ONE of my favorite CDs was put out in 1993 by a hard rock band from Wisconsin. A line from one particular song's chorus comes to mind whenever the latest cause du jour pops into the headlines: "You can't change the world."
Granted, this line was used in reference to alcoholism, but it has become a personal motto of sorts.
I used to bemoan the lack of student involvement with issues surrounding the University. It's particularly frustrating when a minimal amount of student input could have large scale results. Students should be cognizant of their local community.
It's one thing to express your feelings on the Honor Committee. It's another to go railing on about a situation in a country you've never been to, happening to people you don't know. These are examples of situations where student involvement will have very minimal results.
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The University has shown bursts of activism in the past. Photographs and headlines from protests on the Lawn remind us of how past students spent their time.
Times have changed, however, from the days of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War. No longer do we see issues that provoke our society the way others did in the past.
I was speaking to my parents about this very subject not too long ago. According to them, even in the heat of the student activism of the 1960's, only a tenth of students actually participated in protesting.
In spite of the fact that students have never been overwhelmingly involved in activist issues, the few students who support these causes find a way to weasel their way into our collective conscience.
The best example of this is the recent issue about the University's investment in Unocal, an oil company with investments in Burma. Students managed to create enough interest among the members of Student Council to push through a resolution calling for the University to divest in Unocal.
The majority of students at the University would have trouble pointing to Burma on a map. The fact that the entire student body is on record as supporting University divestment in Burma is ridiculous.
It's an example of how a small group of people can get riled up about the affairs of another country and generate a disproportionate amount of attention because people are afraid of saying they don't care.
Well, I'm going to say it. I don't care. I don't care about Burma. I have trouble being concerned about anything overseas. In fact, I couldn't even tell you about the hardships people are suffering in Mexico. I think it's probably a good thing I don't know about these hardships.
Learning a little about an issue often spurs misguided activism. The conditions in other countries are the results of complex histories and existing conditions. Activists typically pursue high-minded ideas with very little information about the actual context that brought such issues into existence. It's a more intelligent way of beating your head against the wall.
I did care about these issues at one time. When I was younger, I used to lament about the world's problems all the time. It was depressing and pointless.
Sure, there are some people who find activism a fun activity. Fine. They can run out to foreign countries and help whoever. If it makes them happy, more power to them.
But every now and then, I read some newsprint that decries the lack of student involvement in an international issue of some sorts.
An example would be the protest on the Lawn concerning the widespread poverty in Iraq. Many people accuse the United Nations sanctions of contributing to these conditions. The protest on the Lawn was proceeded by a blitz of flyers on University bulletin boards.
These protesters manage to do little more than raise awareness of the issue that they are protesting. Once they raise awareness, then the issue vanishes back into the woodwork.
The result is, we're all back where we started. To this end, protests and activism tend to accomplish very little around Grounds.
Instead of making grandiose gestures that temporarily get students to notice a cause in passing, activists should concentrate on causes where their effort can have tangible results. Local issues offer this type of opportunity.
If student activists feel the need to pursue international causes, they would be well served to avoid wasting their time on students who just do not care.
(Brian Haluska's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at bhaluska@cavalierdaily.com.)
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