Torch (draft)

This hasn't been revised yet, but here is the working draft of my most recent poem.

Torch

Hindered revolutionary silence among the common lands
The lightning-sweet bite of air, the fiery passion
Cannisters of vapor, spider-silk, they are the dreams of men
Men who had long ceased their mournful perambulations
Wanderers who never had a home, levies without fire or water
The boundary between their souls and everyone else.

Oh sugary flame, how the single torch borne aloft
The glazing glare, how it consumes even the most insignificant
And they burst forth with acclamations of irrepressible joy
The stentorian tones of one drowning out the rest
Distorted, clanging, the acid in the well-spring
Meek and dead to the method, they do not question
A pinwheel of bright images, revolving round and round
Eternally spinning the flashing idols to the weary
With their bright speckled faces and yellow-parchment hearts
Blank and yielding to the slightest indentation, insensitive pressure,
Oh fruitless rage!  Oh pinwheel of poison! Oh sinful flame!

I've stepped forth into a world of demagogues and demigods
Of the knowledge of good and evil
Of the tattered and torn hearts and garments of the flood
When the levy breaks, who will carry you home?
When the tide of retribution has drowned the flame
Who will show you a world free from sin
When shards of bitterness and a frenzy of confusion
Have dragged the embers of doubt into the swaying poppies
Igniting the brushfire, leaving nothing but heart-rending silence

Yet there is joy in those green-valley eyes
In those endless swirling molecules that froth and foam
In the quelled quarrels of multitudinous sick hearts
For in those days, there never will be the acidic strokes
Or blinding carousels of misfortune and lies
Only the torch with its crisp-crackling flavor of peace.
 

A few poems I forgot to post

I wrote a few poems a little while back which I forgot to put on here. I'm not sure how thrilled I am with any of them, which is probably why I wasn't in a huge hurry. They're OK I guess.

The first one was my random attempt at an imagism-inspired poem.

The Ashtray

Accusatory stares in the thick, viscous silence
Of that breezy, baguette-scented French café
A thousand words and promises flung carelessly
Amidst the salt-and-pepper detritus of the ashtray


A Whimper

A few words spoken like a whimper
Were all it took to end the world
Broken glances and empty glasses
A double-edged surprise

I can hear it passing away
Piteous in its solitude
Reckless in its destruction

What could be more irrational
Than projection of a dream
Onto a mystery?

No, indeed, it's not what I expected
A twirl, a leap, a glance, a whimper
Casual words, stranger's tongues
The end?

My world is small
But somehow
I expected more than a whimper.


Petals

Paperback petals could dust the crystals from your eyes
I've seen it happen.
The animated batting, artificial
Around and around the brushed steel
Around the obsidian, deep as shoe polish
Dark and hollow as the night.

Sifting, sifting, always sifting
Through the volumes of herbs
I see and understand
It wasn't easy with the thankless sifting
Grasses, roots, beasts
Silence.

Your crystals are an overwhelming condemnation
Trade them for your happiness
He will know what to do with them
I am not the answer
All I can offer are petals.

Video Bonanza

So looking back on my Ambling Alp post, I figured I might as well post a few other videos of songs that have obsessed me within the last year or so, especially since it doesn't happen very often that I'll listen to one song over and over.  These aren't necessarily my favorite songs from recent memory but they're ones that I just keep coming back to, especially (but not limited to) ones which are divorced from the context of an album that I listen to a lot as a whole, or a favorite artist or something like that.

For starters, here's Miike Snow's Silvia, albeit a shortened version for the single:


Fever Ray's "When I Grow Up" can only be described as strange, but the video makes it even stranger.  Still, undeniably enthralling for some unknown reason.



This is a great version of an old classic, Stardust.  This arrangement appears on Michael Bublé's latest CD, but this video is taken from a live performance on Craig Ferguson.


Ridiculously catchy song from Dave Matthews Band off their last album.


This goes back a little longer, but why not?  Video's a little literal but what can you do?


Fantastic song by Shara Worden's My Brightest Diamond.  Dragonfly=win.  Not crazy about the video though.  By which I mean...I really hate it.


OK, so this definitely isn't a song that exists in its own world for me, but I allow it here because it was on the EP which came out months before the album, so for a time, it was.  Mew rocks.  This video is slowed down and transposed down (probably one caused the other) so it's not as good as the original track, but the video is cool so I included this version.

