I am not the notoriously cynical, pessimistic, voted most sarcastic girl I was in high school here. In high school I was good about being the very vocal minority, who (sometimes condescendingly) dismissed the views of my classmates. I bitched about the ridiculousness of a system that reward stupid kids who spit back rhetoric with a high class rank. I tried to avoid getting into NHS. I was a star academic decathalete (and loved it!!!) with Cs in Chemistry, Spanish, and Math. I wasn’t a contradiction, but some might of saw me that way.

I am the token libertarian member of SYRA. If my parents knew I had joined a club with Republican in the title I think they’d cry. I speak up in class and I’m not shy about expressing my opinions if you ask, but I don’t go out of my way to make it known that I’m probably one of the more conservative people on this campus. I don’t write articles for the SkidNews, that’s bashed my club every week. Even though I can write coherent articles it just seems pointless to publish something that people will dismiss because its ‘conservative.’ I don’t know.

Maybe I’m not putting enough faith in the Skidmore community, but in the past year and a half, I’ve found that the ‘collegiate liberals’ here are barely better than Hampshire. Sure they shower more often, and don’t think money is evil, since most of them have quite a lot, but they hold similar narrow-minded views that they refuse to see past. And I don’t understand. College is, ideally, supposed to challenge you, and challenge you’re perceptions of the world. Skidmore doesn’t do that. Most students enter Skidmore as relatively liberal, and take Liberal Studies which is supposed to teach you to think about things the way you never did before, but really just confirms all the comfortable ideas most people already have. It’s approach is normative and no conclusions are drawn. The class would have been controversial in my upper middle class white high school, filled with kids whose parents “Vote for Reagan” signs on their lawns had scared my hippie mother when we first moved to the area. At Skidmore, it just seems to enforce what almost everyone already believes. It doesn’t challenge any assumptions.

Again, maybe I’m just being cynical, but its been a long time since I felt this disillusioned. At Hampshire I found crazy hippies somewhere to the left of communist who spouted endless ridiculous rhetoric and discounted my view because I’m white and straight. At Skidmore I’ve found classes full of people who don’t do their reading, liberals who think the views they acquired freshman year will guide them through the rest of their lives, and a community that is rather intolerant of views that do not fit into its touchy-feely liberal scheme. You’ll certainly never find “The Closing of the American Mind” in LS1 or read a Phyllis Schafly article in Women Studies 101. If the general population doesn’t agree with it, it isn’t discussed. So many viewpoints, so many ideas are discounted, and even ignored. In high school, the focus was narrow and I was under the impression that that changed in college. I was wrong.

I’ve changed since graduating high school, I’m still dramatic, but more quiet – a product of barely uttering a word my entire tenure at Hampshire. I’m less cynical, less bitter, and less angry, because I am more content with my surroundings (sometimes) and my life. I’m not as notorious. I’m somewhat alienated from a good part of campus life, and getting here a year late didn’t help that. I’m not unhappy with that. I like “my” version of college life, even though its often atypical. I love the government department and talking to my professors and getting obsessed with my reading.

But I don’t like being attacked in the paper in a baseless article. I don’t like being in class and having everyone in the room gang up on me, and rudely tell me I’m wrong without even letting me finish my sentence. I don’t expect people to agree with me, in fact, I’m perfectly willing to engage anyone who disagrees with me. I’m not afraid to defend what I believe. I am, however, insulted by the fact that liberals here are so threatened by conservative views that they have to result to anti-SYRA propaganda. I find it appauling that if I try to express myself before Senate I’m accused of breaking the honor code because my opinion is apparently aligned with ‘not upholding the integrity of Skidmore College.’ I find it depressing when people raise completely irrational ideas in class that have no basis in reality and are applauded for their compassionate liberal thinking. And sometimes, I’m lonely, because all I want to do is have a beer and argue about books and politics and ideas, and that’s when I really miss my o-town friends.

Skidmore is not what I expected it to be. I knew it was liberal (and that fits with a lot of my views, actually). I knew it was a mix of hippies and rich kids. I didn’t know they’d lie to me like this. I was promised a challenge and what I’ve gotten is a place where I can whip out a 10 page paper 2 days before and get an A, when Ms Roeser would have just shook her head and used the “STOP” stamp. I’m not unhappy here. College, overall, has just not been what I’ve expected. I’ve created my own form of the college experience, and I’m fine with that, most of the time. It just makes me cynical sometimes. I am, after all, “the cynical one” of the LTTC.

I want beer and good conversation and I want college liberals to stop being so afraid of the views that they try to so hard to counter.
But I’ll take 2 out of 3 (but don’t be sad cause 2 out of 3 ain’t bad)

After Senate meeting last night, I was basically too angry to be coherent. It was absolutely ridiculous. There are no words for how ridiculous people are – Skidmore needs a professional hand holder or something, if stupid liberals are going to CRY because an election official makes them sign a piece of paper saying they will not break the law.

Anyway, SYRA has unofficially nominated me to write something about it. This is what I have so far:

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This Republican guy on Bill Maher is bitching about the sanctity of marriage, and how we can’t allow gay marriage because it will disrupt the institution. According to him, the purpose of marriage is procreation.
So what about hetereosexuals who don’t procreate? (Because I don’t plan on ever having kids. Ever. And no, I won’t change my mind.)
This argument was especially amusing when it was made by Pat Buchanan a few years ago. His entire argument against gay marriage is based on this biblical bullshit about how marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman for the purpose of procreating. (and sending your equally close minded spawn into the world)
Buchanan and his wife don’t have kids.

