Politics, Schmolotics

I'm what some would call a "professional student." I graduated high school in 2002, and have been trying to find my way out of college ever since. By the time I graduate- God willing- this coming Summer, I will have been in school for 6 years. I will have attended both FSU and FAU. I will have spent two years undeclared, and four bouncing around between majors. I will not be a doctor, CPA, layer, etc. I will have a degree in Public Communication, and will be halfway done with degrees in Education and Recreation and Leisure Services Administration.

Point of the story is, I am trying my darnedest to get the heck out of school. This leaves me taking 5 or 6 classes a semester, and adding classes i would otherwise NEVER think about taking. The class that is the inspiration behind this blog would be POS4235, AKA Media In Politics.

Now if you know me, you know that I hate politics. If you don't know me, then I feel its only fair that I fill you in. Straight up, no filler, I HATE politics. So you can imagine the amount of joy I experience when I drive to Davie every Tuesday to sit in a room for three hours and listen to debates about the declining value of the US Dollar in comparison to the Euro or Yen, and how Structured Investment Vehicles are a form of derivatives that are collaterialized debt obligations and they are successful because they spread their financial investment risk by diversifying it. Kill. Me. Now. For me, this class is an "Interdisciplinary Elective." (I love how they use the term "elective" like its something you choose to take, instead of something you're forced to take in order to graduate on time.)

Recently, my professor (who is a dead ringer for Jeff Daniels in both resemblance and voice) was talking about how sad it is that so much of the world is ignorant to the real issues due to the approach media vehicles take to covering issues such as war, politics, finance, etc.. He said that he thinks its sad that you can't turn on CSPAN or CNN or the news anymore without hearing at least a tidbit or update on Britney or Paris Hilton or who's having whose baby. Because i'm one to speak my mind, I raised my hand to defend and voice my love for channels like E! and magazines like US Weekly, and how I'd much rather stay on top of those events because they don't depress me so badly. I'd MUCH rather read about the type of flowers Eva Longoria chose for her wedding to her Baskeball hunk, or how Halle Barry's baby daddy feels about being a baby daddy. He told me to hold that thought because it comes into play with a topic he was going to discuss later. He said don't forget what you're train of thought is, and raise your hand again when I start talking about rational ignorance.

Before I go any further, let me set the stage by describing my surroundings in this class. Its all Political Science majors who looooooove to debate and talk about all the subjects that make me want to pull out my hair strand by strand just so i'll have something to do. There are two freshmen guys in my class who are what some would call brown-nosers. To be more clear, i'm not sure where they end and the professor begins. They've taken classes with him before, and think its AWESOME to reminisce on the old times when they learned crap that is completely irrelevant to our class. If anyone asks a question or makes a statement, they look at each other, shake their heads in disgust at that person's stupidity, and laugh. I'll also disclose that my professor thinks I'm hilarious because I speak my mind and don't pretend I want to be in class, but still think its important to understand what we're learning.

So an hour or so goes by and we get back to talking about "rational ignorance." He asks me to explain why I don't like politics. I told him I don't like politics because I think its depressing. Any news coverage about political issues is nothing but negative. You never hear anything positive about anything Political. Its pissed off people being pissed off at each other, and ultimately pissing each other off more and more as time goes by. I don't like to read about it, I don't like to watch it, I don't like to talk about it. Any time i've ever had a political question or a topic that I don't understand and ask someone to explain it to me, they laugh like THOSE two over there, and I think its rude. (directed to the two:) I don't know you personally. I'm not saying you're mean, and maybe you don't realize you do it, but you laugh at EVERYONE when they speak up and its just not nice. (they since have stopped- yay!) Unless I were to spend every waking hour investigating foreign policy, campaign trail techniques, currency exchange, interest rates, stocks, bonds, hedge funds, etc, there's no way that I would have enough information to discuss anything political with anyone who knows anything about politics. I don't have a passion for it, so I choose to stay away from it all together. If its something that affects me or those around me directly, then i'm all for learning about it, but if its a situation that I can do NOTHING about, such as the National Debt, or the rise of oil prices based on the decline of the value of the US Dollar, NO THANKS! Does this make me ignorant, ABSOLUTELY, but its an ignorance that I find blissful. WONDERFULLY Blissfull. I'm all for staying up on current events in People Magazine, US Weekly, AOL.com, and so on. Wall Street Journal? Not so much. Could this opinion change in the future? Who knows. For now, I'm not a fan.

His response? (with a wow-ed look on his face and a bit of a giggle) "You really thought about that for the whole hour, didn't you?" He said it was a perfect example of rational ignorance which basically indicates that if the cost of knowing certain things is not outweighed by the benefits of knowing said information, then we choose to remain ignorant. I'm a rational person, and I'm totally politically ignorant. I love it. If you don't agree, that's fine! I will love you no less. Agree to disagree. In the meantime, we've come to an agreement in my Media In Politics class. When the professor looks over and sees me making a "what the heck are you talking about" face (which I evidently do involuntarily), he breaks it down into terms that the rationally ignorant can understand. I've been thanked by a few other girls in my class. My professor gets a funny smile on his face when I raise my hand now. Its sort of like his face is saying "oh goodness, here we go." I fully intend to learn in this class. Maybe it will teach me something awesome, maybe it will teach me to look at things more objectively, or from a different perspective. In the meantime, I'll continue to spend 1-4pm on Tuesdays texting friends, daydreaming, and doodling in the margins of my notebook as I fill it with terms that make my brain hurt (and that I'm undoubtedly misspelling while taking notes!)