Nerve Endings Firing Away

It was time to brainstorm on the variety of topics that we were going to spend the semester investigating. An open forum meant that everyone was screaming their pet topics and the poor professor had a hard time listing them out. But unfazed, he finally got it all down on the board. But surely, this wasn’t the way he intended. The next class, he had neatly arranged everything subdivided into six broad categories: Regulation, Development Strategies, Policy and Politics, Waste Management, Minority Rights and Environment Policy.

Now, trying to make sense in the ensuing chaos, he had to get everyone signed up under these six broad categories and he wouldn’t have to haggle with a disgruntled student for not including his heartfelt policy issue. The only way, like in the real world of politics, was to obtain a consensus. Signup Voting was ruled out because it would unfairly bias one side of the class over the other. After much haggling and even contemplating electronic voting, the primitive method of show of hands was agreed upon.

Each category had to include at least 5 members to be considered valid or else would be thrashed or merged with another category. Regulation was no problem; there always are few extreme liberals or conservatives in class who felt strongly about any trivial issue. Development Strategies is an ever-popular category and had more than its share of hands. Policy and Politics was the firm favorite of the method analysts who are ever doubtful of the incompatible yet inevitable relationship of politics and administration. Waste Management and Environment Policy took the maximum time to clarify and after a lame attempt by some to categorize Bush’s Mars plan as waste management, both categories were merged to keep everyone happy.

But the fun part was reserved for the last. Minority Rights included topics on gay rights, digital divide, policies of disabled — a veritable rich policy issue. A show of hands was requested; just one hand went up.

How ironical is that?