Minute paper on Jim Dator day!

Today we experienced a very enlightening lecture from Jim Dator.  He basically summed up most of what I was expecting and hoping to learn in political science.  His disinterest in  intensive writing courses was just a bonus!  Dator's point that we are the only country to teach our native language at the university level and his thought that our country is never satisfied with our ability to write and understand the english language was something I had never thought about.  Like in english they'll critique your writing and point out your grammatical flaws, all done to make us feel inadequate?  Thought never crossed my mind, but I suppose I just allowed myself to be born into this supposed democratic society and only now am realizing the oppression society or maybe the government places on us as its citizens, even sometimes people that aren't our people.  

The point that shocked me most, though I believe I've heard the quote before, was the quote he stated by the founding fathers about how if men were angels government wouldn't be necessary, but because humans aren't angels, government is justified.  It's interesting because they knew all the way from the beginning that none of us were perfect, that we all sinned, but our governments full of some of the top sinners in the country.  Another interesting claim was that there had been talk of Washington being named king and the fact that he had no children, we could've added a few more wars to our tally with that scheme.  Learning the history of the electoral college was nice, how it was created to decide who was most popular out of all 13 colonies because within each colony they had their own favorites.  And the idea that they started meeting in january because back then all it's representatives were farmers, who were preoccupied the rest of the year.  Lastly, the reminder of the 3/5 rule was pretty depressing and the reminder that back when the electoral college used to pick the vice-president too, that arose in a silly duel, which caused the law to be altered that the president gets to choose his own vice-president.

Also, the whole quote about how "we shape our tools, then our tools shape us," made me think about some I, Robot or Smart House happenings.  

Class was great!!!  Not to say that Mr.Candy isn't dearly missed....