This post isn't on the assigned topic but I wanted to post it anyway. The assigned post will come later.
I was annoyed by our discussion in class today about the lack of a student movement in Tennessee. It's absolutely true that there is no such movement despite the desperate need for one, but the reasons that folks (read: all of you in class today) give to explain this are alarming. All of the talk I heard about southerners being ignorant and reactionary and "living in a bubble" is not only offensive to me as a proud Appalachian, but is an obvious and shallow attempt to deflect blame. Yes, there are large reactionary elements in our society. There are always reactionary elements. But these elements at most make up a slim majority in this area, and more likely a fairly small minority.
It's not the fault of reactionaries that less than 100 UTK students are willing to come out to a protest on an issue that directly effects them. There are way, way more than 100 UTK students who are aware of the crisis in public education, who recognize that it's in their own material interests for these cuts not to happen, and who will verbally claim that they believe the cuts shouldn't happen. Shit, there are probably a good 10,000 or more students on this campus who would identify as at least moderately liberal in politics. It's THEIR FAULT that they aren't doing shit about anything, not the fault of right-wing reactionaries. And as far as I can tell almost everyone in our class falls into this category--y'all watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report, maybe you read Huffington Post or Daily Kos or something, and you come to class ready and willing to shit-talk conservatives and religious fundamentalists, but have any of you done a single thing to actually resist this (genuinely terrifying) political offensive from the right?
Some of us have been working our asses off to fight back against the cuts to our schools. We've got up early in the morning to stand outside in the cold for hours on end handing out literature about rallies and trying to initiate conversations; we've repeatedly posted flyers on every conceivable wall, doorway, and bulletin board; we've made numerous personal calls to every single person on union phone lists of around a thousand people; we've got up in front of classes presenting petitions and begging fellow students to make even some minimal commitment to sign something or stand outside for a rally; we've written articles and press releases and arranged interviews with every major media outlet in the city and many smaller ones; some folks have even gone around in the UC dining hall soliciting individuals. And yet for all the countless hours that our core group of around two dozen people have all put into this, the result is a turn out at any given event of maybe two or three people for everyone one of us doing this work.
Why? Why, when folks already preach these politics, and when the issue in question is one that directly effects us by costing us money, cutting classes and professors we badly need to graduate, and generally decreasing the value of our degrees, can less than a third of a percent of our student body forces themselves to put even a few minutes of their time into doing something about it? This astounds me.
Go and vote if you want. If the utterly disastrous first year of Obama's administration isn't enough to convince you that he is not, never will be, and never intended to be a progressive, go vote for him again and sit around twiddling your thumbs and waiting for the jolly old corporate Democrats to throw you a crumb once every few decades. But even if you're deluded into thinking substantial change will come from above without us forcing it, this issue is primarily a state and not federal one, and things in the state legislature are even grimmer. How can you fix a problem by voting when even the most progressive and education-friendly of the candidates can barely make the minimal commitment of trying to raise revenue by closing minor tax loopholes? There's zero discussion of raising real revenue by taxing wealthy individuals or corporations, zero discussion of diverting revenue from military and national guard spending, and near zero discussion of forcing cuts to take place at administrative rather than academic levels (or worse, through the elimination of low-wage workers). Some of the most reactionary members of the Tennessee legislature are Democrats (including the majority leader), and their Republican opponents are even worse. There's nobody to vote for when all of the candidates are openly opposed to everything progressives stand for. Democrats on the national level aren't any better, really, but they at least will tell you they are.
Please, please, just do something. If you're worried about academic cuts, about the imminent unemployment of janitorial and clerical workers who already make well below a living wage, about the dramatic increase in tuition likely to come within a few years once the Board of Regents gathers the courage to remove the tuition cap, then get involved and ORGANIZE. Grassroots organizations of concerned people are the only way that real change will come, so go be a part of one and make a difference.
