Reflection #8

While this week's set of classes was impressive, content-wise, I feel that the looming deadline of our paper overshadowed them. Not to say that I didn't feel engaged with our readings, because I thought they greatly expanded on our previous knowledge of international relations. W.E.B. DuBois's piece set the tone of discussion for the week and prompted an in-depth conversation of what it means to be on the margins of society. Within this outer rim of social power, we discussed the existence of double-conscious often felt by groups who cannot advocate for themselves. Hearing how our very own Global Scholars have been affected by these social constructs gave our conversations more meaning. Class on Thursday expanded on these experiences as we discussed the problems of hierarchies, whether they are based on gender, race, social class, etc. No matter the classification of these hierarchies, I believe they will always exist due to human nature's fickleness. Already in our readings of Hamilton and Adams, we talked about the evilness that exists within human behavior. Humans will always act in the name of self-preservation and greed, which often leads to the oppression of other ethnic or national groups. It's an extremely pessimistic view of the world, but at least it does not rely on idealistic hopes. We have seen time and time again that humans will always tear one another down to achieve the end game. Even if morality can be used to police human interaction, evil will always come back and wreak more havoc than ever before. Social crises bring out the worst in human beings, which we can see in the aftermath of the Great Depression in Germany, the Syrian Refugee Crisis, and now the nationalization of countries such as England, Germany, Poland, etc. As much as I hate to admit it, hierarchies of power will always exist and will dominate the political power of those at the center and the margins. 

While these were some fantastic conversations to be had, I felt that many of us (myself included) were quite distracted by our concurrent midterms and analytical essay. I know that we should at eight weeks into the semester be more used to the college workload, but there is always room for anxiety and stress. Since we have conducted most of our course work through class discussions and blog posts, there hasn't been much to quantify into a numerical grade truly. Going to office hours to help clarify some of these issues was extremely helpful, and extending the deadline to 5 pm was a godsend. I know we all want to impress with our first analytical essay, but we should all make sure (myself included) that we do not let it stress us out too much.