What ever happened to fighting the good fight?
I’m an old ’60s battle-hippie taking political science courses because I like talking politics more than most sane people. Students today are smarter and more hardworking than I ever was, but show a remarkable lack of interest in public affairs. Activism and protest—the hallmarks of my first trip through university—are unheard of.The Canadian military has been killing people who have done us no harm for reasons of domestic politics since current students were in kindergarten, but there is not a peace group on this campus. Poster Day is free of political content—no issues, no political leaders of any party, of any country. Federal legislation on marijuana proceeds without student comment despite Canadian students being among the world’s heaviest pot smokers. Most of my classmates in third year political science barely know there was a war in Vietnam or recognize the name Tommy Douglas.
Nobody asks questions
Is the government doing well? How can I help to change things I think are important? Should the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) be allowed to collect everybody’s phone data? Should Canada buy the F35 stealth jet?
Once a dynamic cauldron of intellectual curiosity, passion, debate, challenge, disruption, and growth, university today is a place of eerie silence cowering in fear that an idea might offend someone.
Why do people call these turbulent times?
During my first journey through higher education (from 1967 to 1975), Leonid Brezhnev sent tanks into Prague. Former president Lyndon B. Johnson sent tanks into Detroit (before Black Lives Matter, came Burn Baby Burn—check out “Black Day in July” on YouTube). Trudeau the Elder sent tanks into Montréal. Troops murdered four students at Kent State. Mass political protests were surrounded with first-aid tents for the wounded. Israel had two shooting wars with its neighbours—the second led to an overnight quadrupling of the international price of oil. Pure evil stalked the earth in human form as Milhous, spreading carnage and death until public pressure forced his impeachment.
We live in comparatively peaceful times. Suggesting otherwise is marketing for those who want to increase security budgets and compromise privacy and civil liberties. Canada can best protect its citizens from terror by not going to other peoples’ countries and killing them. The Third Law of Belligerence states, “If you shoot at people, sometimes they shoot back.”Challenging government
Governments respond to people who understand that policy formation is a combat sport. Inside government, especially in cabinet, policy is driven by the interests of the donors. Civil society activists, having less money for bribing political parties, traditionally have had the most success using the grab-them-by-the-throat-and-squeeze-until-their-eyes-bug-out approach to government.
Governments do not respond to politeness. They respond to fear. When you can organize well enough to make them fear an electoral impact, they pay attention. Otherwise the priorities of donors dominate based on “The Golden Rule”—who has the gold makes the rules.
Mass activism
Effective mass activism is nothing new. I grew up with the anti-war, civil rights, women’s liberation, and environment movements.
The 1974 Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry introduced intervener funding, which professionalized movement political activism. The Aboriginal community is working on their third generation of lawyers. They win a lot. Governments have learned to fear messing with them. Women’s groups and environmental advocates have followed their lead. Computers and the internet have made politics a much more level playing field.
Forty years’ involvement with public policy in the Ontario electricity sector taught me that we live in an effective, functioning democracy and we get the government we deserve. One person working hard through the system for a long time can have an important impact. I know this is a fact, not a theory, because I’ve done it myself three times and I’m not done yet.
Now it’s your turn
To be smart, healthy, young, and educated at a Canadian university makes students here among the most privileged people on the face of this earth. You are the future. Not only does your opinion matter, it’s all that matters.If you hope to live as well as me when you hit my age, you have to aim much higher than a cubicle. You have to save the world. You will have to make sacrifices for your kids that my generation and the generation that runs the university didn’t make for you.
Raise questions and demand answers. Authority is a necessary part of society, but get into the habit of keeping it on a short, accountable leash. Start with local questions that affect student life.
Why is there no seating while we wait for the buses? Why do we have to walk through mud—crossing for the bus at the South Loop, in front of Massey, across Johnson Green? Would you hire an engineer trained at a university that showcases north-facing solar panels? Given the grotesque overuse of materials, what makes the Gryphon Bike shelter “green?” Can we have a mileage standard to get a permit for the university parking lot?
Many of these questions have perfectly reasonable answers that are available on request—but nobody ever asks. That’s okay for fitting into a cubicle—not so good for participating in democracy, starting a business, or being an innovator.
[media-credit id=115 align=”aligncenter” width=”1020″]
Photo by Mariah Bridgeman/The Ontarion.
Terrific article by Alex Mac about the deafening sound of silence on campus.
The main reason? Students are interested only in getting a good paying job, and joining the mindless rat-race. Very sad…
Perhaps they feel that demonstrations achieve nothing but a walk in the sun, and are afraid of being identified in the work market as shit disturbers.
Students prefer to complain to one another about the ridiculously-high cost of tuition, housing, food, gas, clothing, etc., and that’s as far as it goes. Courage seems to end on the playing fields.
If anyone wants to get attention, all they have to do is carry a sign boycotting certain retailers or – even more effective – refuse to pay income taxes (introduced in Canada as a temporary wartime measure).
Good luck!