Journalism Class - Thursday December 8

[jerusalem-s.livejournal.com]

Spider is in the classroom, although all that can be seen of him is a somewhat bedraggled Santa hat, with a sprig of mistletoe affixed to it. From the shape of the hat it is obvious that there is an icepack within.

On the screen behind his desk, thankfully muted, there is the following message.

Write me 100 words on Anarchy and why it's an excellent theory but suffers in practice.

Quietly.

Also? Extra-credit for anyone who can turn in 100 words on where I was last night after my fourth drink and why there's glitter in my under drawers and a freshly dead fish in my jacket pocket. Thank you.



((OOC: Feel free to amuse yourself with where he was last night. He really has no idea and is, in any case, not inclined to take any answers all that seriously.))

Comments

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander reads the sign, and tiptoes to his seat.

Anarchy - he writes - sounds good in theory because it means no government, nobody controlling what you do, especially people who might not have your best interests at heart, or might be, oh, rich, possibly senile, and supported by a lot of other rich people who may or may not have your best interests at heart. With no government at all, though, you get chaos, nobody controlling anything, people free to do whatever they want. I might handle that fine, and you might, and Random Joe Good Citizen might, but everybody? Everywhere? Like Agent K. says, a person is smart; people are stupid."

Then he eyes the unmoving Santa hat, and grins.

Not that I was watching you drink and giggling hysterically to myself or anything, but logic seems to indicate that after your fourth drink, you were pretty wet, since that's a lot of liquid. I'm guessing you found that fish flopping on the sidewalk, and being the generous soul that you are, immediately put it in your very wet pocket so that it wouldn't suffocate. Any other reason why a man might want a flopping fish in his pocket would be between him and his God-- just like any reason a man might want glitter in his drawers would be between him and his fairy godmother drawers.

[whitedeathpod.livejournal.com]

Anarchy sounds good because, at first glance, it’s the freedom to run wild and do whatever you’d like to do. Nakedness, drunkenness, and anything else would be permitted. It’s the ability to do just about anything you’d like to do. The inherent problem in this is that it also allows for anything to be done to you. Someone wanted to set me on fire? Well, they could do it because I’d have no one to call for help, no one to trust with sending my attacker to justice. It’s running wild without any kind of regulation to protect people’s lives.

For extra credit:

Obviously, you were at a Golden Girls convention that very out of control. You know how those things can be. Have one drink and then the glitter comes out and the male strippers come out and everyone’s acting like Blanche with Rose’s non intelligence. Golden Girls fans are known as a very tipsy lot, liable to hitch up their knickers and go dancing in the streets. And, since you don’t remember anything, you were not the Dorothy of the group, being all stern and motherly. No one likes Dorothy. I’m glad you had fun, sir. The Golden Girls rule forever!

[marieann-d.livejournal.com]

The attractiveness of anarchy is also its biggest weakness. Unless one follows the Golden Rule, which, if there is no authority, cannot be enforced, then everyone is endangered by the freedom of others. If a person derives joy from hurting others, under anarchy, he is can do so without fear of reprisal from a government. Normal day-to-day interaction would likely continue unaltered whether there is a government or not, but it is the extreme cases we need to worry about. Even though it may sound fun on the surface, there needs to be some sort of government to protect others.

For extra credit:
Only four drinks? Clearly you were drugged, because I would think your tolerance would be much higher than that. Someone obviously slipped you something, then took you to the annual Fandom Town drag show. Since you’re under house arrest, I can only assume said person was Rover, or one of his minions. I hear you wore a stunning red sequined gown and a huge blonde wig. You lip synched “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” and took third place, behind Johnina Crichton and MacGyver (who didn’t need a wig with the mullet). And Rover says you have very nice legs.

[lady-jessica-bg.livejournal.com]

Jessica drops in to inform the Professor that she has decided to go to her Abnormal Psychology class (normally conducted online) instead, for the reason that she needs to meet with her partner for the experiment.

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica decides doing both assignments can't hurt... and she saw the professor passed out at the bar at work last night, but he doesn't need to know that.

Anarchy
Revolution, Justice, Screaming For Solutions,
Forcing Changes, Risk, And Danger
Making Noise And Making Pleas

While I like the idea in above quoted song passage, in theory, forcing changes and screaming for solutions isn’t the best way to make changes happen. It’s best when all parties involved sit down and discuss what needs to be done to benefit the group as a whole.

People like to have a say in their lives and that is why countries with democratic election systems have less civil unrest than dictatorships. If people feel their voices are being heard, they will be happier.


And extra credit:

After your fourth drink at Caritas last night, I saw you leaving the club with a group of drag queens, which would explain the glitter, though I am rather disturbed by pondering how you ended up with a mass quantity of it in your under drawers.

As for the fish, well, I wasn’t there so I can’t say for sure, but I think I’ve heard rumors of drag queens using fish in some weird sacrifice ritual. Something about it stemming the flow of blood. You might want to check to be sure you still have all of your internal organs.

[chasingangela]

Anarchy sounds good in theory because it represents absolute revolution -- the idea that people can do what they want when they want and how they want to. However, it really doesn't work for large groups because the thinjgs people want usually conflict with each other. People end up fighting or the strongest get their way, and anarchy quickly becomes more repressive than any other form of government.

She takes a pass on the extra credit.

[valentine-tart.livejournal.com]

Beka shrugs, and scrawls down punch-lines from half a dozen jokes her uncle likes to tell.

A man with a stoat through his head was sipping tea when his wife blew up. Ten minutes before that, ten soldiers had dance-stepped their way through a waist-high field of daisies, singing 'Kum-Bayah". Sing a song of sipping, a gullet full of lye. Four and twenty dead men traded for a dime.

You went diving into a pool of glitter, fully-clothed, then sipped tea under the noon-day sun with Gandhi. He gave you a trout, saying it was the road to peace.

I read all of this on a candy wrapper someone threw away this morning.

Although I suppose chaos isn't the same thing as anarchy, yet both are fun until you realize there's no substance to them. Unless there's cash involved.