As much as I am interested in saving the Greek system on the Dartmouth campus, I am more curious about why this event has garnered so much attention nationally and from the media. In the past week, I have been in the presence of two news crews, witnessed phone calls to my fraternity from the BBC and an Australian network, and seen my fraternity and brothers on ABC World News and Reports. What is it in present-day society that makes people want to hear about the issues of our rural college? The debate in which we are currently involved is more complex than simply resolving the Greek question and improving social options on campus. It concerns the state of America and Americans and what it means to be part of this incredible country, and ultimately, a member of the world community.
In a previous column, I alluded to the conservative Puritan foundation of the United States, and these roots provide some amount of insight to our current situation. Today, the United States seems obsessed with change, diversity and equality for all people. Politicians cannot be elected without calling for some sort of modification or reform and a citizen cannot be heard above the drone of "civilization" unless he or she has a new, inventive idea. However, the Puritan ethic is resistant to these principles -- so what is going on here? The United States is becoming over-sensitized and divided along special interest lines. When I speak to strangers, I find myself stumbling through a minefield of correct and incorrect words and ideas. People are so concerned with their own agendas and ideals they forget they are part of a larger social organization -- humankind.
Maybe America is redefining itself, rethinking what it means to be an American. Crvecouer, in his letter, "What Is an American?", wrote of America, "we are the most perfect society now existing in the world. Here man is free as he ought to be, nor is this pleasing equality so transitory as many others are." I look around the United States and cannot help but feel an ever-present force bearing down and restraining me from enjoying the perfection Crvecouer hyperbolized. I feel like the equality I find here may, in fact, be transitory, since we have not yet, and may never become a perfect society. Certainly, he was high on whatever American dream existed in the 18th century, but Crvecouer speaks a great deal of truth that is still relevant today. America was founded on ideals. The world is not Eden and perfect conditions can only be achieved in laboratory situations. There is irreconcilable tension between what America wants to be, is striving to be, and wh
at it can be.
Crvecouer also formulated the idea of America as a melting pot, as a place where "individuals of all nations are melted into a new race ... whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world." Many speak of the melting pot as having gone awry or that it is not so much completely amalgamated as it is a tossed salad, people maintaining their individuality and division, celebrating difference instead of similarity. Not to say that celebrating diversity is in any way counterproductive to achieving a more enlightened society, but before distinctions can be made, people must recognize the common human bond we all share.
The United States has matured from its childlike colonial beginnings into arguably the greatest power and leader in the world, but has it reached its potential? So much uptightness exists between generations, genders, races, ethinicities, sexual orientations and socioeconomic positions that Crvecouer's "new race" cannot be consummated. So where do we go from here? The question has been posed time and time again throughout recorded history. Do we maintain a status quo that will eventually result in a complete upheaval of society as we know it or do we work to fulfill Crvecouer's prophecy? This query seems almost rhetorical in nature. How does everything I've said relate to our current situation at Dartmouth and what exactly am I trying to say? I am an idealist and an optimist. I think we will come out of this mess better off, at least I hope we do. But Dartmouth College will be over for me in 15 months, I will enter some semblance of a "real world," and I will st
ill be confronting all the issues I am attempting to face now. Crvecouer: "The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas and form new opinions." I'm trying, are you?