Go Ahead College, Crush my Initiative
This Calvin and Hobbes strip accurately describes my feelings toward my World Civilizations II class. Today at 2:00, I have to hand in a paper that deals at least in some way with the topic of "Freedom and Domination" and it has to deal with pre-industrial Europe. All in all, not that bad of a topic. The prof made it deliberately vague on purpose, allowing me to choose my own topic, but then ruined a perfectly good paper assignment with a couple of ridiculous limitations.
Originally, I wanted to write a kick-ass paper on Mercantilism and how a worldview that forces nation states to compete for what is believed to be a finite amount of resources leads policy away from mutually beneficial trade agreements and places added emphasis on war and subjugation, making colonialism and the exploitation of native peoples the logical conclusion. However, I can't because a) a paper of this sort would need no small amount of substantiation and b) I'm pretty sure I can't do it in less than five pages without being overly reductionist and leaving huge gaps. So, instead I'm turning in a half-ass generic paper barely over three pages that is neither interesting to read and was much worse to write. From time to time I entertain the thought continuing my education because topics such as the above interest me, before my daydream is squashed by the nature of modern academia. Thankfully I only have to write a couple of these a semester or I'm pretty sure my desire to learn anything ever again would be thoroughly crushed.
- The paper can be no longer than five pages
- No outside research material can be used other than the two textbooks required for class
Originally, I wanted to write a kick-ass paper on Mercantilism and how a worldview that forces nation states to compete for what is believed to be a finite amount of resources leads policy away from mutually beneficial trade agreements and places added emphasis on war and subjugation, making colonialism and the exploitation of native peoples the logical conclusion. However, I can't because a) a paper of this sort would need no small amount of substantiation and b) I'm pretty sure I can't do it in less than five pages without being overly reductionist and leaving huge gaps. So, instead I'm turning in a half-ass generic paper barely over three pages that is neither interesting to read and was much worse to write. From time to time I entertain the thought continuing my education because topics such as the above interest me, before my daydream is squashed by the nature of modern academia. Thankfully I only have to write a couple of these a semester or I'm pretty sure my desire to learn anything ever again would be thoroughly crushed.