The Degradation of the Sexes

To begin with, for purposes of my argument I will assume that you watched the Super Bowl last week, or at least part of it (although I recognize that this may not be so, and is usually not so for me).  The Super Bowl is likely the one televised event of the year in which people actually watch/care about the commercials.  The reasons for this exposition of new, creative, and often funny commercials all at one time are self-evident from a marketing perspective, but it is enough to say that these commercials reach a far larger audience than the average set of commercials on just about any other program (especially in the TiVo and DVR age) and, because of the large and diverse viewership of the event, are in some ways indicative of society's self-image, or ideal image.  Because a great portion of this image is far from shocking or unique, I will not be focusing on a number of elements of this societal ideal which are also of a great concern.  However, in watching the game, I consciously noticed at least 5 or 6 commercials, clearly aimed at men, and therefore indicative of what men are perceived to want/be (or what society expects men to want/be), which were at the expense in some way of women or of the relationship between men and women.  Again, this in itself is not shocking in its content given the increasingly prominent stereotype of American men, especially in the context of football, but it was the fact that it was a message so shamelessly emphasized despite the far more universal and diverse demographic which the Super Bowl draws, including a significant number more women than might watch the average football game (which is not to say that a significant number of women don't already watch football games).

So, if advertisers can perpetuate this message so unashamedly to such a large number of women and men, it occurred to me that it has become a societal assumption that gender boundaries and gender roles remain fixed.  Worse yet, it reinforces the victimization of women which has become almost unilaterally accepted by women and men without either side perceiving it as such.

What do I mean by the victimization of women?  Many men would protest that they would never victimize women or use them in any way, and many women would argue that they do not feel victimized or used either.  Yet these same women would also profess certain insecurities about their self-image that they take for granted because it's been that way as long as they can remember, and these same men would admit that they frequently don't know how to get along with women in contexts outside of relationships or sex.  Despite the significant gains in women's rights in the past century, there remains a profound gender gap, but the underlying reality is more sinister than simple misunderstandings between the sexes.

The victimization of women is all around us, and as I have said, has become accepted.  Products are sold, not on their own merits, but by scantily clad models, each possessing society's accepted body image, an ideal which to fall short of means failure.  These products are many and varied, ranging from beer to domain names, and are targeted at men to the point where men find it completely normal.  A sexy woman partially stripping to sell a domain name is only a friendly message from Godaddy to men that this product is for them.

The problem, however,  is more than just the simple sexual victimization which itself goes far beyond television commercials and extends to cheerleaders, magazines, movies, and pornography.  Commercials and TV shows are just two places which drill into our collective consciousness that if the concept of separate public and private spheres for women and men is a thing of the past, the concept of social spheres is very much still in place.  Few of these media ever portray platonic relationships between men and women, or even the potential for similar interests.  The commercial which comes to mind is the one in which the 4 women walk into a secret room filled with shoes in the couple's house and begin screaming with excitement, while in the other room the men are similarly freaking out over the room filled with beer.  (This itself demonstrates an assumption that women are commercial creatures, who care only about shopping and more shopping, while men only care about football and beer.)

This is particularly troubling when it extends to the relationship between husband and wife, however.  In most portrayals of marriages (when they're not already portrayed as dysfunctional), the two have completely differing interests and social lives, and are rarely portrayed as being friends at all, much less best friends.  Any action a man takes to please his wife or compromise with her in some way is generally seen as a means of getting something he wants, whether it be a car (as with the one Super Bowl commercial) or sex or uninterrupted "time with the guys."  In a world where there is minimal male-female interaction (usually only in bed), it is small wonder that the sexes have such a difficult time understanding each other or coming together on common terms.  Not only is objectification the norm, it is embraced on both sides.

Women are taught from a young age that their most important attributes are their beauty and/or sex appeal.  This indoctrination is particularly concentrated in the pre- and early teen years, and by the time a girl is in her mid-teens, she frequently is obsessed with only two things: looking like the models and celebrities which are held up as the pinnacle to which a woman can aspire and getting an attractive boy.  The pressure of both of these things is enormous, and leads many women who feel they fall short in one or both of these categories to be plagued by a strong sense of inadequacy, fall into depression, become anorexic or worse, inflict harm on themselves, or even commit suicide.  Yet, few every complain about the pressure; it just is.  Most of these women fail to recognize their own beauty and dignity because society refuses to affirm it.  Pretty is insufficient.  Smart is irrelevant.  In objectifying women, society has made them believe that all they are is an object, so they try to make themselves the best object possible.  But an object is still only an object, and objects are discarded when they are no longer "useful."  When women begin to age and lose these qualities which they have regarded as all-important throughout their lives, many resort to all kinds of ways to look ever younger, instead of embracing who they are at that moment.  Old is also unacceptable, especially in an age when wisdom and experience are routinely mocked and scorned.

