In class the other day, we got our midterm exams back. The professor gave us some time in class to correct our answers so we could go over them as a class. One of the questions was a “define this term, then explain how it works” kind of thing. As we went over the answers, as usual, our professor got sidetracked and gave us all a life tip.

He explained (I’m paraphrasing here) that if a question starts with a term, define the fuck out of it. If you don’t, you’re basically telling the person grading the answer that, right off the bat, you have no idea what you’re talking about. This takes away from your argument and you look like an idiot.

He’s right. Sometimes I’ll answer a question without defining the terms right at the beginning, and halfway through I’ll realize I’m just bullshitting. It hasn’t hurt me too much just yet, but I’m getting to the point where I actually need to know what I’m talking about.

But until then, I’ll stick with the bullshit.

Upon my arrival to class today, I was holding the Time Magazine I had received in the mail this morning. I sat down and flipped through a few pages, and as I did, my professor inquired if there was “anything relevant to the class in there.” I said maybe, and that I hadn’t really looked at it yet. He then asked, “what is that, People magazine?” to which I replied, “hahaha what!?” This led to a five minute conversation between me and my professor which ended with a brief critical analysis of how Time Magazine keeps commercial readers while still appealing to intellectual readers.

Soon after, my backpack exploded as he started lecturing and I dug out my notebook, textbook, and pen. After class lecture, my fellow students filed out of the room while I still rushed to jam my shit back into my bag.

I ended up being the last person to leave, and my professor asked what my major was. I told him it was English and he replied that it was “real important stuff.” Because obviously, unlike economists, English majors do important things that matter. All elitism aside, he asked me who my favorite author was and it being a monday and all, I blanked. I just completely lost any thoughts that were swimming around my head. I said that, “I really like F. Scott Fitzgerald” because I do, and then I said “Tolstoy” like a moron. In reality, I have read about ten pages of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. I really did like those ten pages, though, and I meant what I said. My professor asked if I had ever read anything by Dostoyevsky, and I said no, but they’re on my list of books I need to read (which they are). He told me to check out The Brothers Karamazov, which I have on my bookshelf. I said I would, and headed to lunch.

Long story short, I’m considering this my new homework assignment for my economics class, which is weird considering that other than this class, I have books to read in every other class I’m taking.

I have a feeling I’ll probably finish the Dostoyevsky before any other ones I’m supposed to read.

I’m a 20 year old girl. I just bought these sneakers. They’re a boy’s size 3.
THEY LIGHT UP.

BEST PURCHASE EVER.

In class Wednesday, my Professor went on a rant about how most Americans are in debt up to their eyeballs without a plan to get rid of personal debt.

We’re a country of people with no way out.

Does our government reflect that? Does all that national debt reflect the fact that we’re a nation of shopaholics who consume, consume, consume with little thought about the impact we’re having on our own lives?

Forget about the impact on the environment and everything else for a moment.

I try to buy organic, local foods. I try to support small businesses. I really do. But I realized that if we don’t save ourselves from debt, we’ll never save the America that makes economic sense. That’s just the way it is, but that’s not how it should be.

We’re a free country. That means free to buy products from the places you want. With giant corporations owning most of the business for food, how is that freedom?

If you haven’t watched Food, Inc yet, you need to. It’s a huge wake-up call for the average American consumer. And that’s kind of what we need - a gigantic, country-wide shock to jolt us awake. We’ve been asleep for years, and now corporations like the ones that run the food industry can spend their hundreds of millions of dollars on campaign ads for candidates who support their lobbies.

So…who’s going to set the alarm, eh?

Today, my professor was discussing the neoclassical, natural law version of the supply/demand model in comparison to the heterodox, socially influenced one. He was criticizing the naturalization of a man-made and man-regulated economy when he said that we should all be wary of anything in the news justified because it is “natural.”

The first thing that came to mind was the argument against global warming as climate change. That kind of thing is exactly the naturalization of a synthetic issue. There’s scientific evidence that the 19th Century industrial revolution had a significant effect on the environment and the ecosystems surrounding the polluted centers. Hell, even without science we can see the way humans have changed the natural world (i.e. the Exxon Valdez, dolphins in tuna nets, animals with their heads stuck in those plastic 6-pack rings, etc, etc).

It makes sense to me now that the opposition to global warming is that it’s a natural thing. The easiest way to justify doing nothing is to say, “nah, it’s cool, it’ll just fix it self like it usually does.”

And THAT reminds me of this old joke from elementary school:

This guy is in a bar and he sees this hot young lady with blond hair. He walks up to her and asks, “Is your hair dyed?” She says, “It’s natural.” and brushes her hair with her hand.
Later, he sees a hot brunette and asks her, “Is your hair natural?” She says the same as the blond.
Suddenly, he sees a hot girl with green hair. He asks, “Is your hair dyed?” She pushes her hand over her nose, covers it with boogers, wipes it in her hair and says, “It’s natural.”

No, it’s snot.

The food here is bad.
Explosive diarrhea
because it’s so bad.

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You know what sucks dick?
Neoclassical style.
Stop studying it.

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Yesterday, in my economics class, this guy started arguing that people have an intrinsic need to want. That people are born wanting to do nothing more than consume. In this way, advertising and other influences from the media do nothing to make a person want something more. They just want it.

The professor started arguing with him, asking the student how long advertising has been around. Turns out that, in the course of all humanity, advertising has been around for a fraction of the time that people have walked the earth.
He then mentioned that the first people were hunter-gatherers that worked in a team to share everything that they could kill just to stay alive. They didn’t have possessions, they just had relationships and what they needed to survive. He explained that the communal living of early human tribes were the basis of what humans intrinsically need or want.

The whole time this is happening, I’m in the back of the room with my mouth agape. Normally I’m the person who argues with the student who says anything like this in class. Yeah, I’m that douchebag. But this guy, with a doctorate and a nice suit, just completely leveled this kid. At best, I would have kicked him in the shins and run away. At best. His was a completely rational argument based in reality and there was no way to rebut it.
It may not be economics, but I think I can learn a lot from this guy.

Rain drips off the roof
on the air conditioner.
drip drip drip drip drip.

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Spring break is here! Joy!
Until I get the clap or
some other V. D.

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