International Relations was a parade of facepalms today. First, one girl was unable to grasp why Germany didn't embrace an idealistic view of international relations following the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles. "But why wouldn't they want aid? Wouldn't they be happy to cooperate?" Perhaps because they were just stomped into the ground and didn't want to take a hand up from the same people that did it to them? Another guy claimed that Iceland was demilitarized and then mentioned that they had a small military, at which point I lost four brain cells. On the lecture slides, one or two slides about realist theory were followed by five slides of "critique" of that theory. One of these included the word "actually," which smacks of a statement of fact rather than a simple critique. The problem is that realism (in this context) posits that the world is in a state of anarchy, with individual states and other actors acting autonomously and in their own self-interest, essentially dismissing international relations as a facade. Hence, it's in Professor Ogden's interest to try and discount it as a theory and espouse liberalism, a theory emphasizing community, connectivity and a trend toward peace. MPT started out great, with Professor Lovely bumping "Sympathy for the Devil" on his boombox as an intro to our discussion on Machiavelli. The rest of class was less enjoyable, as he sort of blew me off for the rest of our time and I never got to make a significant contribution to the talk.
I ran into Esther on the way to the dining hall, another person I hadn't seen around. Alaric and I had a very brief wrestling match which I ended with a leg drop; more scuffles may be on the horizon. For the rest of the evening we played Mario Kart, attempting to beat all the Cups; as Mario and Luigi (though I tend to start off as Wario) we made it all the way to Boo Mansion before I ragequit.
Quotes of the day:
"It was the Italians who taught the French how to cook. I just want that on record." - Professor Lovely
"Cesare Borgia's mother was not my lover..." - Professor Lovely, singing to "Billie Jean"
"Right when that Spotify ad came on about how certain ingredients 'ignite your life,' I was reading about the flammability of ethanol and oxygen and I freaked out a little bit." - Sean
"Feel free to chat, I'm just not gonna answer. Or listen." - Sabrina
"It's the Jarate-colored stuff in the fridge." - Sean
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