Thursday 30 January 2014

Distance Learning

Some Fuzzy Wuzzies...
As I have been painting more lately, I find myself running out of podcasts to act as aural wallpaper.

This problem is compounded by a number of podcasts that used to count me among their listeners, pissing me off to the point that I can no longer bare to listen to them.... yeah, I get it... you have been brainwashed by forums to hate GW I don't want to hear about it.... I can read...

So I have found myself listening to university lectures. On a slightly depressing note I find myself wondering how stoopid university students are that they are supposedly learning this stuff. But I would like to point to two lecture series given by Richard Bulliet, History of the Modern Middle East, and History of Iran in the Safavid Period. Both of these series are highly entertaining and informative, even if Buillet does have the standard American distorted views on Europe.

What is odd about Bulliet's views on Europe, particularly his creation of a false dichotomy by portraying Europe as violent and the Islamic world as a garden of peace, is that by the end of his lectures I found myself with a better understanding of the general history - as opposed by to the clash of cultures model of history - which by extension Bulliet seems to partially support by his American views of Europe.

peace::)

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