Quitting Weed for Graduate School Sucks; or: Smoking-up with Marx
I've been waking and baking for eight years straight and that's just not conducive to doing anything productive. I'm not saying that you can't get anything done while stoned, all undergrad work shows the contrary, just that I need to stop and figure out how to handle everything before thinking about picking it back up in a more limited way. Motivation is the problem. Even right now, I should be continuing research on an obscure naval battle from 1905; I'm saving that for the rest of the week.
Right now I have to write 350 words about historians employing Marx's methodology versus being Marxist politically. It's nothing, but sources must still be cited even though it's so short. Luckily, other than quoting the assigned readings, all I have to do is find passages that attest to Marx's brilliance in socio-economics and zealously over-idealistic politics. The guy was great at identifying and discussing forms of oppression, especially economic, but provided no details for ways to overcome it, just musing over an ideal revolution.
I think it's tragic that most conservative Americans simply discard Marx's work because of the stigma attached to him. Reading it does not make you the "bad guys." In fact, if you believe they're the bad guys, why not read about the ideological guidelines they follow? Inform yourself, I tell people. It's not going to change your mind, it's going to educate you as to "why" they're the "bad guys." I mean seriously... do people think they convince others of their ideology by promising bread-lines, poverty, and totalitarianism?
I've been waking and baking for eight years straight and that's just not conducive to doing anything productive. I'm not saying that you can't get anything done while stoned, all undergrad work shows the contrary, just that I need to stop and figure out how to handle everything before thinking about picking it back up in a more limited way. Motivation is the problem. Even right now, I should be continuing research on an obscure naval battle from 1905; I'm saving that for the rest of the week.
Right now I have to write 350 words about historians employing Marx's methodology versus being Marxist politically. It's nothing, but sources must still be cited even though it's so short. Luckily, other than quoting the assigned readings, all I have to do is find passages that attest to Marx's brilliance in socio-economics and zealously over-idealistic politics. The guy was great at identifying and discussing forms of oppression, especially economic, but provided no details for ways to overcome it, just musing over an ideal revolution.
I think it's tragic that most conservative Americans simply discard Marx's work because of the stigma attached to him. Reading it does not make you the "bad guys." In fact, if you believe they're the bad guys, why not read about the ideological guidelines they follow? Inform yourself, I tell people. It's not going to change your mind, it's going to educate you as to "why" they're the "bad guys." I mean seriously... do people think they convince others of their ideology by promising bread-lines, poverty, and totalitarianism?
yobdren:
In hindsight, it probably would have been better to use what I wrote here as part of the assignment, instead of doing the same rant in two places.