sciatrix

So I asked Metafilter about class and socioeconomic status yesterday. Not theoretically, either: I was pretty direct about where I was coming from and openly curious about other people and their thoughts.

( thoughts behind the cut )

So. I don't know. I'm sitting thoughtfully right now and putting my thoughts here rather than there. I'm not feeling much in the way of personal emotion, just intellectual interest. But I had thoughts, and I figured this was probably the place to have them without distorting the entire conversation around me.

So I keep meaning to post, but general insanity have been keeping me from having the time to do so. I am not exactly enjoying my Philosophy course, when normally I take to discussion-based courses like this one like a duck to water, and I've been trying to figure out why. The teacher's discussion style is fairly similar to Dr. M's, at least superficially, and I am very fond of Dr. M and really miss the Political Science course I took with him.

Partly it's this: Philosophy, or at least the aspects that this guy is trying to teach me, are explicitly concerned with what should be without allowances for reality, when I vastly prefer discussing what is and using that as a bridgepoint for thinking about what should be. I'm a scientist, or at least will be; my entire mental framework is based around objectively trying to figure out what is and then do something about it. Reality is important, and it drives me insane when people regard it as just sort of an obstacle to thoughtplay.

Partly it's this: the man is an anarchist, what the fuck, does he realize how unworkable that is? He keeps saying things like "and if the psychologists are right about us being driven by self-interest..." which also drives me up the wall, because I can't interpret human behavior by and large as not being driven by self-interest in the majority of cases. And he keeps attributing Western self-interest to the Western state, which is a whole different level of annoyance, because even in other types of cultures you still see warlords and power vacuums and all the problems that make anarchy impossible. I haven't particularly thought of a way to counter his moral position, but then I'm not concerned with should bes when I can't make is work effectively.

And partly he's just a bit of an asshole, and also he keeps bringing up abortion. It's like a pet topic for him. That and animal rights, which I have issues with because of all the batshittery in the movement. Also the rampant racism and classism in some of the major groups. (PETA, I'm looking at you.) His lack of professionalism in talking about his pet subjects also bugs me. I'm of the opinion that professors, or teachers of any sort, necessarily must have a power divide between themselves and the students in order to teach effectively, and the consequence of that power divide is that you do not get to advance your pet subjects if the class isn't about that. Letting me know you're unprofessional enough to abuse that power divide makes me less inclined to listen to you, and if you don't think there's a power divide there at all I can't shut up and listen in any effective manner.

Also, the one other person in the class who talks at anything like the same level I do (yeah, I'm loud and opinionated) is a physics guy. I don't, as a rule, get on with physics guys. Bleh.