Intense

Just returned from my second guitar class, so I’ve got Blackbird by the Beatles humming in my soul. My teacher, Diego, is a very kind, young, and savvy musician. It’s a rather intense hour I spend with him, and this I find I can generalize from my experiences in classroom settings here—a certain intensity. Last night we spent three hours chasing the mind of our French philosopher as he traced us through the philosophical origins of the structuralist method of viewing conflict.
Monday evening’s class was intense in its own right as we contemplated the idealist vein of international relations. Being an idealist myself, much of what I read of Kant, Alberdi, and Angell struck a chord, but in our class of older male Argentineans from the armed forces, my idealist confidence cowered. What a perfect challenge having the classmates I do, to learn to refine and articulate my thoughts and beliefs in a way that retains the optimistic essence but is grounded in realistic possibility.
For example, Alberdi highlights the strange nature of our morals- that what is an extreme crime against one person within our borders can outside them be a heroic effort affecting millions. He goes on to contemplate if the leaders that mandate war were themselves involved on the ground level, would they be so quick to engage in violent conflict? Clearly, extending the law so that a murder is a murder no matter where it takes place, or having our presidents on the front lines of war scenes are not short term feasible goals. At least many, many steps must tread on the way to these utopian solutions. What do these intermediate steps consist of?

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