LET ME begin with a sentence that, even as I repeat it, seems encumbered by predictable, propagandizing language: "We hope our administration can come to recognize that social justice is indeed part of our mission and paying our workers fairly is essential to living out our values." This came from the website of the U.VA. Living Wage Campaign, whose modestly populated rally I attended this past Friday. In chants and proclamations, the protestors tended toward pithy, memorable phrases -- trying obviously to conjure powerful imagery of "social justice" and "our values." For a campaign with legitimate policy goals, however, the cause of "social justice" relies too much on language of moral duty and some vague obligation to raising workers' wages. Perhaps the Living Wage Campaign is suffering from a mid-life crisis of sorts, wherein the overplayed chants and hackneyed slogans have eclipsed the protestors' goals. In other words, rehearsed calls for "social justice" and "living wages" will only provoke rehearsed responses, regardless of either side's evidence or logic. Reframing the issue in new language, new ideas and therefore new argument could elevate the entrenched argument and further debate, rather than needlessly prolonging the deaf exchange of talking points.
I think it's unlikely the Living Wage Campaign will ever get enough power to alter administration policy through vulgar antagonism alone. The campaign's political capital seemed to surge last year, during the sit in and subsequent arrests. But the campaign squandered whatever political capital they had by continuing to demonize University President John T. Casteen, III and by repeating the same tired condemnations of administration policy.
If, for example, the fight becomes more a campaign against poverty and less a crusade against both capitalism and Casteen, the campaign acquires new vocabulary with which to promote their ideas. At the very least, it would galvanize more popular support among the student community. It sounds simple, but one has to wonder why so many students oppose raising the minimum wage, when the most politically popular cause in Charlottesville is the eradication of poverty. Moderate economists agree, albeit somewhat controversially, that raising the minimum wage for contracted employees would diminish poverty for at least those employees. Why then, if we detest poverty with such fury, are students so reluctant to embrace a campaign to raise the low wages that help sustain its existence? One obvious reason -- other than the possibility that our compassion for the poor doesn't extend any farther than our lips -- is the campaign's failure to effectively describe the lasting consequences of inaction.
The Living Wage Campaign could reframe the issue to include the consequences of change rather than vague duties of social justice. By changing the language one uses to describe the problem and solution, you force your opponents to engage their critique with your language and therefore your version of the "truth."
Richard Rorty writes very well about this. Rorty proposes a vision of language as defining "truth" and reality, rather than describing it. To annex a phrase of Rorty's, there is no "intrinsic nature" of the Living Wage Campaign, nor is there any absolute "Truth" regarding poverty. Both ideas consist of the vocabularies used to enshrine and define them, and thus the ideas of both can be altered simply be redescribing them.
Few protests endure beyond the point when kitsch phrases consume the cause. (Just ask the most recent anti-cartoon protestors, if you doubt me.) A few simple adjustments to the campaign's rhetoric and public message could yield more popular support and, dare I suggest it, results.
Justified though they may be, campaign spokesmen who excoriate Casteen as just another heartless robber baron sound fatuous and whiney. Even worse, demonizing Casteen, who ultimately controls University fiscal policy, gestures toward political suicide. Instead, align the goals of the campaign (eliminating poverty) with those of the administration (improving their image) and describe the living wage as a victory for both.
For the sake of underpaid workers, those who protest on their behalf, and those of us compelled to write about the situation, the Living Wage Campaign should acquire a new vocabulary with which to describe the circumstances they hope to change and ways to change them.
Dan Keyserling is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at dkeyserling@cavalierdaily.com.
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