Activism for Paper-Writers

If you’re a liberal arts student, chances are you should probably stop reading this column and get back to writing the papers that should, by all rights, be the bread, butter, and unrelenting curse of your education thus far. (If you’re an engineer, there’re always exams to think about). I do a “page count” of material I have due to psych myself up for the grand finale. The number’s currently at 113 pages, and I highly doubt I’m anywhere near the top of the pack in terms of total material due in this happy-go-lucky season of Butler camping and Starbucks sojourning.

To finish these assignments, we usually lock ourselves up, knock back huge amounts of whatever we take to “enhance performance,” and pray for some sort of miraculous inspiration to breathe life into our cold outlines/first drafts/blank sheets of paper. These weeks are the capstone to a few months of class attendance, hundreds of pages of reading, and seesaw flurries of academic activity that we balance out with extracurriculars, job hunts, and, surprisingly, having a good time with friends. All of which is fine in the short run, but it begs a pair of questions—how much time do we have to dedicate to causes we support, and how can we get our similarly-overworked friends and acquaintances engaged?

The question’s been bothering me since the hunger strike and its aftermath. People I talked to about it had opinions one way or the other—usually along the lines of “I agree with some of what they’re saying, but I find the way they’re saying it isn’t particularly helpful.” The overall feeling, though, regardless of which simplified “side” of the issue they came down on, was weariness with the situation. “I’m too busy to care” was far and away the most common response.

When I got involved with a few alumni and students who felt, for a wide variety of reasons, that the hunger strike wasn’t an appropriate action, I realized just why being “too busy to care” makes a terrible amount of sense.

I’m not claiming I was an “activist.” Activism is about having boots on the ground and organizing a committed group of individuals that communicates with the outside world on a regular basis. In “study break” terms, it’s an extroverted extracurricular. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes being willing to communicate with others in public and in private, including some who’ll probably vehemently disagree with you. And, unless you’re fired up about an issue, it’s probably not something you feel like you to want to commit several hours of your week to if you’re taking a bunch of classes, or working, or participating in extracurricular activities.

And even then, it’s a hard sell. At its peak, the Facebook group opposing the hunger strike had about 750 Columbia-affiliated members, who were willing to at least put their name down publicly for something. About 75 of them came out to directly counterprotest following the administration’s agreement with the hunger strikers. The group currently has 616 members, and I’d put some money on a fair number of them leaving the group if they received a message from it asking them to directly participate in an event. Since we’re all busy people, many feel it’s enough to just put their name down somewhere, say “I support this,” and hope their spot at Butler is still warm when they get back, especially if the cause they’re supporting has no central organizers.

The hunger strikers endured a different set of problems with their organization. In not making the decision-making processes behind the strike transparent, they engendered hostility and polarization instead of a serious discussion of the issues they cared so much about. As a result, they suffered from the old “radical activism” trope of 1968—a few people agreed with them, but many of the rest who’d otherwise say “leave me alone” or be open to their ideas got turned off by the methodology or rhetoric. It’s another form of activism gone awry.

Can we move activism on this campus beyond isolating radicalism or Facebook groups? I think many organizations are already taking great steps in the right direction. One of the biggest successes this year was the College Democrats’ trip to Kentucky. The trip allowed everyone from a friend of mine who’d never really participated to the most die-hard, blue-state, volunteer-happy administrative wonks to get involved in a quick, no-frills way, while actually accomplishing something and building a network for future events. Those deeply involved with the cause organized the trip, those less gung-ho but interested were able to spend time doing something they believed in, and it was a success by all accounts. Many nonpolitical volunteer organizations do great work for humanitarian causes in a similar way, and could really use our support to increase their presence on campus.

As it stands, activism is possible on a large scale here if you get organizers who can energize the otherwise-sleepy base. When we return from winter break, the presidential election season will be in murderous swing, with weeks to go until the New York primaries. It’s worth considering how to get our own boots on the ground as the candidates do the same thing. Now get back to your papers! Maybe grab me a coffee when you’re up?