Complacency Poor Response to Slurs
Scott Baumgartner
Issue date: 11/14/06 Section: Opinions
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When Joe Tarzi wrote last week's article, "Activism Making Everything an Issue," he seemed to forget that he, too, is an activist. If he truly is against being preached to, is truly worried that Trinity is turning into Wesleyan, and truly afraid that activists are taking over campus, he would not have written the article at all, for writing, as I am writing now, is itself a form of activism.
What Tarzi seems to advocate -- that we all shut up -- is an incredibly dangerous position to keep; complacency contributes to a "climate of fear." Furthermore, the article itself reflects those campus conditions he so despises. Tarzi's article operates within the same bipolar you-are-or-you-aren't mindset that he lambastes protesters for having. There are two high-profile instances where people speak out against violations of their personal rights -- one transcending politics, another happening to follow a more traditional right vs. left argument -- and Trinity suddenly "become[s] Wesleyan." Because everybody knows that the entire population of Wesleyan is constituted by hippies who play nude Frisbee, don't shower, and rally against The Newest Thing, while Trinity is its alter-ego: apathetic, insular, affluent, and happily married to the Old Guard status quo.
Of course these vast generalizations are untrue (and infuriating). Both campuses are full of activists. Before people become outraged at such labeling, let me explain -- it seems to me that the word "activist" has succumbed to the same fate that the word "feminist" has: "activist" has become a synonym for a militant liberal who spouts "holier than thou" at whomever is within hearing range and is righteous enough to actually believe themselves, just as the word "feminist" necessarily implies bra-burning, lesbianism, and hatred of men in the eyes of many. "Activist" and "active" share the same root; if one is active in any argument on campus, whether by sharing your opinion with your friends in conversation, writing an article for the Tripod, chalking for a group or (gasp) defacing another group's chalkings, you are an activist.
What Tarzi seems to advocate -- that we all shut up -- is an incredibly dangerous position to keep; complacency contributes to a "climate of fear." Furthermore, the article itself reflects those campus conditions he so despises. Tarzi's article operates within the same bipolar you-are-or-you-aren't mindset that he lambastes protesters for having. There are two high-profile instances where people speak out against violations of their personal rights -- one transcending politics, another happening to follow a more traditional right vs. left argument -- and Trinity suddenly "become[s] Wesleyan." Because everybody knows that the entire population of Wesleyan is constituted by hippies who play nude Frisbee, don't shower, and rally against The Newest Thing, while Trinity is its alter-ego: apathetic, insular, affluent, and happily married to the Old Guard status quo.
Of course these vast generalizations are untrue (and infuriating). Both campuses are full of activists. Before people become outraged at such labeling, let me explain -- it seems to me that the word "activist" has succumbed to the same fate that the word "feminist" has: "activist" has become a synonym for a militant liberal who spouts "holier than thou" at whomever is within hearing range and is righteous enough to actually believe themselves, just as the word "feminist" necessarily implies bra-burning, lesbianism, and hatred of men in the eyes of many. "Activist" and "active" share the same root; if one is active in any argument on campus, whether by sharing your opinion with your friends in conversation, writing an article for the Tripod, chalking for a group or (gasp) defacing another group's chalkings, you are an activist.
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