Environmental Science isn't a real major. Neither is Studies of Women and Gender or Urban Planning or Art History or Systems Engineering. I say that because I'm an English and Anthropology major. Yes, I know. Those are not real majors, either. They're too easy. Just like yours. We've found ourselves in a circular argument of arbitrary rightness and relative difficulty. Only, it's not relative at all. That's right. Everyone's major is more difficult than everyone else's. Fact.
Throughout the past few decades, a philosophical phenomenon has been sweeping America's finest youth. I'm not talking about libertarianism, the principle of naming every weekday in relation to liquor or the idea that neon is an appropriate color to wear on pants. Something more shocking is happening.
On the whole, there is the general idea that the comparative difficulty of my life justifies me as a human being. I have to be better. My life has to be busier. In general, my life is hard and your life isn't. Therefore, I am better. It stinks to be me.
In academic circles, such a philosophy is placed into a category we like to call the cult of the "One-Uppers." To become familiar with this term, just recall early childhood entertainment. Our generation has experienced the rise and perfection of the "One-Up" Culture. There's no quick fix here, no hand to cover that "One-Upper's" mouth.
Perhaps the strangest part of the "One-Upper's" lifestyle is that it is decidedly masochistic. Everything he has dealt with has been worse than what you have dealt with. Recently, I've been pondering the meaning of this weird masochist, "One-Upper" attachment that we all have to our respective majors. Even so, I engage the "One-Upping" culture - willingly, joyfully, painfully - or perhaps just to be better than you and everyone else. Mostly I just like to talk about myself because I'm sick of the "you, you, you."
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