It's Smartifying!

Remind Me to Post About Libertarianism

Miranda — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:03:15 +0000

Evidently, I find politics too boring to learn about because I’ve been having a hard time kicking my butt into gear on this whole election thing. Time is running out, though, and I have more questions. Like who is this Sarah Palin chick, and why does everyone seem to hate her? I know that she has a mentally challenged kid and that she’s anti-abortion because one of my favourite bloggers wrote about her stance on special ed, but I don’t know how she came to be part of the election (is Alaska even a part of the US?! … haha. kidding! kidding!).

I need to re-think the logistics of this blog if I am ever going to post again. I am always learning about new things that I think would be interesting to discuss here, but I keep putting it off because I haven’t written about Hilary and Obama. I will still do my best to fight through my own prejudices against the election (it’s sooo boring and I feel guilty about not researching our upcoming Canadian election), but I want to write about other things in between. Like the fact that I learned what a Libertarian is tonight.

The American Election – Especially Clinton vs. Obama

Miranda — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:42:17 +0000

Here’s what I currently think I know about the election:

Obama and Clinton are running – potentially the first black or female president
There was some controversy recently about the way they were thinking about counting Hilary’s votes?
Obama won something or other, bumping Clinton out of the line for presidency
Clinton might get to be Obama’s right hand woman, or something. VP? I have no idea.
Obama and Clinton are Democrats
If I was an American, I would be a Democrat
The election is in 2009 (possibly January?)
There’s no way Bush can be voted back into office because he served his two terms

What I don’t understand about the current election:

I don’t know who else is running, or what anyone’s platform is.
I don’t know why they are doing all of this pre-voting stuff, and why I’ve only heard about Obama and Clinton, but no one else.
How the election itself takes place.
How the American government is run in general.
What, if anything, Hilary and Obama have to do with a small town in New Hampshire called Unity.

Smartify Me!

Miranda — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:00:26 +0000

My biggest character flaw is my lack of curiosity. Actually, that’s only partially true. My biggest character flaws – plural – are my lack of curiosity, my laziness, and my self-centeredness. Unless something is of particular interest to me, or impacts me in some direct way, I do not care to know about it. It doesn’t matter what it is – god, philosophy, politics, geography, current events, sports, the people I see every day – I just don’t want to learn more. If I didn’t already know better, you could tell me the earth was flat and, because I’m not interested in the shape of our planet (mainly because I don’t see its direct relevance to my life), I wouldn’t think to question it. I certainly wouldn’t think to discuss it with other people.

What I’m trying to say, in a round about way, is that I am not very smart. Maybe it’s just that I am not well-informed, but the effect is the same; I spend a lot of my time feeling like an idiot. When you know virtually nothing about the world around you, it makes you feel very left out when you’re interacting with other people who do.

I was in Tim Horton’s this evening when an older British gentleman with a long white beard smacked a gigantic atlas on the counter beside me and said “Where is everywhere?” I smiled and gave a little giggle because the joke was clever and the old guy was kind of amusing (also because that’s what I do when I’m feeling uncomfortable and a stranger is talking to me). Then Beardy said something about Obama and Clinton and suddenly I didn’t find him very amusing anymore. I know nothing about politics, so I just kind of stood there, smiling like a moron, while he talked about the Democrats (truthfully, I don’t really know what a Democrat is, although I suspect they are a left wing political party judging by what I’ve seen on sitcoms). He said he couldn’t find a little town (Unity?) in New Hampshire in his atlas, and he asked me for the name of another map where he could find it. I think he was trying to make a joke, but I was not following at all. I replied “the internet!” with a huge shit-eating grin on my face because I was sure that wasn’t the answer he was looking for but I didn’t have another one for him. Har har har. I’m not ignorant – I’m just being funny! In retrospect, I probably could have just said “I don’t know”, and I would have looked like less of an asshole. Anyway, around this time, the cashier gave me my Timbits, and I booked ‘er out of there. On my way out, I heard Beardy say something to the nice Tim Horton’s lady about Oxford. Yeeeeee!

Now, truthfully, I don’t care about the American election and I don’t really have any desire to research what a little town (possibly called Unity) in New Hampshire has to do with Clinton, Obama, or an Atlas (Oxford or otherwise). But, I do care about my bruised ego, and the fact that I really am kind of an ignoramus. It was during my shameful, 10-minute walk home from Tim Horton’s that this journal was born. I got to thinking about what might make learning about boring things like politics interesting to my lazy, apathetic, self-important soul and I think blogging is the answer.

Every week, I will start with a topic. This week, for example, I will cover the American election. I’ll tell you what I currently know about the topic at hand, and during the week (maybe at the end of the week?), I’ll tell you what I learned. In the meantime, I would love it if you guys could help guide my research by telling me what you know, what kind of questions I should be asking, whether or not I have a true understanding of the issue, etc. etc. Help to smartify me! Also, if you have any suggestions for topics, I am all ears! Here’s what I have so far: the American election, Darfur, and the philosphy of Nietzsche.