It is difficult for me to call you comrade. You lack a revolutionary spirit. Che said, "the true revolutionary is guided by feelings of love" in Man and Socialism in Cuba. I do not feel the love, Zach. I feel like I have witnessed the tantrum of a little boy who is not getting his way and wants to take credit for other peoples' work.
Why is the student strike your cause? You constantly berate the student staff of Arthur for being students first, and journalists second. You do not care about the work of the student or its fruits. You once said to me: 'why should I read Hegel when I can read Zizek's commentary of Hegel?' Does that sound like a studious spirit? Spot read some Zizek, cut some red felt, adopt some Marxist buzz words and all in a sudden you're a student revolutionary...
If you were any kind of a student then you would know about academic charity, the principle that takes thesis' (and people) on their best reading, because it does not benefit anyone to assume the worst of people and their ideas. You would know about academic honesty (which is journalistic honesty too, by the way) which has writers take the context of a quote into full consideration when placing it into a new context, gathering one's own evidence (or properly citing someone else's) and not misrepresenting the intended meaning of a statement. It takes intellectual courage to stand up for what is clearly right and do it the right way, but intellectual courage is found next to intellectual cowardliness and intellectual rashness. Intellectual rashness has good people lashing out at good people over matters of the mind or having ends justify means. There is no need to fear the students of Trent University, Zach, they are supposedly your comrades.
Students have well founded skills of pratical reasoning; weighing evidence, evaluating arguments, analyzing rhetoric, and hearing the noise. Our poetic blathering here is quite noisey, Zach. A groundwork is not 'theorizing' an Ontario student strike or romanticizing the Quebecois strike. It is about taking the practical steps needed, doing the paperwork to make sure things are legitimated, making connections with other students, getting the word out about actualizing the potential exemplified by our fellow students. This is real life, not hack and slash journalism, the evidence and work come first; the story is shaped by the events, the events are not shaped by the story. By formulating your own story and just filling in testimony where you need to to prove your own point, you are adopting the strategies of oppressors and Sophists.
It all seems so frusterating that Arthur is doing nothing about a student strike, right? Well, guess again. Why get frusterated when you can contribute to the groundwork that is already going on? Why get frusterated that no one is contacting you when you are a fully able communicator? And I'm not talking about writing some angry emails to people you see as rivals, but helping out your fellow student-journalists in a positive, constructive manner. Attune yourself to the needs of others and help facilitate the political climate on campus. If you are not a student, then be a proper ally.
When we take our schools back and free tuition, I hope you take the opportunity to go back to school. Maybe you would have time to read some Hegel.
No comments:
Post a Comment