Going into
this political geography class I was skeptical as to whether I would be able to
do well in the class and whether we would talk about any topics that would
interest me. I do not consider myself a very political person and I do not
enjoy arguing about politics like many of my friends do. My Catholic faith
makes me think “Man if people would just find Jesus and the Church all these
problems would be solved and people wouldn’t fight about all this stuff.” I
just get headache thinking about politics. The only reason I decided to join
the class was because I really enjoyed my professor last year for Human
Geography and this class counts towards my geography major. One thing I
definitely learned this year was that I am very opinionated on many different
political issues and that I am not apathetic. I care about politics and world issues;
I simply need to get more information about them so I can form more knowledgeable
answers. During the debates I felt as though I definitely had strong opinions,
I simply lacked the examples because I need to gain more knowledge of the
world.
The class
started off with looking into physical features of countries and how this gave
them an economic, defensive and even social advantage. This was interesting to
me but I am glad we moved on from it and went on to study more on how a country’s
location affected its politics and behaviors. Colonialism was of a particular
interest to me because it was interesting to see how colonialism still affects
their societies today, some positively and some negatively. One thing I liked
about political geography was how it uses an area’s space and surroundings to form
how people are going to vote and what their opinions are going to be. This was
in strong contrast to a public policy class I took where it tried to track
people’s feelings to see what their opinions are going to be. In political
geography people vote because of their surroundings: if I live in coal country
I vote for a candidate who is not in opposition to coal. It has nothing to do
with coal. I also liked how those states or counties in an election which always
vote the same were though not to matter and that swing states should be given
more attention. This makes things simpler and is less emotion-driven and is
more qualitative.
Flat, Hot, and Crowded
by Thomas Friedman spoke of how the world is getting more “flat” through
technology and media. I would go on to say that the world is getting more flat
though super-nationalism and socialism. Borders are therefore becoming less and
less important through super-nationalistic organizations like the EU. This would
make studying politics through space and location irrelevant as we all simply
become one big country. I think we should use Political Geography to fight
super-nationalism. Political Geography says that where you come from and what
borders you live in do matter when it comes to forming your opinions and what
say you have in the world. Borders do matter. Nations do matter. We are a
diverse, world full of unique countries which all have different opinions and
politics. Political Geography is patriotic in this way.