Busy, busy, dizzy, dizzy

05.13.2003

This whole week I feel like I've fallen behind. I'm busy all the time. It just doesn't seem like I'm getting much done. And I've slacked off in my blogging &mdash both posting and reading.

This is how far out of the loop I am.

I'm sitting at the Fourth Coast, pouring over David Held's Models of Democracy when the girl next to me suddenly blurts out: "Have you heard about" and mentions some guy's name (I can't even recall it now) and adds "don't you think that's bullshit?"

Caught totally off guard. Huh? What? I've no idea what you're talking crazy girl (I think that in my head, not out loud). She continues "I see you're reading about democracy, so I thought you might be interested." Then starts a modified version of the standard Indymedia.org-inspired tirades. Oh, great, one of those. I try desperately not to roll my eyes.

When in doubt, always fall back on elenchos — Socratic method.

I concede that I don't know about the situation she's referring to; she caught me totally off guard. But I don't want to be an asshole, and she seems to be genuinely interested and curious. So I ask her what she means by "democracy" and what "justice" means to her. We take it from there.

We end up w/ a brief synopsis of modern democratic theory. She asks me for a book recommendation — and my eyes light up. I don't even have to think about it: Robert Dahl, On Democracy. He's my favorite democratic theorist, and writes in a very approachable style.

Those little conversations really turn my day around. They remind me how much I love teaching and, at the same time, help me pretend my life's work is valuable in the "real" world. This week I also helped a K College student w/ a research paper on electoral and party systems. Book recommendation: Giovanni Sartori, Comparative Constitutional Engineering.

OK, I'm rambling and making little sense. Back to work. I still have to compile a list of all democratic theorists who are Berkeley PhD graduates from 1960 to present and read through several chapters of a manuscript someone in my department is sending for publication.

The transfer of my music library to mp3 format is going slower than anticipated. I'm only halfway through "H" — downloaded my His Name Is Alive collection last night.

Posted by Miguel at 09:15 PM

Comments

His name's Josh Dahl.

Love,
Micah

Posted by: Micah at May 14, 2003 02:50 AM


Well, you don't know how much YOU have helped me get a headstart on political science. A huge part depends on who you learn things from. Everything flows from there. Never doubt that you're valuable to a lot of people! = )

Posted by: Stephanie at May 14, 2003 09:41 AM