The debt is the price of a ticket, not always honored, into the upper-middle class. Nobody forces you to go that way. If you do, as I said I think your obligation is to make the most of it, not bloviate about the future depredations of your classmates. Be a good example, that would have more impact than issuing a pretentious tract.
That it could only be sophomoric is well-taken, though others here seem to disagree and think it is bitchin' radical. "The Reproduction of Capital." Sweet.
My first bust was a sit-in (trespassing) to demand free food for the workers in our cafeteria. Ye Olde Worker Student Alliance. That had more impact than my literary primal screams, though obviously not much impact. We also took pains to get students off the campus, organizing with others, rather than stay in the fishbowl. Of course it didn't amount to anything. If I was on campus I'd be doing the sweatshops and living wage stuff, aside from trying to make the most of the courses available.
I've said I support the protests, in general. The question of whose ox is gored by a tuition increase is a little complicated. The enrollment of an elite public institution includes students from very well-off families. Subsidies to them are financed by regressive state taxes paid by many whose children will never see those campuses, except as custodians and food service workers. Obviously full-cost tuition would block many students from an education. And progressive, ample state taxation is not in the cards, especially during or soon after this recession. It's tough. By all means, let's talk about the reproduction of capital, or my itchin' balls.
On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 3:09 PM, Joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> Max writes
>
> "I vividly recall the reaction, decades ago, when I was among the
> workers, projecting disdain for privileges I had the benefit of, and
> it was not pretty. Disdain for one's own privilege is conspicuous
> consumption. It's offensive."
>
> Yes, true. But today what those privileges add up to is enormous debt and no
> employment.
>
> Yes, the writing was sophomoric. How could it not be? It was a pastiche...
> as the writing of any college student is bound to be.
> But as for the privileges, this was my favorite bit:
>
> "In the university we prostrate ourselves before a value of separation,
> which in reality translates to a value of domination. We ...convince
> ourselves we're brighter than everyone else. Somehow, we think, we possess
> some trait that means we deserve more than everyone else. We have measured
> ourselves and we have measured others. It should never feel terrible
> ordering others around, right? It should never feel terrible to diagnose
> people as an expert, manage them as a bureaucrat, test them as a professor,
> extract value from them ...as a businessman. It should feel good,
> gratifying, completing. It is our private wet dream for the future;
> everywhere, in everyone this same dream of domination. After all, we are
> intelligent, studious, young. We worked hard to be here, we deserve this."
>
> This was not addressed to factory workers; it was addressed to other
> university students, who are intimately acquainted with the promise and
> quicksand of privilege.
>
> Joanna
>
>
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