In Tuesday’s lecture, we learned about Louis XIV and his pompous habits.
One of the things he did that struck a chord with me was how he insisted on teaching people how to do their own jobs. He believed himself to be better at everything than anyone else, even when he clearly had no idea what he was doing. He was also very prideful, and loved flattery the most, especially when people tripped over their words while flattering him. In addition to being prideful, he associated himself with Apollo, who was the Greek god of the sun. Due to this obsession, he became known as the “Sun King”. One would think that associating oneself with a “heathen” god would be considered heretical, but, I think, people were too afraid of Louis XIV to point that out.
Normally, people would get mad at someone butting in and telling them how to do their job. However, this was the king. People couldn’t get mad at their own king – just imagine the consequences of speaking out against an all-powerful monarch! Surely any craftsman who spoke out against the king, especially one with such a high opinion of himself, would be killed!
Something that happened in today’s (Thursday’s) lecture reminded me of Louis XIV. Professor Stuart asked the class if any STEM majors were present, and then asked them to explain the scientific method. This wouldn’t be a problem… if this class was a basic science class and that was asked as a review question. Now that was a problem. This class is neither a science class nor was that question relevant as review material for an exam or anything else for this course. I know that she intended to tie it into the lecture, but I feel it just caused more distraction. For one, it didn’t tie into lecture very well. For two, nobody really answered, both on Facebook and in lecture.
Of course, not many people raised their hands and admitted to being a STEM major. After all, not many people would want to answer something that embarrassing and then explain it to everyone in the class, who had all learned it in middle school. *This was something a STEM student admitted during lecture.
In the end, Lawrence, who seems to know more about this course than our professor, ended up speaking up for everyone, who were all too nervous or didn’t care enough to speak. The professor then clumsily attempted to apply the basic concepts of the scientific method (as Lawrence so carefully stated for her) to the class.
Image source: our class’ facebook page
#justdemonthings 