Holy crap, matt_mcl - that’s $217.50 a month Canadian, correct? :eek:
I think in England they were called limosine liberals.
At least that’s what John Mortimer (“Rumpole of the Bailey” author) called it.
And, yes, I’m a geek too. I thought the Death Star was destroyed by a Banthe Bomb.
Anth: Yup. What’s more, I got it a year before the housing crisis :eek: began in Montreal. I’m not leaving until they kick me out.
Thankfully my school (U. of Hawaii @ Manoa) is one of THE most apathetic schools in … well let’s say the world. Let me reach back into my hazy memory. If I recall our last student election turn-out was so low they tryed to have a second one. There may have been less then 100 votes. There is a small ‘Hawaiian rights’ movement but near as I can tell they already have more rights then I do. But I’ve never seen them and unless you take some Hawaiian courses or watch the news you’ll probably never hear them. I’ve always complained but now hearing your situation I think I’ll thank my stars.
In fact now that I think about it I’ve only been approached once in 5 years by another student asking me to sign something. She was in dentistry and asked me if I wanted to volunteer to have student dentists clean my teeth. I declined.
[sup]btw I am part Hawaiian but you’ll never know it to look at me[/sup]
Uh, congratulations on your school’s apathy?
A friend of mine was stalked by a recruiter from a socialist group on campus. He would ring her home and mobile multiple times a day and try to get her to go to meetings. If he saw her going into a class, he’d wait outside until she was finished. By the end of his little campaign, she was too scared to answer the phone and was darting around campus trying to avoid him.
I believe that social education is an essential part of a college education. While in college, I befriended mostly student radicals, because I respencted their integrity, even if I didn’t agree with many of their beliefs. I saw kids who were willing to risk bodily harm by handing out pamphlets at factories. They realized that many factory workers hated “hippies”, but they were willing to risk getting hurt in order to help a group of people whom they felt were being exploited.
When a person leaves home for the first time and is trying to establish a personal belief system and set of values, it is only natural that they will stumble and fall, often appearing very foolish. I worry less about the kids who are making an effort to educate themselves in areas of social justice than I do about the ambivalent masses. Sure, “Parlor Pinks” can be irritating, but I believe that a feeble effort is better than no effort at all.
I am all for having a social conscience, but the appraoch of the campus radicals is less about improving social ills than hating AmeriKKKa (as they put it). Yes, America has screwed up politically, but the radicals’ rhetoric makes the US sound like Nazi Germany.
We’re imperialist, racist, sexist, homophobic, genocidal, polluting, capitalist pigs, and we deserved the WTC/Pentagon attacks for our evil ways.
For some reason, that doesn’t play well with most Americans.
I’m willing to listen, and even support, many progresive causes, but only when presented in a constructive manner, which radicals have yet to discover.
My student radical friends did not have a problem with American society or with the system of government. They had specific causes for which they were promoting change. Many were greatly opposed to U.S. intervention in other parts of the world. They generally sought to obtain sufficient signatures on petitions to influence politicians as a means to alter U.S. policies in this area. Others were concerned with what they saw as the exploitation of U.S. workers. These people generally sought to educate the workers, encourage them to organize, and encourage them to become more politically active in order to make their voices and interests heard. There were Feminists, who sought to educate the public regarding discrimination against women, again, to build a base of political activism to encourage legislation to discourage such discrimination.
My student radical friends, at least, were motivated by their perception of a “wrong” with some segment of American society. They did not think that American society or government was evil. They simply felt that America was off track in some areas of fundamental importance, and they wished to motivate our leaders to do something in areas where the government could be responsive.
I agree, however, that brats who merely whine about how terrible the U.S. is get very tiresome. But I believe that student radicals sometimes serve as “canaries in the coal mine”, warning society of present or impending ills that require attention.
Thank you. While it does have its downsides it more or less suits my life. And if I were to engage myself in movements, and I have in the past, why whould I wish to confine myself to a single campus when I have a whole city/county/state to be a part of.
That’s funny. When I went to school the student body loved NYPIRG. This was back in the mid to late '80’s at Brooklyn College. I guess NYPIRG isn’t too radical. When there was an event that NYPIRG didn’t sign on to we’d get people stopping by our campus offices asking why we weren’t at the Poli-Sci wine and cheese party.
When it was time to do our yearly Straphangers Campaign surveys, students were lining up to participate. When we and The Coalition for the Homeless first hooked up and tried to find out exactly what the conditions were like at family homeless shelters we again had many, many volunteers and this was dangerous because those landlords hated us and were not beyond trying to kick some punk college kid’s ass.
Hey, maybe we were radical. I mean we actually did stuff.