Return to lecture list.DAY 2: Orientation & What is politics?
January 26. Anybody here ever serve jury duty? They are now doing all this with the computer. The judge has the monitor in front of him. And so it's the same kind of thing. That goes on in the courtroom the judges reading along. So we're getting some real experiencing what the judicial system is like before we have the system discussed in class. You had an opportunity hopefully to examine the required materials for the course. I spoke a little about some of it on Thursday last week I spoke about the interfaces talk a little about the exams last week as well do you have any other questions now that you have had a chance to examine the materials that need to be clarified either on the interface or the exams or anything else on the sheets? Please don't hesitate to ask I got a couple of good ones. Did anybody come across the error that I screwed up on the Green Sheet".,' An error there on the Green sheet. On the page two, Now of course you wouldn't have found this error unless you decided to go up and check out interfaces because there is a web site listed for the interfaces. The link is incorrect, and I don't know why I did that it's actually the form that is used for the on-line course. You see it where about halfway down it's about four sentences there and it gives you a web site. All right. Just cross that out. I'll get you how to get there but that one is wrong. That doesn't get you there it gets you to a strange form. I not all of you care because your not going to be using the web site and I didn't no it. I was caught by one of my students in my Monday Wednesday class and I'm glad she did.
I still have not been able to figure out why I did that but sorry. But the fact that I got to watch what I say. This is all being literally recorded here. I don't have to testify in court. I might lose my position you know why I never entered politics and ran for office and I finally got an answer. I've never had an affair. I told you that, right? Didn't I tell you that last time? So I got this now that you got that on paper I can go on. Okay. Um, once again I think I described how to get up there in any case how to get to the interfaces on-line and that is simply go to one of three sites that are listed on the calendar, And hit about my courses. It's on the calendar the blue sheet right on the first page you see there's a listing of three sites. Okay. Go to about my courses. You'll see About Me, About My Family About My Courses you click there it will take you to a site that has political science on-line andwestern civ. You know you're not in the OnLine course; you know you're not western civ, so you click on political science. Then any place the word interface appears in the material there, it will be in blue which is a link anytime you see blue it should be a link you click on that blue link and it will take you to the interface page. So that should not be a major problem. We talked about it last time. Once again as I indicated there are even if you're not sending your interface forms in that way there are example exams that you can at least take a look at it to got a better feel for the exams. Did anybody do that yet? Just curious. Okay. Um, and I've got to remember and if anybody wants to E-mail me I've got to bring you in the site that will, list as a dictionary for political science words for those that may want to get using it. Did I mention that? But I can tell you how to get there. Um, in any case In case I forget again. You go to the on-line course. Click on the calendar. And under the calendar there's a list of the weeks. Click on week one and week one has a bunch of general political science sites to go to. Well I think that covers that element but I made that correction. Any other questions anybody can think of? Any questions about the term paper? what term paper? There isn't a term paper. I just wanted to see how thoroughly you did read it if you wet your pants a few times, got you all upset and that. I had to wake you up to see. I know that was nasty. I'm sorry. Monday; it's raining out, you know; it's Tuesday, sorry. I don't entertain any questions after this. Okay I have a question. Well, then I've got a couple of things I do want to talk about. Before getting into your pillow assignments. Yes I know, please don't misinterpret. I said to talk about taking notes from me. First, I will indicated to you that I talk rapidly. So I didn't talk about taking notes last time, just to be sure because I'm teaching five classes so I want to be sure. Since you don't have court reporters who were going to -- by the way -- So why don't I slow down. WhichI'm doing somewhat now. The reality of the situation is I've tried to speak slower. I find that it's very difficultfor me especially since I think very fast. I'm trying tokeep up with what I'm trying to think and if I slow downthen my thinking is ahead of my speech and I start stuttering. I start losing track over what I'm sayingbecause I don't know what I'm saying because I'm thinkingabout what I'm thinking to say in the future and so based on that I don't like slowing down because I don't get a good in besides if I slow down you understand what I'm saying you realize I'm not saying anything, but if I say it fast itsounds important so I will continue to speak rapidly howeverworried about realize that it really isn't that difficult totake notes from me because I repeat myself very often. I say things over and over again. And let's face it if