Well, it looks like I might be arguing the same point in this reaction paper for comparative that I wrote about in my last two essays. While my professor actually said he likes the idea of us having only one point for the entire semester, if that is possible, I still am weary about doing that. It's just me saying the same thing applied to different pieces each week.
But seriously, why the fuck do I need to know about politics in Victorian England; what does that tell me about now? Especially with Great Britain; that constitution constantly changes because of its flexible nature, so why would knowing the description of the development of the cabinet and political parties (which are different in today's political environment) help me understand the political workings of the United Kingdom today?
I don't know. The book was good but it was entirely a historical account that leaves me asking "what next" in a sense. Plus, it was majorly descriptive, rather than arguing anything in particular?
If you're going to talk about history for institutions, honestly, that really does need to be contemporary history. Especially for the U.K., in my opinion. Of course, I have several classmates that disagree with me, and I understand entirely their disagreements, and I hope they (and others) do not take this as me saying history never matters. History does matter in some contexts! And history is important to know for history's sake, of course. However, I fail to see history's necessity to studying institutions and their effects on politics in the present day. Which I what I personally am concerned with! The only way I would really care about history is when I would be comparing two different time periods in order to compare/contrast them and maybe figure out which set of institutions was better for policy or whatnot.
...Yeah, I'll probably be arguing this yet again. Hopefully I won't come across as too annoying. (Though my professor seems to like me and agree with me on this topic so I think I should be safe with him, and isn't that was really matters in the end? Ahaha.)
Man, if I had known I was definitely going in this direction, I would've brought my external hard drive with me so I could take some quotes/ideas from my thesis.
Received a sheet detailing my classes for next semester. Seminar in American Politics. Research Methods and Statistics II. Introduction to formal theory. They're MWF respectively, all from 9:40 - 12:40. Boo, morning classes. (Though this can be a blessing in disguise, allowing me to get done with stuff a lot earlier than I do now because of all afternoon classes.)
I'm realizing how screwed I am because I'll be unavailable Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. I still need to do this reaction paper by tomorrow, my methods midterm by Thursday, grade all the midterms for the undergrads and grade all the papers for the undergrads for Monday, and I sort of wanted to write a reaction paper for IR for Monday too, since I've yet to write one at all so far.
...But complaining about it on here is so much more fun.
At least I talked about my paper so I know that's what I'm going to do.
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