Today's HC Debate

I have a meeting tonight at school, so I went to the Honors' Lounge to spend some time with a few of the people I have met and really like from the Honors College (HC). While we're sitting, chatting about our course loads and homework, a guy that we do not know came in and started telling us that our collective major (Psychology) was nonsense. That anyone who had spent some time with other people could do what we are spending our time and money learning how to do.

Oye.

One of the girls I'm sitting with is Tina, who I adore. Tina is very religious and very strong in her beliefs. I don't agree with her most of the time, but we have excellent conversations because she has learned about her beliefs and thought about them and is generally better educated in them than the average 20-year-old. The other Psych major is Eysana, who is a level headed, softer spoken young woman who I get to spend time with at Equestrian Club events, even if we never seem to have classes together.

Tina is not soft spoken. In fact, much like me, she wants her opinions heard when she has them and is quite loud in expressing them. Tina and I share a culture (her family is from a village near my family's in Sicily) and it happens to be a kind of loud one. And none of us take well to being told our major is a soft option, especially from some guy we've never met who is a Chemistry major. Chem majors are notorious for thinking they're superior (except for Ajay who is humbled and brilliant all at once). The conversation starts off hostilely because of this guy's body language, antagonistic attitude and judgmental statements. He says he's direct, I say he's a jerk.

The conversation goes all over the place - scientific standards in psychology, the applications of psychology, what we learned from the Nazi's and eventually into religion (which is where I bowed out). He manages to insult us all enough that even Eysana, who generally stays out of this kind of thing, tries to explain to him why he comes across as insulting. He didn't want to hear it. At the end of all this, he does some backpeddling and acknowledges his terms were incorrect in places (like comparing my joining the Army as the same as Nazis, when he meant to say that it was like those conscripted into the German Army - he was still wrong, but less insulting if he had used the correct term). He then says he plans to change his major for Chem to Politics because he likes to "debate".

This starts another conversation about debate and what it actually is (a reasoned presentation of facts in a manner that allows others to address your presentation) and what it isn't (an argument). Eysana points out that his body language would lose him a debate before he opened his mouth (which is psychology) and he dismissed her. If he plans to go into politics, he's going to either learn the value of psychology or he's going to fail miserably.

I was incensed, to say the least, but mostly I was disgusted. This is college - people are supposed to question and discuss. But why anyone thinks that opening a conversation with an insult is a good plan, I do not know. He also preached his pride in being from Pakistan and a Muslim, but then used his American name rather than his actual one, which I personally find hypocritical - especially since his actual name is not difficult to pronounce. If you doubt the value of psychology, which many people do and for good reason, every single psych major in the HC will discuss it with you calmly - I have a friend here in the HC with whom I have this conversation about once a quarter. He comes to the topic with respect and understanding that he is inherently ignorant of the topic, having never studied it. We talk, we disagree, and we remain civil. What this guy was doing was tossing out an insult and then claiming it was misinterpreted when people objected.

Then again, maybe he'll be perfect for politics.