Hey, global citizens.

It seems that your blogs this week reflected the weightiness of the topics we’ve been delving into surrounding the war on terror. Judith Butler’s laboriously articulated thoughts in Frames of War have undoubtedly pushed us all to think about the convoluted web of nigh impossible questions that are woven into the mess of how people construct identity. If I had to make a gist note on the entirety of this week’s musings, it would look something like: The war on “terror” is not impersonal, and as is always the case with war, it is a war on human beings. Yet this one sentence does not do justice to the wide variety of tortuous questions that ran rampant on the pages of this blog batch. Here’s a snapshot of some of the titles that you came up with:

“Who am I, who are we, and what is humanity?” –Kennedy’s Korner
“The difference between you and me” – Paolina
“Destiny: Coexistence or Fear?” – I$aiah
“Are all lives treated equally?” –Alex

And these are just titles!

I think that we’re beginning to get the point of this academia thing. Atleast I hope that I am. I would wager a guess that these are exactly the type of questions Dr. Luger wants us to think about, that it’s why we read the dizzying Judith Butler-esque things that we do. And I’d like to believe that we aren’t just mulling these questions over so that we can feel intellectually accomplished or open minded – but because they actually do matter in a tangible way. And despite how contentious the value of it is, I believe that -to some extent- a real answer exists under all the layers of constructs that have been painted over it. Us, them, “other”… Its obviously unclear, or we wouldn’t be spending all our time in class trying to figure it out (with the help of scholarly predecessors). If it were clear, this would be a colossal waste of our time. However, to disbelieve in the existence of an answer (of some tangible variety) and still spend our time doing what we are doing would, in my opinion, render us equally wasteful. Just a thought: maybe the “mutual reference point for humanity which does not exist” (check out Peter’s well argued blog) might actually exist. Maybe many of us ascribing to it in our writing this week. Maybe many of us are also deluded and idealistic. Maybe just optimistic?

That being said, these blogs, particularly the most recent ones, are a really cool way to explore that. I appreciate that we’ve come together as this band of meandering miscreants in the vast unknown of life. Or astu. Probably more of the latter.

-Joseph