Silly Liberals: Need Some Cheese with that Whine?
At times, it’s a nice reminder that the left has far bigger issues than the right. After all, we have an actual philosophy on which we base our values, policies and beliefs. Liberals just have identity politics, anger and entitlements. Sometimes liberals make their issues known in very funny opinion pieces that could be cross-posted in The Onion. For example, this open letter to students at Pace Universty in which Karla Jay, an early feminist, bemoans the lack of uprising going on today with America’s youth:
Reflecting back on these catalytic events, I wonder why you, my beloved students in women’s and gender studies at Pace University, aren’t out at the barricades in the fight against the interminable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, widespread genocidal acts against women, the lack of equality for the queer community and evildoing by the banking industry.
Aside from “wahhhhh!” I can’t really think of anything else to say. But why aren’t student’s protesting in the streets (unless they attend a college in the UC system)?
It seems to me, that many of you don’t see current “issues” as connected to you. That nothing is “real” unless you’ve seen it on reality TV. The violence in the world can’t match the latest hit film. Since there is no draft, attending college is no longer a prelude to going to Iraq or Afghanistan, except for those on ROTC scholarships. You think feminism is passé. For those of you who are white, racism is over, too, because Obama is president. There is no gender or racial gap at your minimum wage jobs at Abercrombie, The Gap and as student aides, but you haven’t entered the real work force yet. There’s a Stonewall Coalition at the university, but you don’t need that because New York City has so many queer bars and you have the fake I.D. to get in. You’re oh-so-out, though most of you can’t apply the LGBTQ words to yourself in my queer courses.
Those harmful reality shows. Watching the Biggest Loser or Dancing With the Stars just ruins everything for us. Then there’s the evilness of The Gap. Those overpriced khakis are seriously hurting our society. I guess that I was wrong in assuming that not having a draft was a good thing. Shouldn’t we be proud that our voluntary armed services are protecting us? But is that all? Nope.
I observe your lives. You are smart and can do things via computer I can only dream of. But few of you read a newspaper or even online news sites. However, you are constantly texting and twittering—opening e-mail seems too dated. You want the news to be as brief and fast as Twitter; you would like classes to move along in some more amusing format like animé. You avoid doing research if it involves books; the text you read is on your cell.
Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think that blogging or texting will get hundreds of thousands of people out in the street. If Martin Luther King, Jr. had blogged “I have a dream” on Facebook, how many would have twittered back, “Yeah, dude, I had a dream last night, too.”
Life online has turned you away from the world around you. This virtual life is more real to you than planet Earth. As Taylor McHugh, one of my activist students put it, “Students feel apathy, not empathy.”
It’s the internets! That’s the reason why all is wrong in the world. Those damn kids and their texting! What will they think of next?
I hate to break it to Ms. Jay, but blogging and texting do actually get hundreds of thousands of people out in the street. Let’s see…the uprisings in Iran were connected by social networks, the 9/12 Rally and Tea Parties were organized online and your precious President Obama was able to win by being the first candidate to strategically use them. But whatev, we don’t match the efforts of protesters in the 70s. I mean, those marches were so successful. Just look at your primary issue of feminism. All of those issues have been solved, haven’t they? Quite possibly could those who led the charge in the 70s be the biggest problem?
We on the Left haven’t done our jobs. Some organizations, such as the Left Forum, Third Wave Feminism and NARAL, encourage on-campus recruitment and participation. But we probably would be appalled if our students wanted to do more than simply support our efforts. We have not encouraged them to become leaders, instead of followers. In our early twenties, many of us founded or led organizations. Now we are still leading them, while the young remain powerless. They are the new women, relegated to making sandwiches and answering phones or e-mail rather than taking charge. The more Left groups became organized, the less the young were to be found in the hierarchy. Many groups suffer from “founders’ syndrome,” in which the original leaders are still there and not planning to step aside any time soon.
If we cherish our goals more than our own prowess, it is time for activists and tenured radicals to see ourselves as mentors and partners rather than leaders. This is how I now approach education, but shifting my attitude meant that I had to relinquish much of my power in the classroom. And that in turn has forced the students to take charge of some of the teaching, to abandon their comfortable passivity. It was and still is scary for all of us to some degree, but my battle-wise colleagues and comrades need to understand not only how much we can teach the young, but also how much we can learn from them if we will only listen.
I have to agree with Ms. Jay here. The left is notoriously bad about not building up younger leaders. I’m not going to attack them for it. It helps my side win. The other reason why things look so bleak to Ms. Jay is that she only views the world through her radical, hippie-colored glasses. These people don’t want society to change. If it did, they’d lose their jobs and wouldn’t have anything to “research” with funding from generous government grants. Feminism will never be solved. The feminists won’t stop until our entire society is changed. Only, none of them can agree with what our changed society should look like. Founder’s syndrome exists on both sides, but the crazy leaders, who made a name for themselves in their youth, won’t step aside or allow other opinions. This causes dissension and fratricide within movements. Ms. Jay contradicts herself here. If she aimed to learn from the young, wouldn’t she be more open to that crazy texting, blogging and twittering?
Silly liberals. They don’t even make sense when they’re attacking their own side.
Tags: Karla Jay, Pace University
