Tuesday, April 20, 2004
(9:23 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Leaving the Country
To begin, I'd like to retract any and all statements in my post entitled "Postmodernism: Good?" that gave credit to postmodernism for the democratization of education. As Ralph Luker points out in the comments, the inevitability of John Kerry's election renders it moot, but I strive for intellectual honesty and transparency.
I will try to be brief this post.
Today in my class entitled "Empire: Then and Now," with Professor Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., we were discussing the book Empire by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, specifically the second section on changing political constitutions. We began the class, as usual, with our gleanings from the news media, and one student shared his finding that a large proportion of troops in Iraq are hired mercenaries. There are apparently independent armed forces for hire, whose status in international law is unclear. We are truly privatizing war.
In any case, halfway through class, it began to rain outside. I spent the remainder of the class simultaneously listening closely and plotting ways to leave the country, specifically by going to England to study and never coming back. No amount of debt seemed unreasonable to facilitate this. No area of study -- even theology itself! -- was too humiliating. It seemed very important to me to leave the country as soon as possible, and since I don't speak any foreign languages, England seemed like the only choice.
Certainly more than half of it was based on the very Anglo weather we were experiencing, but another big part of it has to do with my impression that people are smarter in Europe. For instance, in other countries, maybe their newspapers will carry a story about Kosovo other than one directly involving a U. S. citizen. Maybe the public airwaves aren't appropriated by amoral corporations who by definition want, finally, to make a buck at all costs. Maybe public transit is a reality. I'm sure I'd be gaining a lot of new problems, just like when I switched religions back a few years ago, but still -- it's a worthwhile line of thought for the back of my mind on a rainy day.
