Final Post - Reflecting on a Semester Past

POL 100,

It has been a distinct pleasure getting to know all 58 of you over the course of this semester. In this final post, I want to provide you guys with some feedback and food for thought.

The goals that I set out for us to achieve at the beginning of the semester were simple: an improvement in reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Of course you were expected to gain a general overview of the discipline of political science, but these fundamental skills were the primary focus. Through multiple methods I tried to constantly and continuously reinforce these skills with you all over the course of the semester. Although I do believe that each of you has improved to some extent in each of these areas, the specific level of improvement has entirely been contingent upon on you.

In thinking back to the many controversies and issues we discussed in class and on this blog, I think one major takeaway has been how difficult it is to arrive at a consensus on any issue. A consensus is difficult to achieve and maintain, but is a part of the democratic process. Although Pakistan has a long way to go towards achieving democracy, I hope that you guys continue to take part in this democratic experiment.

There were a few hiccups along the way. A very small minority of students plagiarized. Other students turned in exams late. A significant number of students showed up late to class. All of these actions were a blight on an otherwise enjoyable class.

There were a lot of really great moments as well. The debate over the proper justice system in Pakistan was quite lively. Lunches with a number of you were always pleasant. Our trip to Wagah Border and the farewell dinner are memorable moments that I will definitely remember.

As many of you now head off for the summer to refuel and recharge, I wish you all the best in you future lives and academic endeavors. Below is some final data that may be of interest to you all. All data is current as of May 11, 2015:

• The first blog post was posted by me on January 30, 2015. 
• Our blog essentially lasted 3-months.
• Out of the 1,128 posts, 47 were done by me. The majority of those posts were referrals to interesting news items.
• You all posted 1,081 blog posts. 
• The required number of posts per student was 20. The actual average was 18.6 posts per student.

Session 25 - A Tragedy Indeed.

So i wanted to give my response on the notion of the “Tragedy of the Commons”. Although i do not consider myself a pessimist but in this case i believe there exists but no other option. One thing that has been absolutely engraved into my mind as a result of taking Intro to Political Science is the realist notion of the world. Everyone and everybody is inherently self interested. This tragedy will continue to prevail so long as the people of the earth act upon self interest. What self interest though? We won’t really care until it directly affects us. The world is still enjoying the availability of all resources and living in our cocoons as we tend to do, we choose to ignore the inevitability of the long term effects of the decisions that favour our short term ones. 

People choose to smoke because of the short term pleasure, comfort and stress relief associated with the act and therefore discard the statistics, facts and the negative effects of the long term because as of yet they , a part of what makes up those statistics and facts. As with the tragedy of the commons, our self interested nature amplifies our delusions of the long term. As long as we live choose the short term over the long term, i believe we will always be headed down the path of the said tragedy.