Next semester

On a completely different note, next semester....last fall I taught Contemporary Ethical Problems for the first time in 20 years.  It was fine (discussed the standard topics of euthanasia, abortion, animal rights, etc) but it wasn't as good as it could have been.  So, this coming semester, my plan is to use the general broad topic of consumption as the guiding idea.  We'll talk about what we eat which will get at questions of animal rights and agricultural issues, what we wear which will get at questions of labor issues, whether consuming illegal substances can ever be moral, what sorts of ideas should we engage and are there any we should avoid, should the character/behavior of an author/actor influence whether we read/watch their work, whether being defined as a consumer is a good thing (choice!) or bad (manipulative!).  I feel pretty good about this plan but realize I need to now move from a plan to actually finding articles.  I've got the last book chosen (Consumed by Benjamin Barber) but that's it.

Anyway, there you go a non-emotional breakdown/recovery post :-)