I'msaying something for the first time I should be telling youthat that's important enough to open your notebook why elsewould I even say it for the tenth time. And so please if I start repeating it please be aware that it is importantenough or I won't be repeating it but it certainly is enough to me to make me repeat it so that you put it in your notesso that's the time to decide to put it in your notes. Now Imay say it different ways. I'm being redundant. I'm repeating myself. The fact is you know it's still the samematerial, just said differently so you may have to put it inyour own words you like teachers and give it to you and feed it to you like you're like I have to butter the bread of my16-year old but the fact is I don't want to do this. I wantit to go from your notes. So when I repeat, open yournotebook and put if.in. Do I knee to repeat that? Allright. What else? What if I don't think it's important or I don't repeat myself? Is it important? The answer is maybe. So how do you do that one? How do you take notes on
maybes. If. you think something is interesting and hopefully
some things do get interesting once in a while, then it is
my suggestion traditionally to put it in your notes if it's
interesting to you but you say well you're not going to test
on this I'm only here because I need the American
institution requirement. where do you take notes in the
text book? Well some things may be underlined however,
again say the same thing you take your notes of the material
in the text you find interesting. Well what if I can't use
it the same thing good students that Size it they apply it
to the essay questions. How do you take the notes? Well
you could do that and that's on the margins or underlining
with a pencil or pen. My suggestion is if you like to use a
high lighter or colored pens they now have them on the
pencil on the other side which give you the option and
making comments. It stays in your mind. I hate books that
have small margins. Books with big margins are fun or you
can use note paper. They make notes and some people outline
the chapters but you can't do it with a yellow pen. Any
questions about taking notes using the text book? Well
then, let's touch on me a little. Why? Well I think it's
important to understand a professor, the philosophy, and how
to work and how to study and I also like to sermonize from.
time to time as a indicated on my green sheet one of. the
sermons I give to my kids and it certainly worked for me is
I never want to hear from them they did badly in the course
because the teacher was terrible. Did T mention this last
time? I think it's a stupidest excuse. In this case, what
am I saying to you? I'm saying basically I don't really
want somebody in the classroom that I had a few years ago
who after the final exam was over they came up to me and
said I've hated your course and I wanted to punch you in the
nose. I mean if you don't like me, take somebody who is
likable, like Dr. Dewitt. Or Mrs. Hanna, I don't care. But
at least I can warn you why you shouldn't like me and then
it won't matter because then you know why I do things. And
that maybe you'll do better in course you no it's my problem
not yourself and are not too make it your problem. I see
something, I immediately react and I say something. Don't
let it impact your study. However more important, generally
for any course is communication. And sometimes cultural
differences mean different communication. Many of you come
from different cultures which was implying before when I
talked about Utah where -ou have a dramatic -- it's nice.
It's nice to have people from different cultures and
learning about them. And I keep learning. And yet,
although, 1 think we have more in common. I also hate it
when those educational people talk about different cultures
because of the differences there is so much in common that
we have because of the diversity in cultures. And one of
them is a sense of humor. Humans do have it, but it's not
cultural as much as it is important. There are people who
have no humor. Okay and then there are people who wear
their sense over humor are based on canned jokes they have
to send them over the internet. Then there are people who
have spontaneous humor. Then what I'm saying is we
interpret things and that's a problem sometimes because you
hear me say things I don't think I said. And then I say
things from my perspective and it's not coming out
correctly. I really do think it's important that if you're
not sure what I'm saying or you're misinterpreting, please
ask. I will go out of the my way to try and explain what
I'm trying to say. Well I was pretty smooth not on halfway
though.		The problem, I learn in my first year of, teaching
that communication or what you say can get you in trouble
even though you didn't say it. I was teaching. I was 21
years old teaching high school, which means that I had
seventeen/ eighteen year olds in the class. I told you
that's why I have this Mr. Kirshner, call me Alan. In any
case I'm there about three/ four weeks and I hear through
the scholar from the rumor mill that Mr. Kirshner knocked up
this woman in Europe. Well I said oh, my God, who's
Mr. Kirshner? I knew it wasn't true, but students, you
know how they interpret things because I think I'm the only
guy ever to walk through the Pegale section of Paris and not get proposition by one -- and not one prostitute propositioned me, Not that is a real downer. I could only rationalize that they thought I was gay. At least, I now had an excuse--rationale.
