College Reunion
Last weekend my wife Brenda and I attended my 25th college reunion. I graduated from a small, liberal arts college in Wisconsin. Think Grinnell or Coe...
I was shocked... SHOCKED to discover that I was the only pro-Bush, libertarian leaning type at the shindig. Bush-bashing was deregeur. Many were atwitter over "Fahrenheit 9/11". A couple of not-so-veiled anti-Reagan comments slipped out.
The experience was surreal enough... it's just plain bizarre enough to return to a place you spent a very intense 4 years at -- with people you were tight with after 25 years. To find that they are truly the subculture that you'd expect only to find at Berkley... I guess it wasn't unexpected, but it was powerful.
Unjust war... international law... unilateral aggression... no WMDs... Afghanistan was bad enough, but Iraq... blahdee, blahdee, blah...
These are good people. These are smart people. On many levels, these are very thoughtful people. And, it seems to me that they are very much like a group of folks that most of them despise.
They are very much like fundamentalist Christians.
They, like most fundies, have the best of intentions. And they believe that they know what's best... for themselves and... for you and me. Human behavior must be modified. And not just to keep people from stepping on each other's toes. No, people must be compelled to be altruistic. If not in voluntary deeds, then by the compulsory, governmental collection plate.
It could be argued that my college alumni friends and the fundies come from the same Northeastern puritanical roots... but that's a topic for another piece.
My point is that many of my college friends have a heapin' helpin' of unexamined beliefs and assumptions. They feel very strongly about them. I think... at least I hope... if the conversation got down to first cases... that they would think some of those assumptions down to the root.
I suspect (and again hope) that they would not like some of what they would find.
Update: Welcome Tim Blair readers!!! Thanks for the link Mr. Blair.
Last weekend my wife Brenda and I attended my 25th college reunion. I graduated from a small, liberal arts college in Wisconsin. Think Grinnell or Coe...
I was shocked... SHOCKED to discover that I was the only pro-Bush, libertarian leaning type at the shindig. Bush-bashing was deregeur. Many were atwitter over "Fahrenheit 9/11". A couple of not-so-veiled anti-Reagan comments slipped out.
The experience was surreal enough... it's just plain bizarre enough to return to a place you spent a very intense 4 years at -- with people you were tight with after 25 years. To find that they are truly the subculture that you'd expect only to find at Berkley... I guess it wasn't unexpected, but it was powerful.
Unjust war... international law... unilateral aggression... no WMDs... Afghanistan was bad enough, but Iraq... blahdee, blahdee, blah...
These are good people. These are smart people. On many levels, these are very thoughtful people. And, it seems to me that they are very much like a group of folks that most of them despise.
They are very much like fundamentalist Christians.
They, like most fundies, have the best of intentions. And they believe that they know what's best... for themselves and... for you and me. Human behavior must be modified. And not just to keep people from stepping on each other's toes. No, people must be compelled to be altruistic. If not in voluntary deeds, then by the compulsory, governmental collection plate.
It could be argued that my college alumni friends and the fundies come from the same Northeastern puritanical roots... but that's a topic for another piece.
My point is that many of my college friends have a heapin' helpin' of unexamined beliefs and assumptions. They feel very strongly about them. I think... at least I hope... if the conversation got down to first cases... that they would think some of those assumptions down to the root.
I suspect (and again hope) that they would not like some of what they would find.
Update: Welcome Tim Blair readers!!! Thanks for the link Mr. Blair.
posted by Royce at 9:38 PM
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