The some Republican chick claimed that its the goal of the gays to screw up the instituion of marriage. Like, its their purpose in life to destory heterosexuals. She also labeled it as a deviant behavior that people choose to engage in.

I just don’t get people. I really don’t.

I DID NOT WRITE THIS.

Edited: The “godly author” (his words, not mine) added a really long comment on the end of this, which LJ flagged because it was too long, so I posted it in the entry itself, lest I be accused of censorship

A PROPOSAL: TO PREVENT THE STEALING FROM THE RIAA TO SAVE THEM FROM THE THROES OF POVERTY; TO PREVENT ILLEGAL ENJOYMENT AND CONTACT WITH PROTECTED, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY; TO PREVENT ARTISTS FROM EXPLOITING THE RIAA

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So I’m quitting my job. After working 35 hours last week I was completely burned out, and couldn’t even concentrate on writing a paper that desperately needed to get written. There’s something unappealing about randomly crying over nothing because I’m so stressed, not eating properly and being tired all the time. Plus my job was making me increasingly bitchy and intolerable as a human (as if I’m not bad enough already)

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I haven’t updated in forever, because I’m insanely busy. 20 credits + 23 hours of B&N cafe slave + SYRA/VOX + tons of homework = insane Rachel.
Anyway

In general, I don’t support the war the way many of the people in SYRA do. However, I do recognize the arguments on that side of the issue, and see more valid claims for war then I did 6 months ago. I still think Bush is a fucking idiot, and I still think it is ridiculous that America has the right to go into other countries and tell them they cannot have weapons that we ourselves possess.

However, I do recognize that Saddam Hussein is not the nicest guy in the world, and while I don’t think it’s our job to play world policeman, the Iraqi people were/are suffering under Hussein. There’s tons of human rights violations reports and the things he has done are Hitler-esque (though on a smaller scale) in nature.

That being said, I do semi-understand why there are some good reasons for war, even though I do not trust the motivations of the administration.

So anyway, SYRA has been trying to organize a debate against the Greens FOREVER. We finally get a consensus on a date, and the Greens tell us they need MORE TIME TO PREPARE. (The debate by the way, is on the validity/just-ness of the war). I understand that for a debate, you want to have key facts and points prepared so you don’t lose your ground while debating. On an issue like this, however, especially one which the Greens are so adament about, you should know your position and why you feel that way… Because otherwise, why have these people been going to protests and going on strike if they don’t know why they are anti war? That was really frustrating, that and the fact that they burst into our meeting and demanded an extra week of preperation…

What also bothers me is people who don’t support the troops and who also “don’t support the actions of the troops.” First of all, the actions taken by the troops are what they have taken an oath to do. They are fighting so you don’t have to…In some ways, I’d really like to see the mandatory military service bill that was recently proposed get passed (even though as a Libertarian I have many issues with it on principle), just because it would force all these hypocritcal peaceniks to serve. .=

“On March 5, a nationwide event entitled ‘Students Strike for Books, Not Bombs” will take place. College students are encouraged to walk out of class and participate in day-long activities conducive to bringing world peace. The walkout also serves to protest the general actions of the Bush administration….”

(i.e. we really don’t have an objective so we’re just going be say we’re anti-Bush)

This was included in Student Announcements and my response is to ask “What has Skidmore Done Wrong?”

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1) Stupid College Students

At my professors recommendation I read Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind. This put words to what I thought about most of the people I encountered when I was at Hampshire; that liberal students go to liberal colleges already knowing what they believe and encounter other equally liberal people and together they spend time explaining to each other why they agree with an already accepted point of view.

(I thought I was a liberal until I went to college)

I know I sound really self-righteous on the subject and I have a lot to learn, but I find myself getting frustrated by people for the same reasons I did in high school. A cult like mentality and an accepted canon that is the Ultimate Truth. But in high school, I opened my mouth about this and since I’ve gotten to college, I keep quiet. And now I’m anonymously writing about it on the Internet. Because I’m just so aware and all.

Anyway, moving on.

2) The Vagina Monologues

The goal of the Vagina Monolouges is to raise money to help stop violence against women. Skidmore is donating proceeds to the Rape Crisis Center. Its great that they are donating the money there, but they are helping people already affected by violence, they aren’t helping to STOP anything.

The audience of the Vagina Monologues is mostly women, because the content honestly alienates many men. Their problem, you say? Maybe so, but they aren’t seeing it, and even if they did, a ‘touching,’ pun not intended, performance of the vagina monologues isn’t going to stop a rapist. Furthermore, the Vagina Monologues are overdone, and are more a way of women to feel ‘empowered’ and ‘liberated.’ They should change their message/goal to donating money to women affected by violence. It’d as least be honest.

3) Snow, Snow Plowing, and Getting My Car Stuck

This is the most political issue of all!. Here’s why: The Albany area has recieved quite a lot of snow this year, more so then usual, even for Upstate NY. Because of this, Skidmore College has often had to hire outside help in order to clean walkways, parking lots, etc. However, the economy sucks right now, and Skidmore has a budget defecit. They really can’t afford to pay extra workers every time it snows. So, when there is only 2 inches of snow, they don’t bother cleaning the main parking lot. This is fine, you just park over the snow.

Except, over time, the snow melts a bit, gets packed down, re-freezes, etc, and basically turns into an annoying patch of ice. No problem to park over. Until it snows 14 inches and you have to dig your car out and your tire catches on the ice in just the right way so it won’t budge. That sucks. And its because Skidmore can’t afford to pay people to clean the parking lot every time it snows, because they have no money.

They have no money because the economy sucks.

The economy is a very political issue.

(And since I am a libertarian, this is the most important political issue of all, because it affects me)

QED