Um, so I wanted to search out what happened to try and straighten it away. I was able to search it. I had seen the principal had assigned me a slow learner group, but it was a slower learner group but they were emotionally disturbed, There may be times you feel I'm drawing dirty pictures, once in awhile I may actually draw, however, most of the time it's miscommunication. So let ask me what I'm trying to say so that we don't have the miscommunication and we can try, and in a sense, educate you. Okay?
Well, I told you what the class is about 1 warned you about
what you need to watch out for. Me. Is there any other
questions or materials that you need me to cover before we
go to your pillows? All right.
Will you take out the pillow assignment and pass it forward
please? All right. i guess the number one question is why
do you think i gave you this assignment? it says in the
book because -- Anyway, like the tag on the pillow so it
kind of political science because like the government
monitoring our pillows or something. Did you write your
paper or did you? i read the book after, so my paper's
really stupid. Oh, good. i like the stupid ones. Why else
might i have given you the assignment? To make us think.
See how good college students we think. Think about what?
Your pillows? What am i making you think about? Like go
beyond what you usually think of a pillow is for. To think
about what? What was the topic that we just said that made
you think about besides the symboliom? The cubjoct you had
to think about was politics. You had to. Why? Because the
question was how was your pillow -- how is your pillow
political? So obviously what you're having to think about
is my pillow political? You have to think about politics.
if you didn't you couldn't answer the question. How many
have you looked up the word politics in the dictionary or in
the book? I knew it wouldn't, but at least you did at least
your approaching it from the right way, right? Because so i
could have said think about politics, but this way you were
forced into a strange assignment. Why else? Maybe because
if your pillow can be political, you can kind of draw a
parallel to anythinq that we come in contact with?
Possibly.		Probably be more you probably could find it
easier on a soda can, but yeah, the taxes. Um, which is a
common commentary too we'll talk about in a minute. Why
else might		I have given you the assignment? Well,
anybody?
Yeah !'!I tell you a couple of reasons. One, it's your
first essay assignment. We said that this gives you an
opportunity -- I've had two before but never three. I
think through the papers, at points that you may have made
here at least I can make some comments that might be useful
for you for future essays. By the way, I can't grade this
paper right now. Why? Or I shouldn't be able to with you I
could grade it in about three weeks. Not the same paper but
if I gave you the assignment I could probably grade it. Why
would I not be able to grade it now but in three weeks?
Because it		wouldn't be fair to grade us on a before you've
taken the course at all. Well I think you're right. It's
not fair to grade you on your opinion. So you didn't get
term. in order, I can always ask however what am I grading
on? I can		only grade on what you've showed me you've
learned whether you really learned it or not because at
least I can grade on term from the textbooks or from what
you learn or from my lectures and that's it. I think I made
that point		last time. Talk about example of an essay
question:		Do you believe in democracy? Explain. Anybody
here can write that now but I couldn't grade you on it. Any
one of you		can sit down and probably do I believe and
probably democracy -J-- government of the peop-le by t he
people, and for the people go through that kind of stuff but
it's not going to help you to know at least any thing of
what you may have gotten out of the text or sources or you
knew, my own lectures- -~and --c so the concept here was to
tri, and structure this in such a way to arve yrou in
developing an escape question and of course in a question how is
your pillow political?
What that's to be there in any essay on? You
need to define politics.
know how You're relating to your pillow to it if u do
provide me with some sort of a definition which I'm
basically saying is I will believe you at some point four,
five, six, seven, anything the text
book gives you. See, a
couple by showing you are known later in the course then
you're showing me yed something. Today. now you
you've could make your analogy based on the shape of the
flag or whatever and I'm., not grading it but if You would do
be fully acceptable.
trying to say? So what's another reason I gave it to you
just to let you
Is that you u.-der--t--nd what I'm
know there are reasons behind .-yr M--dnoss .
