individuality has been stripped from you in order that you be managed - Professor MacIsaac

I'm trying something new here, blogging about my vlogs. It's something Charlie (of charlieissocoollike fame) does, and I think it's a pretty good idea. We'll how it goes.

I wanted to go into a little bit more detail about my first class. One of the other things that my prof, Professor MacIsaac, said was, (and I quote) "All individuality has been stripped from you in order that you be managed." This is not okay. This is the fault of the beaurocracy, and this is how computers run our lives. I am a number, in both the Canadian and American school systems (because I took an American standardized test in the spring). I am compartmentalised into a number and a letter grade, in order that the people who are important (my superiors in the university, my future employers, all the way up to the government) can fully understand who I am. But this is not true! I am more than a number and a letter grade, and that is why I am taking this course. I'm basically taking a great books course, where we will study primary texts and try to understand the world as it is.

The difference between science now, and science before the Enlightenment in Europe, is that we now want to understand how the world works and how we can change it to better serve our desires, whereas before the Enlightenment, people wanted to understand how the world works in order that they might understand what it means to be human in this place we call home. That is why it didn't matter about things like nuclear fission etc. Science was no more practical than philosophy, and sometimes the lines between the two blurred.

And I'd really like to have lived then, even if, as a woman, I wouldn't have been allowed to participate in the excitement that was the new discoveries.

Secondly, I'd like to state: I am usually pretty good at directions, but I am totally lost on campus. I wouldn't even be able to find my classes without Alanna's help. But I'm really excited to be out on my own in Ottawa, and I'm sure I'll get better at finding my way around, soon.

And now, I am going to go be social, because there are two interesting people behind me who I am ignoring that I should talk to.

DFTBA,
jr