Preface.

He started with a paper. It began to develop into a book. Later it would be reconstructed by general theories supported by case studies and historical artifacts. And finally after ten years, he is a proud scholar on both history and sociology terms, and all his results are tightly written in three volumes. That man is Michael Mann.

"The sources of social power: volume 1" by Michael Mann (cat not included).

Have you ever wondered on how ideas could go through our minds, giving us a vision on our thoughts and even trained our imagination? I personally wondered on how Michael Mann were able to wrote three volumes of books about power, while he himself is just a mere human being just like us. I am really sure that even with our human intelligence we have our own limits but that is what exactly made me think that Mr. Mann here is one of the most intelligent and a hardworking person ever. Nevertheless it took him ten years of research, ten years of perseverance, and ten years of questioning himself; all that to prove out his theories. However, is that all that he wanted? There should be a strong enough reason for him to be motivated to finish his writings and I am sure he must have had some...

The current me couldn't imagine writing an essay so how am I be tempted to write a whole book? Or let's say three whole books?? I knew personally it must have been tough to actually start writing. (Well, that's unless you do love to write and are used to it...) I am not a writer myself, not even a professional one either. I am just your typical non-hardworking student obliged to write research papers and reports for the next three years to be able to graduate from this institute called "university". All that just to obtain a certified certificate with my name written on it and all I could do is to hope that mere one piece of paper will give me a better future. But then, why am I struggling for something that is uncertain?

Imagine all that pressure... and deadlines. God, I hate deadlines.

I have been staring blankly between a screen full of gibberish and rubbish and all sorts of "pretty flowery" words that I typed and some heavy reference books borrowed from the library for hours, feeling both tired and slightly proud on actually doing my duty as a 'university student'. I was devastated for a moment when my laptop decided to be an arse and restarted itself, resulting in some data lost on my document and now here I am, trying to calm myself down by writing such a nonsense piece of a blog post. All one thousand words of effort were gone and I do not even know how. Or why. Or am I able to re-do all those ideas I have put together? Why am I still struggling for an essay that I will forget in the future? Or will I ever forget it though? (To put it frankly, I suppose I am doing it all for the participation marks and the grades.)

I strongly believe that success does come from failure and I could somehow imagine how Mann himself worked hard on his research. Perhaps there was one time when his idea was rejected or his papers were intentionally destroyed by others? Or perhaps he got his ideas stolen or badly influenced? That, we will never know for sure...

I might not find the answer to the universe today or sooner or later for I am not a professional scientist or whatever. I might not know when will be the time for me to be able to find the meaning of my own life (or simpler things such as will I be able to finish this one mere paper gracefully...), but when I do, I do wish that by that time I could be as motivated, hardworking and as persistent as Michael Mann himself.



Okay, let's get back to some other nonsense writing shall we?
Until next time...