I'm always interested to see and it occurs every semester in
every class the number of people that are negative about
politics and the number that are positive. In other words,
your reaction to politics does can you through the way you
write it and it's interesting to me that the reactions to
from students change from year to year or sometimes maybe
two years it's a grouping. Sometimes more students are
negative and sometimes more are positive. And I think it
has a lot to do with the atmosphere out here. Despite all
of the well, I was going to say crap but I probably think
it's my feeling that's going on in Washington at the present
time. The fact is that most of the students have been more
positive over the last year than negative. And yet the
system we could argue may be seen negatively, but why? I
think the answer to me is fairly simple. We have a good
economic system. Jobs are available and I think therefore
we feel better about our lives and therefore possibly we're
thanking Clinton. But there's no doubt in my mind that his
high popularity rating is due to the fact that Americans are
pretty satisfied with the system in the United States and
we're not fearful of the major enemy like the Soviet Union
we may not like Iraq, but I don't think they scare the hell
out of us the way the Soviet Union did when it existed. And
so we're sitting pretty positive, but I really do feel that
if the economy were poor right now, Clinton would be out of
the office. His popularity rating would not be 66 percent
during this crises. I mean he would be gone. When the
economy dropped, Bill Clinton got elected. George Bush had
the highest rating after the Gulf War, after Desert Storm.
After full- examination of pillow, I discovered that the only
things that make it political. are the pinstrips and the
tag. I feel the stripes are political because all my other
pillows don't have them. I think they are more liberal.
And that's it. Why are stripes m.ore liberal? I don't ask
the person. I don't have to call on him but if I were
writing this as a test question for reading that is all
right. Now what makes a stripe liberal or not? I'm still
thinking about that. Color of the stripes? If the stripes
were red I suppose they're like communist. Am I wearing
stripes today? I don't know. So answers need such basis.
How can did this person describe politics? As to whether
pillows have stripes or not? So again we're not filling out
an answer here.
As I sit here and look at my old white pillow only one thing
comes to mind: Sleep, However, 1 was able to come up with
one reason why my pillow is political. Whenever I go to bed
I place my pillow on the left side. When I wake up, it is
shifted to the right side. Therefore, telling me it has a
political right side View, T myself being a liberal would
like to stay to the left. Even the center, but my pillow
definitely takes a conservative position on my bed. That is
why I feel my pillow is political. Well we seem to have a
liberal conservative element to the sides of the pillow and
the stripes. Actually, I can't really tell if they're
negative or positive which usually becomes pretty obvious. I
guess the pillow describes primary role for which is to rest
my head. To make my resting or sleeping habits
comfortable. It goes through physical changes as the time
of usage goes -- is this one positive or negative? I'd say
negative. No, I think it's positive. Why? Because that's
like being the head comfortable if it shifts based on your
needs that's pretty much a positive statement about
politics. A pillow looks all right before T pull the covers
off. After I put it off the covers my pillow looked thin.
And I when I pressed or poked on one side, the other or
opposite side went up or raised. I can tell the pillow is
the government. It looked pretty balanced when the cover
was pulled off I saw that the pillow really looked like what
the real pillow really looked like when stress on one issue
other problems come out of it. Maybe like what happened in
the Paula Jones lawsuit. All right. What's it was going
all right I'm sorry if I start thinking about these things
of somebody puffing on a pillow and Paula Jones P-A-U-L-A
J-0-N-E-S-. Oh, okay they continue. I should have read
further. Monica Lewinsky came out when you poked Paula
Jones which was true if the Paula Jones lawsuit had been
settled before Monica Lewinsky having to be brought into
case. And so the whole matter came out because they had
refused to settle the Paula Jones case. Maybe it's that
when democrats brought up an issue the republicans reacted.
They poked in the pillow the opposite side went up. You
sort of actually see a few of the Wougo once you will
covoro you have lining it's not perfect at capital hill. My
pillow is made of feathers. And out of the cloth layer
which it's the earth's in some noise my pillow is very and
other nights I'd rather not have a pillow. The government
is made up of the president, the pillow manufacturing plant
the legislature the feathers. And everything put together
makes up of government. The requirement of the pillow
sometimes our government makes us feel comfort and helpless.
