Column: Political apathy plagues Hamline
Leigh Meryhew
Issue date: 2/9/10 Section: Opinion
The first day of classes appear arrhythmic during this cold week in February; I arrive to every class late - slightly incredulous and raging as I begin to ovulate.
Right before I sat down to write this column I attended a seminar where most of the students appeared to fit the stereotypical, boring dude-bro profile of men who attend strip clubs (I should know, as I've worked in one).
This brought me up to the point where I begin now: Why are we so notorious for our apolitical (and mostly dude-bro) apathy?
Minnesota has a rich history in radical student organizing.
Take a look at student organizations like Students for a Democratic Society, Youth Against War and Racism, the young adults during the Minnehaha Free State and other groups that contain young members such as the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Coalition and the Industrial Workers of the World.
With so many groups around town -many of which go unnamed here - and the driven rage that undoubtedly appears in young adults when they begin college and become "enlightened," why haven't Hamline students taken on more of a radical force within their ranks?
A lot of it comes down to the fact that some Hamline students have been brainwashed in their fields of study. Much of the Hamline curriculum has so successfully constrained the student populace that we are almost to a point of nullification.
Challenging the status quo, even in a conducive place such as the classroom, appears to have become a hassle not worth our time (or pocketbooks).
I commonly hear students praising their majors in the physical sciences, global studies and business management.
The curriculum in those fields is designed to satisfy relationships between Hamline and corporations like 3M - where critical political thought is seen as the unholiest of holy in the grail of animal vivisection and devicing the newest contraption to keep all of those "illegal" immigrants across that militarized border of ours.
Right before I sat down to write this column I attended a seminar where most of the students appeared to fit the stereotypical, boring dude-bro profile of men who attend strip clubs (I should know, as I've worked in one).
This brought me up to the point where I begin now: Why are we so notorious for our apolitical (and mostly dude-bro) apathy?
Minnesota has a rich history in radical student organizing.
Take a look at student organizations like Students for a Democratic Society, Youth Against War and Racism, the young adults during the Minnehaha Free State and other groups that contain young members such as the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Coalition and the Industrial Workers of the World.
With so many groups around town -many of which go unnamed here - and the driven rage that undoubtedly appears in young adults when they begin college and become "enlightened," why haven't Hamline students taken on more of a radical force within their ranks?
A lot of it comes down to the fact that some Hamline students have been brainwashed in their fields of study. Much of the Hamline curriculum has so successfully constrained the student populace that we are almost to a point of nullification.
Challenging the status quo, even in a conducive place such as the classroom, appears to have become a hassle not worth our time (or pocketbooks).
I commonly hear students praising their majors in the physical sciences, global studies and business management.
The curriculum in those fields is designed to satisfy relationships between Hamline and corporations like 3M - where critical political thought is seen as the unholiest of holy in the grail of animal vivisection and devicing the newest contraption to keep all of those "illegal" immigrants across that militarized border of ours.
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