"Where are the college kids these days?" So asks Thomas Friedman in his most recent New York Times column entitled "No Mullah Left Behind" (Feb. 13). To answer your question, Mr. Friedman, we're here -- just chillaxin'.
Friedman ponders the point in reference to the Bush administration's counterintuitive energy policies and the lack of any massive student activism protesting them. "I would like to see every campus in America demand that its board of trustees disinvest from every U.S. auto company until they improve their mileage standards," he says. Does Dartmouth have investments in automobile or energy companies that counter the ability of the United States to become energy-autonomous? I don't know and I didn't try very hard finding out. In fact, I didn't try at all. Not even an Internet search. It doesn't matter. I'd like to see two kegs tapped at once be allowable in a frat basement, Mr. Friedman, but I don't go writing columns about it. Mostly because it wouldn't do much. It seems like the administration has its mind made up.
Now, this gets the wheels a-turnin'. I wonder: "Is this the reason that American college students aren't protesting? Because they see an administration with its mind made up, protests or not?" I submit that it is. Well, at least part of it's that. The combination of "I Love the '90s: Part Deux" on VH1 nightly and "The OC" out on DVD is enough to ruin anyone's ambition to change anything. Even their underwear.
It's hard to argue that the United States' gluttonous use of Middle Eastern oil isn't funding both sides of the "War on Terror," so how does the Bush administration respond? Not by demanding increased mileage in cars sold domestically, not by instituting a new tax on gasoline sales, and certainly not by investing in renewable resources. They have refused to do anything to improve energy conservation in America-like phase in a $1-a-gallon gasoline tax on American drivers, or demand increased mileage from Detroit's automakers, or develop a crash program for renewable sources of energy -- it is utterly implausible that "hydrogen economy" rhetoric that he busted out a few State of the Unions ago is legitimate. Instead, the Bush administration continues to back policies that reinforce our dependence on an increasingly scarce and pricey -- not just economically, but also in terms of national security -- source of energy. "Hey buddy, what's with the questions? We're the Government. We're trying to govern here. Why don't you go to a Programming Board event or something?" It all sounds so familiar.
I'm not going to claim that our primary reason for going to war in Iraq was oil. What I'm saying is that continuing to rely on oil is becoming too costly, that refusing to buy oil from the Middle East could be a huge engine of political change and that, strangely enough, no one is really raising a fuss except for a few dirty hippies that the media can't seem to embrace. Just so, the alcohol policy at Dartmouth is absurd. Many of us realize it; we'll make comments in passing or maybe even attend a meeting. Maybe. Only a few are true Keystone crusaders.
There just seems to be an overwhelming sense of inevitability. Things will probably work out in the future (How could they not?), but it's not really in our hands. It seems as students of the College, and as college students as a whole, that we're utterly powerless.
These assumptions are probably not true, but I don't really see a way of disproving them yet. Moreover, it doesn't really seem worth it to take the initiative in either case, because of the recent historical record's evidence of unresponsive administrations.
How could I even relate beer kegs and oil barrels? Alcohol policies alter four years of our social lives, while the energy policy of the United States will -- for better or worse -- change the world. Sure, we have stickers on our light switches and recycling cans, but the stuff of real importance isn't being decided here. Should we realize the power of numbers and take more steps to pressure decision makers to change their ways? I guess.
But I think I see an easier way of slowing terrorism and fixing the world: broadcast "I Love the '90s" and "The OC" on every station in the Middle East. Your average terrorist won't even leave the cave.