And angry in the pillow. Personally and honestly I have no
idea how this pillow ~- politico but I try. Will Soo some
interesting onoo. It's interesting. This class had more
commentary relating to the tags then any of the other
clasooo. How many of you saw tags on your pillows? Not
that one of my classes I had almost half the class and they
didn't write on the tags. So this class apparently more did
many here one that we wont on. Under the penalty of the law
it was not to be removed except by the consumer. it went on
to describe the type of the pillow, it's size and the
registered number and the name and address and the
manufacturer were also stated on the tag etcetera.
In many cases, in one way or another, you the people, the
voter, consumer, determine that the government should == in
reality it's thought the laws it's the indirect element of
the law who regulates things in this country the government
the law? Yeah. But who within the government generally?
The regulatory agencies. What's an example of a regulatory
-- the F-D.A. Food drug administration. What else? What's
another agency? FBI form of a regulatory -- in other words,
any of those letter bureaus with bureaucrats. Politicians
aren't bureaucrats because they're elected official is part
of the term ment employee's of government. They have civil
service status which is sort of like tenure though to get
rid of and they internet the laws and they determine there
are too many regulations that you get placed on things so
with the pillow then gets regulated because we decide we
want certain things or politicians -- this will -- hey this
will be a great idea. They'll get me votes. Example, last
week, did I mention in Livermore the library case because of
the pornography in the internet in this class? Last week a
judge who I have to teach here political science for a while
um, George Hernandez he lives here in Fremont, who is the
judge presiding in the case. A woman in Livermore sued the
Livermore library because they do not have a blocker on the
internet and her fourteen year old son went to the library
and looked up pornography and now she says he's got a
pornographic hang up and so she sued to have the library put
blockers on it. The library has argued that number one, a
federal court ruling years a number of years ago said that
they were not allowed to put blockers on because blockers
would cut out words like breast and that means that a patron
could not look up breast cancer and number two, the head
librarian this is a parental upon not yours we have to serve
the public. Okay? And the judge bought it and threw the
case out, However, two politicians, one was from South
Carolina, one was from another southern state -- democrats
in this case so you this somewhere and they have introduced
it to legislation last week. To have the federal government
cut off all fundings to any library that does not put a
blocker at one computer. Okay? Now note they couldn't or
the city of Livermore in the state of the California to
block it because they could cut off federal funds and said
we don't have any federal funds anyway but the point to be
made is that politicians got concerned because some people
are concerned and then they introduce and sooner or later we
will have an agency that is going to check on libraries to
see if they've got blocking. But don't they also claim
that's unconstitutional? It might go -- the law might go to
the courts they attempted to put a blocker on the internet
through very comprehensive internet law that will make
searching of certain sites, even abortion, pornographic and
that was thrown out by the federal courts. But that doesn't
mean it always gets thrown out. The interpret again what
the courts do with it so it's sometimes irrelevant to the
politians because they're often creating things sometime
what the people want. We don't want rat hair in our hot
dogs, so we pass laws to make sure there's an agency that
checks the meat. The F-D.A. But then again most of us
might not care about internet pornography. Obviously child
pornography is regulated anyway by our child pornography
laws had arisen the United States. In fact, that happened
in oh, we got another switch. That happened in Milpitas
recently. A couple -- in because they were selling over the
internet pictures of animals having sex with humans -- but
that was is Milpitas. They were not tried in Milpitas. They
were tried in Tennessee because it went interstate and it
was the supreme court has generally ruled that communities
have certain standards and in those communities if those
standards are not violated it's not considered pornographic.
