11.06.2006

Politics, Affirmation

UCSC is a highly politicized (highly political? Highly polyvalent?) campus. There is a long and glorious history of radicalism at the university; Angela Davis is on the faculty, there were various intersections with radical groups from Berkeley during the heyday of the New Left, and the political climate remains overwhelmingly leftist. I'm going to a meeting of the (anti-)capitalism reading group on Wednesday. One of its organizers informed me that "yeah, most people are pretty pro-revolutionary." Having been the voice of the left for all those years in the corporate environment, now I'm the voice of the center here. Bizzare.

One thing being at UCSC (along with hanging out with political sharpshooters like Ana all the time) is doing/will do is making me clarify my politics. I have a feeling that I'll be called out a lot more than I was in the past, so when I'm defending voting for Democrats and looking for long-term electoral strategies in lieu of advocating revolutionary change, I'd best have my ducks in a row.

On an unrelated note, all grad students really want is kindergarten-style affirmation. "You're doing a good job! Yes you are! Your primary-source-based research project sounds promising! Yes it does!" A certain professor a group of us are working with right now is notoriously impossible to please and I got a wicked dose of that via e-mail today. I deleted the snipey parts of my reply before sending it, but neither am I just going to roll over when confronted with this horseshit.

5 comments:

Adva Ahava said...

I got a "wicked dose" of that too, right after I had a lousy 8am section experience, as per usual. Is today over yet?

Rachel said...

I wish I could vote for Green Party candidates and really feel as though my vote counted. Here, the Green Party is quite well represented, mainly because Austria, while quite conservative socially, is quite radical in terms of the environment, so the Greens have a lot of influence here. I think they won about 7% or so of the Parliament seats, but don't quote me on that.

A said...

Rachel, the more people vote green, the more the need for change will register. It is about making a commitment to change the system...a slow and steady one - not a comitment to push Bush out so that he can reincarnate after the next election. Slow, steady, change...help build a critical mass - vote Green! That is it, I'm posting Mao's story about the old man who moved the mountain, damnit...small actions in commitment of change that may take years and years!

hardcori said...

Chris- if it were up to me, you'd get nothing but gold stars! ooh and cookies.

Rachel said...

I think the problem with voting Green in the American political system is that it's a winner take all executive branch. The Greens can be effective and influential locally, but because we don't have a parliamentary system, I don't really see how they could ever be truly influential on the national stage. Even in Europe, where they *are* fairly influential - I think because the typical European government is not winner take all, they are still not one of the major parties. It seems we're stuck with the two party system for now.

I guess I just fail to see how even having one Green Party Senator, say, making it to Congress really makes a huge difference in real terms, not just in ideological terms. I could see a Green Party member making a big difference in local politics.

But then, I'm not voting in this election anyway, because I forgot to have my ballot sent to me so I don't really have any room to talk. :)