Where I'm Coming From

I have realized that the best way for anyone to grasp my past experience with writing would be to read some of what I have already written.  I have a stack of over 50 papers I wrote in college and a hard drive with even more documents dating back to high school.  From time to time I grab a couple essays and reread them in order to revisit where I once was ideologically and stylistically.  To kick off this blog, I have compiled a few passages from these papers in an effort to showcase some of the subject matter which I have already dedicated a significant amount time studying and writing about.  Instead of telling you my background and interests, I will allow you to draw your own conclusions.  It is my hope that this exercise will orient you, my reader, to where I am coming from.  

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"“Dare to Know!” was the famous challenge Kant made to the human race." 

--- from "Burkean Conservatism", September 2008

"Freedom is a very vague concept... it is hard to generalize the common man's idea of what freedom truly is.  One's vision of liberty depends on countless circumstances that make each and every opinion unique.  A person's background, ambitions, upbringing, and personal experiences all shape his or her vision.  It is typical for historians and the common student to generalize notions of freedom."

--- from "Freedom is Not Free", October 2007

"I argue that military coups were a frequent occurrence in post-colonial Africa due to the lasting impacts of colonial legacies.  The political instability and weak economic performance of the early African states can be partly attributed to decades of unwanted, repressive rule that they endured.  These young states were left unprepared for independent rule and vulnerable to further military intervention."

--- from "Military Coups in Africa", December 2009

"[Friedrich Nietzsche] was proof of his own theory that geniuses are not born, they are made.  [The realization of this possibility empowered] generation upon generation to engage in their own intellectual dialectic between their academic and creative selves.  It is here that the European intellectual tradition made a transition from early incomplete thinkers to a wholeness [displayed by Nietzsche]."

--- from “Nietzsche: Early Years and Development”, November 2008

"If there is one thing that I have learned, it is this: college, like all aspects of life, is a learning experience.  It is important to try new things, meet new people, and consider new opinions.  By opening myself up to new horizons, I have broken away from some of the qualities I use to value and strengthened others."

--- from "Lessons Learned and Grades Earned", April 2008

"Unlike more outwardly exploitative colonial practices, colonial education required a certain level of complicity with the native population. Due to this compliance, the divisive effects and hierarchies associated with colonial education in Nigeria were much more difficult to eliminate in the post colonial era. Education was a unique colonial practice in a sense that it was the root of many internal hierarchies that would come to characterize post-colonial Nigeria."

--- from "Education in Colonial Nigeria: The Divisive Effects of an Imperial School Culture", May 2011

"The history of discovery is comprised of narratives and experiences that initiated transformation in many societies.  The expeditions of Christopher Columbus and James Cook displayed how two drastically different worlds could converge in an explosive and transforming experience.  Upon deeper reflection, the tremendous effects of travel are often felt at a more intimate level and incite personal growth."

--- from "Eat, Pray, Love: Bernard Walsh's Personal Growth in Paradise News", May 2011

"How it is difficult to confide in one who cannot realize the journey they travel, and how peculiar that our seemingly differing journeys are paths all so similar.  I often wonder whether I am the only one who can see the stars, moon, and sky."

--- from "Midnight Stroll (in the style of John Barth)", November 2007

"We initially defined [the sociological imagination] as one's "ability to see the connection between personal struggles and social structures".  While I agree with the way the textbook defines the sociological imagination, I have come to believe that for one to truly exercise this tool, it isn't enough to simply "see" the connection between self and society.  Instead, I argue that one must reflect on this connection and internalize the complexity that characterizes relationships between the self, others, and society at large... My values and beliefs are always changing as I become increasingly cognizant of how I fit into the larger scheme of society.  My story is one of socialization."

--- from "The Sociological Imagination", May 2011