Jacob Schutz | Proud to be an intellectual

"A pragmatic love of knowledge."

In case you haven't seen any of Penn's recent advertising material, this phrase is now linked to our University with such other buzzwords as "entrepreneurship," "invention" and "outreach."

The phrase represents a nervousness about appearing too intellectual, too smart for our own good. Many seem to have long turned against these perceived elitist traits.

Two weeks ago, when John McCain's attack dog (Rudy Giuliani) was tearing into Barack Obama, the first sentence dedicated to Obama called him a "gifted man with an Ivy League education." In the form of a backhanded compliment, Giuliani fired one of many salvos in the "elitist" attack. Obama is smart, sure. But can we trust the latte-sipping, Ivy League crowd to keep us safe?

Opinions about intellect "go back and forth in trend lines," said History professor Michael Zuckerman. He pointed out that Americans loved to listen to the well-educated, well-spoken John F. Kennedy. Yet he also cited Al Gore as an example of a politician who had to defend charges of elitism based on his intellect.

In times of negative opinion toward boundless learning, I'd hope that Penn would stand proud in defending knowledge for the sake of knowledge. But our professed principles of pragmatism and practicality have me worried.

Pragmatic calls to mind practicality and ease of applicability. My dictionary defines it as "dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations." Which, I suppose, means we're getting rid of the Philosophy department.

I concede that pragmatism is an important trait for any research institution. It doesn't need to be, however, the mantra that defines our entire academic experience.

I'm not at Penn due to my pragmatic love of knowledge. I'm here because I possess an absolute, overwhelming love of knowledge.

Perhaps those who came up with the phrase "pragmatic love of knowledge" majored in psychology (and due to their pragmatic love of the subject, used their knowledge for marketing). As psych majors, they would be familiar with the work of John Lee, who categorized love into six different categories. One of those categories is named pragma - for pragmatic love. According to the Interweb's most trusted source of knowledge (Wikipedia), pragmatic lovers are realistic and practical, yet have a tendency to be "undemonstrative" and "lack emotion." Further, the extreme form of pragma love is prostitution (which gives new meaning to the term "pre-professional atmosphere").

The phrase is emblematic of a certain nervousness at Penn. Too many students are obsessed with jobs and the "real" world. Obviously, most will eventually enter into the workplace and leave behind the Ivory Tower. Until then, we should be much more willing to bask in the vast quantities of thinking that surround us.

I'm proud to go to a University with the number-one business school in the county. Yet many scholars here feel that if they don't shape their schedule perfectly, don't pick the right major and don't get the required grades, that they are doomed to failure.

We should spend more time taking advantage (and contributing to) the vast stores of knowledge at Penn. Just because a class, or a department, will not be of direct use in a future job does not mean we should avoid it.

Fifth-year Nursing and Wharton student Pamela Orozco pointed out the uniqueness of a place like Penn.

"I don't think my friends and I talk like elitists," she told me. Yet she also noted that outside of Penn, she tries to take care to avoid sounding overly intellectual.

As Pam notes, this is the one time in our lives when we're allowed to be biased in favor of excess knowledge.

Hell, we're expected to be. In spite of what Penn's half-baked marketing would have you believe, our founder did not work exclusively on inventing things such as smokeless furnaces and bifocals. Seriously, the guy once compiled a list of 229 ways to say you're drunk.

Ignore the critics, take an impractical and unpragmatic class, and then run for president and deny you did anything of the sort.

Jacob Schutz is a College junior from Monument, Colo. His email is schutz@dailypennsylvanian.com. The MacGuffin appears every Monday.

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