Upon reading the blog posts this week on the most important issue in world politics it was tempting to immediately judge and say, “well, that’s not the most important issue, this is.” After taking some time to reflect I realized that the beauty of world politics is that we can all be right. Perhaps is no “most important” issue but only important issues. The most important issue can be poverty, education, sovereignty, religion, oil, and all of the other ideas people brought forward rolled into one. All of our ideas are interconnected and hence perhaps the greatest issue in world politics is all of them combined. However we each pointed out specific issues in world politics that we thought particularly important which reveals each of our unique problem solving strategies. We each asserted that the world could be “fixed” if only the problem we identified were solved. We are all here because of our unique views and the world needs all of us working for the greater good of humanity in our own way. So when the debates get heated, as they undoubtedly will, let’s remember that just because we disagree that does not mean that any of us are wrong, or right for that matter.
On a different note, Sunday Gunperi, Sam, and I had an interesting world politics moment that happened outside of the classroom. We were sitting on the Quad trying to get some reading done but it was difficult because we were distracted by the beauty of nature. Nevertheless our minds were still in world politics mode so we came up with metaphors for how nature could explain world politics. We discussed how the squirrels were chasing each another because one was jealous of the other’s stash of acorns and how that symbolized the struggle for power and wealth in today’s society. We discussed how we all share the land (the grass) and yet we partition it up without regard for its natural boundaries. Our model was a little simplistic, yes, but it helped me put a model to the theoretical discussions we were having in class. Moreover it showed world politics not as a quest to save the world but simply a quest to understand a little bit more about it and I think that should be our goal.
This week has been a whirlwind of activity and it’s easy to get lost in the “things” you did but I think World Politics has taught me a lot about myself, my classmates, and the world in just one week. I cannot imagine what it will teach me in the course of a semester but I’m eager to find out.
Erica Peterson
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1 comment:
Hey Erica! You pointed out such a great way of looking at the situation. It's like we discussed in class: everyone has their own personal definition of world politics, so we can all be right. We just have to remember to be open to everyone else's ideas and really listen to each other.
I also wanted to tell you that I really liked the squirrel metaphor.
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