Analogy: Student Activism is to Dartmouth as Global Warming is to the Environment.
In other words, it doesn't exist.
OK, so that last part was a joke; I'm not Glenn Beck. Climate change is real. But student activism at Dartmouth?
Not so much.
Sure, we have bake sales and are occasionally called to arms e.g., Haiti 2010 but it's time to face facts. Activism at Dartmouth is dead.
Gone are the days when socially minded students erected shantytowns on the Green to protest the horrors of apartheid. Or when angry students stormed Parkhurst in 1969 to protest the College's position on ROTC. The ire of indignation that once spurred students to action has subsided with the changing of the times.
But to say our generation is apathetic is boring. And unoriginal. And please, I've got to at least be original if I'm going to try and insult us.
So, no, I don't think we're apathetic because we just don't care. I think we're apathetic because there's too much to care about and none of it's personal enough to make us stop and focus. I mean, I might read your blitz asking me to be a better person and save the world, but then again, I'm on my crackberry and do you know just how easy it is for me to delete your plea? It's just a click of a button.
So you know what I'll do? Instead of attending your little meeting or lecture, I'll become a fan of the Tucker Foundation on Facebook and copy and paste your URL to vote for your organization so you win XYZ amount of money. Look at me! I'm supporting you without having to inconvenience my own life. Thanks to the Internet, I can avidly support the fight against AIDS, malnutrition in rural Appalachia and the problem of education of inner city youth all with the click of a button!
But to march, to protest or to throw blood on the fur coats of celebrities is old news. Overdone and overused. Organizing a rally or a protest march is about as fresh as the word fresh. That hasn't been cool since the Fresh Prince.
What's happened is activism has suffered from a lack of inspiration and direction in recent years. Excluding the 2008 presidential election, nothing has come remotely close to unifying our generation. And that's because activism nowadays lacks pizzazz. If everyone can be an activist with the click of a button, what's the point of standing for anything when I can stand for everything?
At Dartmouth in particular, we are overloaded and told to care about a thousand and one things. This means that by the end of the day, the only thing we actually are interested in is what we ourselves are invested in whether that be global health or making education accessible to all. We work on developing our own passions, instead of fostering the enthusiasms of others.
When I began working on environmental issues on this campus, I was amazed at the disorganization and the lack of communication amongst people who all professed to care about the same thing. It was more important that we each had accomplishments to list instead of working collectively to achieve something bigger.
And sometimes I still feel as if this is the case. We are encouraged to discover our own passions, but not to share them. We place far too much importance on who is leading and who is following. When in actuality, you need both for activism to succeed.
So tell me what is you care about. And why you care about it. And what I can do to help.
