I really should stop going to the Bradleys--even if there is free food, it isn't worth the time spent. Today's lecture was about Hobbes and religion; not having read Hobbes, I couldn't really follow it and lost interest quickly.
I did notice one grad student (in political science) who had long hair and a goatee. I am accustomed to the look of grad students, and he did wear, like many of the grad students in political science, a sports jacket and tie. Still... I was a bit put off when I noticed that he was using a pen as a hair pin. If he needs a hair pin, he should just buy one. (Though it wouldn't change my Latin opinion of him as someone using a hair pin; after all, he doesn't have the excuse of the pre-republic Chinese, who could point to custom with regards to having long hair and the use of hair pins.)
Political science seems to me these days to be rather useless; it may be the case that certain thinkers had an influence on others, but it is not at all clear that they had an influence on society as a whole. I haven't read any good historical argument showing that they did.
Generally, established law and custom have a greater weight upon behavior and thinking than political theory, and it rarely happens (perhaps never) that a whole legal system and politeia are created from scratch. (That is the new understanding of the movement for American independence with which I would be looking at the texts. Sure, reading the political theorists in order to understand why offices were distributed as they were and so on is necessary, but there is only so much that can be done to a community that is already in existence.)
Rather than turning to political science to find solutions to our problems, I'd rather look at something normative, including tradition, as a resource. Hence, I tend to read what paleoconservatives and traditional conservatives write, rather than political scientists.
Besides, after a certain point it is better to act than to study.
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