Post by Dr. Nemmers on Jun 13, 2024 17:19:39 GMT
While many of the examples from the video (and from philosophy) focus on big picture ideas (war, morality, love, etc.), I find that I encounter the absurd most often in everyday life, when I encounter things that just don't plain make sense-- that are contradictory or farcical or bizarre, and yet that people willingly subscribe or adhere to.
For instance, the reason we're using this third-party message board is that technically what I'm teaching here is two classes in one: a 5000-level class and a 4000-level class. Initially, I tried to just combine the classes on Blackboard, and was told that's impossible. Then I asked if I could add the graduate students to the undergraduate class, just as observers to participate on the discussion board, and was told that was a federal violation. Then, I tried to explain that when we hold these "stacked" classes in person, all the students (both 4000/5000 level) were able to speak to each other and learn from each other, and the classes were combined in that fashion. The administrative representative pondered that, and then declared that doing so was itself probably not allowed, unless we were able to put a curtain between the students or otherwise make it so they were not mixing and did not know who was speaking from the other class. (Talk about Kafka-esque... I high-tailed it out of there before they could declare anything else I was doing verbotten!).
In short, it was an absurd conversation!
What are some absurd circumstances or episodes that you have encountered in your everyday life?
For instance, the reason we're using this third-party message board is that technically what I'm teaching here is two classes in one: a 5000-level class and a 4000-level class. Initially, I tried to just combine the classes on Blackboard, and was told that's impossible. Then I asked if I could add the graduate students to the undergraduate class, just as observers to participate on the discussion board, and was told that was a federal violation. Then, I tried to explain that when we hold these "stacked" classes in person, all the students (both 4000/5000 level) were able to speak to each other and learn from each other, and the classes were combined in that fashion. The administrative representative pondered that, and then declared that doing so was itself probably not allowed, unless we were able to put a curtain between the students or otherwise make it so they were not mixing and did not know who was speaking from the other class. (Talk about Kafka-esque... I high-tailed it out of there before they could declare anything else I was doing verbotten!).
In short, it was an absurd conversation!
What are some absurd circumstances or episodes that you have encountered in your everyday life?
