Why Read Hegal?

After reading the assigned pages with much contemplation and confusion, the one passage that interested me was on page 104, "The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third Monarchy." I am personally interested in the types of governments there are, but not necessarily how they run or what goes about it. I find it most interesting that Hegal goes and labels these countries with what government they have. By the "East" I would assume that he meant the Asian countries. I know we are supposed to write about what feels right, but I don't feel right about anything that Hegal has said so far or what I have read so far from his book. I sort of find it really confusing like he wasn't in his right mind when he wrote this. However, I find with this statement that it was offensive to be labeling countries and maybe Hegal was from Germany that's why he labeled Germany as being "All are free" when Germany has a history of oppression also.

Something in relation to what I have just said about Hegal's labeling countries here is my boyfriend who goes on labeling people to which political party he thinks they are in. He labels me a democrat, which I am an Independent. I get offended and angry because he's Republican and goes on about how much he hates Democrats and puts it on me.

The only thing that would answer the question of how did reading Hegal make me understand my situation with my boyfriend is that he is to politically involved and that can be dangerous if not annoying. Like one of the group members from Thursday's class activity said, "Some people takes things way too serious that it just becomes ridiculous and funny." One example was from Glenn Beck where he referenced the United State's government to the Holocaust.

And finally to answer the question of "Why read a 200 year old book written by a racist privileged dead white straight European Christian academic male?" Well, personally I would say that it is to laugh at how silly and serious Hegal makes his book seem. It is not entertaining at all and I would not blame schools for only reading his intro. From reading his book is to study the time period that Hegal lived then and to study his type of language he used, which was clearly different from today.