So I guess it will be pornographic and not in Milpitas. So
they took the case. I'm serious, they took the case to
Tennessee. Is there anything that you can think of that has
not been regulated or is not presently regulated by a
government agency or bylaw? Breathing. Well, no. That's a
legitimate statement. Is your breathing regulated? well
your personal because the air that you are breathing is by
air pollution it's not one to be kidding about it's a
serious answer. They can't regulate how you breathe
necessarily, um, but they he can regulate the air and they
do. Any other that you can think of? Thinking? Yeah we
can't regulate thinking. Not yet. Give us some time, but
we certainly can regulate what goes into your thinking and
in the sense of the information that you get sometimes such
as controlling the internet or controlling pornography or we
certainly can pass laws which we have regulating the action
on your thinking, but at this point they have not regulated
thinking, and so, yeah, that's basically valid, There's
one. Anything else? Freedom of speech? Oh, freedom of
speech is very regulated. You have a certain level of
freedom of speech, but for example, a friend of mine -- it
cost him $50 to go tell his landlady -- you could say F- the
draft because it's political. Political speech usually is
not regulated unless of course your free speech and/or
slanderous or libelous depending. Writing versus verbal. So
you have free speech to a limit. In fact there are many
schools where the speech does not exist free. It's called
harassment. An example, if you were to make comments in
some schools they have passed legislation that if you make
derogatory comments that's considered harassment of the
interfering with their ability to learn and those people are
expelled from college. It's crazy. Well I think it is
because I think I'd rather have that knowledge known that
there are people that have those feelings. I think it's far
better than to have that information out than not to have
people believe. I talked to you last time about the woman in
my class was the skinhead? No? Oh, a few years ago I had a
woman in the class who was a skinhead. She would interiect
in the classroom all the time about how blacks (African
Americans, whatever) she didn't use either of those terms.
She felt that's all blacks were good for was being slaves
and that way they could do the manual labor and that way
they did the labor then we wouldnit need the Mexicans then
we could sent them back across the border. And I'm going
nuts. I want to kill this woman literally. I want to throw
her out, but the students obviously exploded. It was good.
It was a nice and change didn't stop her, but I think it's
an awakening to realize that there are people who think like
that. I think as educationally sound and then you begin to
understand why certain minority groups are confronted and
say that there is racism out there most people feel that way
certainly aren't going to express. The real trouble there
was that she -- remember I grade by social security number
-- I don't grade by social security numbers, well the point
was I didn't know who she was on the exam, and so I couldn't
flunk her. I wanted to badly. Tragically, she got an A-in
the class on not knowing who they were but again I think
it's best to tell you the truth. Not healthy for her
permanently.
Anything else you can think of that's not regulated--that is
not requlated? Jokes. Well they can be regulated. What
about Disney? Disney? No they cover up to prevent their
regulations and apparently have been a come of books to show
that especially the danger of some of the rides on the
park.
Anything else that you can think of that's not regulated?
Not very good here. That's, by the way, very strange. When
you go back East and people are smoking all over the place
anywhere and they don't recycle. We talk about different
regulations. Well, in any case the point I'm making here
becomes pretty obvious. If everything you can think of from
the cradle you were born into or put into to the casket your
buried in is regulated, and they are, then government does
have an impact on your lives. Obviously what I'm trying to
identify is government doesn't effect me. It doesn't. Okay
you're putting your head in the ground by thinking that it
doesn't. So okay. Well okay it effects me, but so what.
Well that's the bigqy, the so what. In many cases you may
be right. So what? And if you don't think it's important
then there's nothing you can do people who walk with a cloud
over their heads. Or more likely to get high blood
pressure, tension headaches, heart attacks, they're more
likely to be explosive and maybe even more subject to
disease, I think talking today about positive attitudes for
living. Being relaxed and I think there may be some truth
to that, but negative people they usually just are not
observant. The fact is that maybe you can't do anything
about it, but knowing about it helps and I'm not saying
you're such to run for government or the president because
you have to make your choice. I got a couple of minutes
despite your books moving. I have a choice as to which
things I do want to act on but before I can do that, I have
to know and most of the time I am successful. When I fall,
okay, I fell, but since I'm more successful than failure I
feel more positive about things and I'm willing to try and
make things better for myself. And so politics does in a
sense impact your lives and that's perhaps one of the thinqs
hopefully you'll be able to get out of the course is to
decide in what areas that politics is important to you and
how if at any point you want to do anything about it and
even if you don't, at least to know that it's in -- so
therefore, seeing things as in as a New Yorker to be aware
to be able to see things becomes important. Somewhere along
the line we lose the ability to see things and they say it.
Huh? They have no hesitancy. It gets knocked out of the
them and all of a sudden they block. Because we as parents
have a responsibility and we feel the protect
our kids.
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