MOVING ON

New-ness.

Political Mobility

So, who wants to hear my useless, impractical political musings of late?

I was wondering, a bit ago, why -- in my experience anyway -- college student governments have very little to do, why the complaints are usually mild, and why the serious grievences are rare? I thought about this a lot, constantly reading the wonderful student newspaper, skipping, frequently, the watery "political" section. And I kept on coming back to it: why aren't there more things to complain about?

The interesting thing about college communities is that, by and large, everyone wants to be there. This is especially true in expensive private colleges (excluding, for the sake of argument, the questionable group of elite who are either, one, unaffected by the financial input, or, two, pushed into higher education by their elite parents) where the cost of tuition forces college consumers to be extremely wary and hyper sensitive to the nuances of the purchase. I think, therefore, it's safe to jump to the conclusion that the average member of the student body is aware of the particular preoccupations of their particular university, aware of the faults, et cetera (if not before they come to the school, then certainly after a few semesters of presence).

Furthermore, the relative fluidity of the university system (I mean, it is to my understanding that transferring from college to college can be accomplished with relative ease) allows students to flow in and out of an individual college if there particularly preoccupations do not match those of their institution. All of this makes me believe, based on nothing more than idle musing, that, generally, the student body of any given college is relatively happy to be there and, thus, their grievences emergeonly from extreme circumstances and complaints exist at a mild level.

So, now, since my musings are often random. I'm thinking about my distaste for politics-in-general, in the idea of trying to change someone's mind, in winning and argument, in lobbying for one's beliefs over the beliefs of another. Anthropology class does this to me alot too, because it has me constantly thinking that an individual's society often appears to be the superior society to him or her, and it's impossible to accurately and fairly judge one community in the terms of another. I find it very difficult to argue for changes in communities I don't belong to, and even find it difficult to argue for changes in a community I live in. I always think there must be people who are happy with the way the community is, and they probably worked hard to get it the way it is -- I feel terrible for the happiness they lose for the happiness I gain.

It all makes me wish that moving from country to country was as fluid as moving from university to university. If one desires for legalizaton of pot he or she could, instead of trying to force legalization on a community that does not desire it, move to a community (what is it? Amsterdam?) that embraces it. Too many things stand in the way. Citizenship, visas, social taboos, economic difficulties, nationalism, et cetera.

I don't know. This is just what I'm thinking about, and, at this time, I am unwilling to consider the, probably, enormous amount of complicatons to free-flow of citizens and clusters of like-minded individuals...