the daily ish

solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and (thankfully) short

Damn Hobbes and his Leviathan. Clearly he and other related political thinkers have been pervading my mind.

Yup, it's that time of the year my friends. And nope, I'm not talking about holidays. I'm talking about the dreaded time that comes right before then...exam season. Dun, dun, dun! The past week has been absolute madness and this week will be even worse with two papers and three finals to write. So right now, I've been in my own little bubble dealing with matters of sovereignty, NGOs, IOs, MNCs, inequality, globalization, Hobbes, Locke, Marx, Veblen, Nietzsche, Weber, ICTs, dadadada the list never seems to end. I've been living in cafes all week and I've seriously considered moving into one and living there for the time being. It's been brutal, I tell you. So brutal that in the past week I've had to line up to get into a library. A library. That's when you know you've reached the peak of your cool. And I know that this struggle of mine is a plight shared by many others. Makes me question whether Hobbes was actually talking more about studentkind than all of mankind when he said that life was solitary, poor (oh so very, very poor!), nasty, brutish, and (thankfully!) short.


So for all of my fellow students out there finding themselves sleep-deprived, overly-caffeinated, and losing your mind, I feel your pain. Just gotta keep on keepin' on and I'll see you all on the flip side!

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good intentions are not enough

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So unless you've been living under a rock or have been busy helping NASA bomb the moon today, you should know that the Obamster has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Isn't it amazing how the world seems to just be going down that downward spiral faster and faster these days? Personally, I'm loving all the commentary I'm hearing online, offline, on screen, on everywhere...nothing better than controversy that's powerful enough to rile up the masses!

But seriously now, what's going on here? Last time I checked, to win the Peace Prize, a person had to a) do the best work to encourage fraternity between nations b) abolish or reduce standing armies and c) hold and promote peace congresses. And so, Obama won the Peace Prize because? Because he's the commander-in-chief of three wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and two other lower-scale ones in Africa and the Philippines? Because he's given plenty of lofty speeches full of equally lofty promises? Because he's apologized for America around the world? Because it is his fervent hope that peace will be achieved one day? Oh right! How could I have overlooked that?

But now there's talk that he was awarded the prize not because of his actual accomplishments or achievements but rather to spur on and motivate his determination for peace. So now we're awarding prizes to individuals who might do something in the future? Roiiight then...like my title says, good intentions are not enough. If it were, I could write a whole list of people who would be eligible for the prize (myself included). Everyone hopes for peace, everyone has good intentions, but the mere intention does not merit an award. All words and no action is undeserving of an award of such calibre (well, I guess that calibre is questionable now...)

And if this is a means by which to encourage him and motivate him, does the Nobel Committee actually think that it's helping his cause? If anything, it's hurt him...there's backlash everywhere. And a lot of that backlash is and will be toward him, not to the people who awarded it to him. If anything, it merely highlights and reminds everyone just how little he's done during his time as president.

But hey, I gotta give props where props are due! Obama has once again shown the world that you can do anything if you have the 'audacity of hope'! Heck, he didn't even hope to win the prize, and he still got it!...so for all us aspiring Nobel Peace Prize winners, can we do it? Yes We Can!