Microeconomics and introductory accounting are my chosen summer endeavors. A break from my idealistic, liberal education to be sure. Also completely necessary to avoid being guilty of the same narrow-mindedness I critically accuse the Republican right of. Also necessary to avoid being one of those Ithacan hippies who are both so cool and so clueless. (If I hear one more proclaim that Bush is as bad as Sadaam... )

I struggle with these two subjects on a philisophical level. Already the first chapter of my accounting textbook is filled with critical marginalia (e.g. "The Big Bad Assumption" scrawled in caps with stars around it on page 11 next to, "the monetary unit assumption requires that only transaction data that can be expressed in terms of money be included in the accounting records.)

My reasoning for thus torturing myself is this: conservatives too often forget that humans are more than inputs into a market economy, and liberals ignore the realities of living in a capitalist society. It's the duty of any politcally interested person to verse him or herself in the theory of both sides. Not to read opposing arguments dismissively, but to really listen to the statements that make your blood-boil, to listent to them over and over and over again until they make sense, and until they don't hurt so much.

Self inflicted brainwashing? Perhaps. Add these two classes to my summer reading of Kevin Phillips and I may yet be conservative before I turn 30.