A couple of years ago I thought I'd never be interested in politics. I mean hey, all about men who have too much power and money for their own (and others) best. Always been having this view of politics being a tiny part of the world. Imagined it depending on us rather than us depending on it. But the more I breathe, think, socialise, communicate I understand that politics is so much more than what I could ever expect it to be. No one is unaffected by politics.
So when attending my first politics lecture last week I was actually quite curious and excited about what it would be about and how this might be able to change my picture of politics as 'boring'. And as we got started, talking about classical theories, Plato and Aristotle, human nature and the republic something caught my interest and the hours just vanished as if we'd only spent a fragment of an hour in the tiny room.
I've always been interested in history and how the world with its inhabitants has changed with time. Curious about what might have been and not, and why. I've never thought of it as politics though, but after the lecture I realise it more and more that every tiny detail of the past (and present and future) is marked by a political event. Every decision made, every building built and every child brought up by its parent is partly depending on politics. Might be quite scary but no one, and nothing, is unaffected by politics.
Unfortunately I couldn't attend the second lecture last Tuesday. For a good reason though. My lovely parents came over on a visit and I was able to spend some quality time with them, showing them how I spend my days here in England and how the move over here is affecting me and my life.
Well, I better get back to my offline studying now.
My books want some company.
So does my coffee.
Take it easy.
//Maddie
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3 comments:
Very good insights. Yes there is a spectator sport called parliamentary politics which is a sort of soap opera about who is on the up and who is on the way down in parliament. Essentially politics in the developed world is a TV show with characters and a plot - and leaders like celebrities (eg Obama, Reagan, Blair, Sarkozy and his wife). It is a bit like televised sport and you can bet on who is going to win, decide which team to support and take an interest in what they are doing. That is politics in the narrow sense, and it is fairly important part of the news agenda (remember that?) so we have to know that game, in the same way as a sports reporer needs to know about the ins and outs of football or cricket. The thing about the politics show in the media is that it has mainly an older and ABC1 (upmarket audience)and this can be unattractive.
Then there is 'politics' in the importance sense for journalists of tracking bureaucracy and holding it to account (eg the way the university spends taxpayers money, and to an extent you fees - that is reported on by Winchester News Online) - also things like how we are going to do things about climate change, or the war in Iraq, or genetic engineering, or the cost of housing. These things are political in the middle sense of affecting a lot of people - but they are not about the 'celeb' game of Obama vs Hilary or Brown vs Cameron which is a more narrow interst (though Obama is just so fantastically good on TV that it reached right down to the popular audience - same as all normal people think golf is the most boring thing on TV - but they've all heard of Tiger Woods).
Then - for me - there's the most interesting level of politics in the sense of the power/domination of one person or group iof people over another. How do we get people to do what we want them to do (or prevent them from doing what we don't want them to do). It is as simple as that. 'Man is The Political Animal says Aristotle. So we all do pplitics all the time, eg you want to go to the pub, but your friends want to stay in and watch TV. How do you get your way - that ios all politics in the classical sense. That makes it interesting and links it to all the other things you mention - such as human nature, etc.
It is a shame that you missed the lecture on economic theory and empiricism. Please red the notes and do the homework task anyway. Sadly that completes the purely theoretical part of the course for this academic session. But we will do more next year and I have changed the course so there will be time to do it properly, alongside the praical journalism and news reporting and feature writing which will also be done in a better way. The new form of the degre was approvced on thursday.
PS in Scandinavia there is a very good sixth form book called Sophie's World. I think it widely read at school in Norway. Is that so in Sweden also? It is a brilliant book for 6th form or first year at university. I really recommend it if you are interested in conceptual stuff. It is essentially the standard 'canonical' trip through the history of western philosophy. Scandinavian secondary education is far better than the UK system which is really poor for the most part.
Oh yes, I have read that book several times actually but not with a 'political grown-up view' so it might be worth reading it again with focus on 'bigger, more important things' than just as a relaxing bedtime story...
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