I’m taking a German course because I need a language credit to graduate.
The theme of the class is: Counter Cultures of the 20th and 21st centuries.
On the Second day of class, my German professor was mortified when she found out we had no “causes worth dying for” or “burning issues” deserving of protest.
I have had several professors who are convinced that students should spend the majority of their undergraduate years protesting. These professors want us to be incensed at the injustices of the word.
They want us to be idealistic.
They want us to start a revolution.
…and they probably want us to smoke pot too.
Tuition at my school is $34,834.
The total cost of attendance (if living on campus) is $41,834.
Students in a position to pay $41,831, or who can cover it in scholarships (like me) are not likely to spend their time protesting the injustices of the world. You can find those types at the public schools, small liberal arts schools, and in the Ivy League.
But not at the University of Miami.
Students here fall into two categories: those preparing for a vocation, and those on vacation.
We have a few fledgling Birkenstock organizations, but most of the campus is apolitical.
In my German class, we are covering radical student movements and German terrorist groups. At first, I thought that the course theme was simply uninteresting, but then I realized that these groups repulse me.
And I think I figured out why: I am an ethnical, law-abiding person that just wants to be left alone so I can be as productive as possible. (The cliché version of this would be, “so I can pursue my passions.”)
Now, I realize that there are certain conditions and expectations so I can reach my goals, but I am fine with those.
“Free and striving to be productive” I think this is how most ‘Americans’ are, at least in theory.
I realize that these protestors and terrorist feel like they are being productive and helping further a ‘cause’ – but they are actually wasteful and counterproductive.
Moreover, these groups infringe on other people’s rights to be left-the-hell-alone so they can be productive and happy.
- The people on the hijacked plane didn’t want anything to do with the terrorist’s cause.
- Several people shot in the Kent student protest chaos didn’t ask to be involved.
- And Hanns-Martin Schleyer certainly didn’t want to be dragged into it.
Was pisses me off is that these people feel like that their pet-project overrides everyone else’s rights, (and to the extreme, the right of others to live.)
(Clarification on the “Right to Live” – this is different than the second-rater whining that the government/capitalist/more-successful person has an obligation towards him because his need. “You’re imposing on my right to live by not giving me your money” doesn’t cut it.
You can’t blow up someone because they didn’t share.
You don’t have a right to someone else’s property.
I think that people need the right to opt-out of a political stance, especially an irrational one, and the actions that these groups (such as RAF) took didn’t respect the right for Joe-normal to strive to be happy and productive.
And this is why my classmates and I don’t really care about the course’s theme. We pay $41,834 or have earned $41,834 through scholarships.
$41,834 suggests a degree of wealth or talent (or less commonly, a mixture of both) so we aren’t a likely group to feel socially wronged.
If anything we are more sympathetic to the victims of these groups (like Schleyer) because they are random successful people who fall prey to these nutcases.
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