Ugh. Nobody will read this anyway.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I feel as if instead of convincing people of protesting the budget cuts, you threw more of a fit. You are clearly passionate, but alienating an entire political party in what should be an apolitical issue seems silly to me. I read it and it was entertaining if nothing else.
ReplyDeleteI posted this on the course blog version of your post, but I should put it here too I reckon.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least one person is reading it. It would be a mistake to assume that everyone in class is A) politically left of center; and, B) a critic of conservative Christianity. This I know for a certainty. And everyone is entitled to their political views.
That said, the issue of higher education, and particularly state-subsidized higher education really should go beyond partisanship. The land grant universities of the United States were chartered specifically to serve the educational and economic development interests of the state. That mission has been lost in the adoption of corporate values, not particular political values. The question is, is higher education necessary infrastructure for maintaining global economic, political, and social leadership.
Again, beyond notions of partisanship, our own legislature is populated by, as I understand, a majority of individuals without higher ed degrees. This presents a real problem for communication and understanding of what universities actually do.
And, finally beyond notions of partisanship, every student conservative and progressive should be very concerned about the willingness of politicians of both parties to undermine higher education, and especially liberal arts in favor of abject functionalism and utilitarianism.
Still, I share your frustration with student apathy in the face of it all.
Chad, I don't assume that everyone fits that description--I said "almost everyone." The fact is that over half the members of our class have regularly spoken out critically against right-wing movements including the religious right. And I agree, of course, that not only left-of-center students should be concerned about threats to their education. But my frustration is directed toward those students, because they're the ones who already express in words their explicit support for a cause they seem strangely unwilling to fight for.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in the broader understanding of the 'political' that I use, corporate values ARE political values. I have little interest in either political party--both of which share those corporate values--and don't define the notion of the political, or the political spectrum, in terms of those parties.
ReplyDeleteI wrote this blog post in a moment of frustration and it was intended to express that frustration more than to convince anyone of anything. I didn't (and don't) expect more than two or three folks to read it anyway. I would speak differently were I making some kind of more public statement intended to be actually convincing. That said, being critical of the Democrats is in my mind absolutely necessary, because realizing the real nature of that party (or at least, the elements of that party that have power) is essential to realizing that change must come from somewhere other than Obama and Co. Why should it be a problem for me to be alienated from Democrats when they don't do anything anyway? The idea is to convince folks who are progressive but currently supportive of the Democratic party that their efforts should be directed elsewhere. Adopting an aggressive tone toward those folks (as I did in the above post) isn't the most productive way to do that, but being aggressively critical of Democratic politicians is.
Obviously, just being able to say "look, bad shit is happening and it's bad for you so you should do something about it" and having students of all political stripes respond to that call would be ideal, but that's exactly what we've been doing for years and it obviously doesn't work. If people know about the problem, recognize its consequences for their lives, and still won't do anything about it except gripe and/or vote for politicians who won't do anything, then obviously a further, and more explicitly political, criticism is needed.
I've been thinking a lot about this post since I read it. There's a lot of (well-founded) frustration- and to me it comes down a lot to the (Elie Wiesel?) quote about the opposite of love being apathy rather than hate.
ReplyDeleteAnd why is it that Tennessee seems to be a center of apathy? I think part of it is that it's difficult to sustain concerted passion for something over a period of time. This is especially true after the realities of the work needed to actually see tangible results sink in.
It's discouraging to see people throw away their opportunity to change the world and sacrifice their ideals and commitments for comfort and focusing on what they can get for themselves.
But I don't think we can entirely discount the role of the environment in shaping the apathy at play here. For whatever reason - its conservative surroundings, or the possibility of the Big Orange Screw coming down on students who skip classes to go lobby in Nashville - Tennessee is full of people who can't be bothered.
I think to me (and I mentioned this in class) the most depressing part is that PSA or AI members can develop campaigns, pursue them, organize events, get policies changed - and the student body won't react at all (except for the occasional libelous Beacon write-up.) But they will somehow find the energy and impetus to riot over a football coach.
And yes, that says a lot about the campus, and it's pretty deeply disturbing.
Kat