. A classic example is the work of Gregor Mendel, who kept careful records of the cross-breeding of pea plants for years. Although his work was ridiculed and misunderstood while he was alive, he is now remembered as the father of modern genetics, as his theories were later tested and overwhelmingly confirmed. In Prague, I encountered a statue at the birthplace of the now famous novelist Franz Kafka, who lived relatively uneventfully and died suddenly of tuberculosis. His work was published after his death, and now it's difficult to imagine a world without his influence on everything from fiction to pop culture. At Penn, we often get into the habit of asking for immediate success and results. We could afford to be more careful.

Those who pursue the impractical and the esoteric are, I think, quite a bit misunderstood. The frame of mind that leads to our judgments of what is and isn't practical is very much a product of our environment. Yes, an artist may never cure cancer or build a million dollar company, but we should be a bit more grateful for what they do give us.

JAY HAVALDAR is a rising Engineering junior from Dix Hills, NY studying math and computer science. His email address is havaldar@seas.upenn.edu.

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