What may seem less obvious than the ways in which society strips women of their inherent dignity and worth is the way in which it also degrades men.  The question of "what makes a man" or what it is to be "manly" these days is itself a complex subject, worthy of its own discussion, but here I will only be concerned with this image in its relation to women.  Men now believe that to not treat women as objects is unmanly, uncool, weak, or effeminate.  Indeed, what is now "manly" has become very restricted in the popular image as well.  Emotion, integrity, fidelity, generosity, and so forth are rarely glorified, even if they are not always degraded.  While this is certainly not what men really are like in day to day life, the standard image of men is dictated by sex, beer, laziness, "toughness" and sometimes outright stupidity.  In relations with women, it is characterized by manipulation and a perception that women could never have any legitimate authority over them.

Men believe they are supposed to act a certain way, and the victimization is just part of this.  Instead of self-control or respect for self or others, debauchery is the norm.  Nobody says it explicitly, but one need only look around in the media, music, commercials, TV shows to see what attributes in men are praiseworthy.  Few men, if they think about what image we're really being sold, will find this accurate or desirable.  However, consistent indoctrination is indeed making it more and more prevalent in reality as well, as men strive to conform to societal norms, consciously or unconsciously.

As an aside, I am not naïve enough to believe that much of this is new.  I don't look to some bygone golden age and hold it up as an image of what has been lost.  But it is equally undeniable that there has never been such a dissonance between what people profess is the state of the sexes in relation to themselves and each other, and what is actually the case.  I also recognize that I am again making generalizations which are not universally applicable, but the generalizations are nonetheless useful to describe the whole.

Part of the reason for this lies in certain aspects of the feminist movement itself.  Some feminists in the 60s and 70s, in particular, became preoccupied with sexual freedom or "empowerment" as the ultimate goal for women, and the final barrier which inhibited them from equality with men.  Thus, the "sexual revolution."  There is much to be said on this subject as well, but I will focus on the notion of "empowerment," a buzzword which is too nebulous to be truly useful, and is usually reduced to a vague sensation of being free or equal or liberated, as if sexual repression were the key factor in the subjugation of women throughout history.  Yet, even in its vague expression, empowerment seems to be an empty concept, when it seems to have done the exact opposite.  Rather than being used to describe "free love" and other general ideas of uninhibited sex, "empowerment" is more frequently used to justify sexual liberation in areas of objectification, like pornography or strip clubs.  Some strippers believe that what they do "empowers" them in some way, but then fail to describe how.  Certainly, it gives them a power over men, but not likely the power they would like.  Sure, the men are entranced and aroused by what the woman is showing or doing, but in ogling their body and using the strippers selfishly for their own pleasure, they give nothing meaningful back to the women.  Indeed, they care nothing for the women whatsoever; they are merely objects, another sexy body.  They're not likely to be looking into their eyes, that's for sure.  Is that power?  Perhaps, of a certain kind.  Is that fulfilling?  I can't speak for them, but it seems to me that deep down, it wouldn't be.  And the millions of girls who are force-fed the images of what they need to be to be successful and happy before they even hit puberty, is that freedom?  No, it is enslavement.  Millions of beautiful girls are constantly self-conscious, constantly in need of male assurance, in need of sexual attention to confirm that they are, in fact, desirable like the culture wants them to be.  Is this empowerment? Is this equality?

The fact is that men and women need each other, and not just to procreate.  The sexes complement and complete each other; alone we are missing a great deal, and we become only part of who we can be.  And by this I don't mean on a relationship or spousal level.  I mean the daily interactions between men and women, which most members on both sides take for granted, but which are essential to our identity, even for those with the most notches in their belt.  But more importantly, each man and woman has a dignity and value independent of whatever image society places on them, and so few are aware of this.  Because, after all, our society runs on commercialism and consumption, and in order to make us consume more, we must be made to believe we are falling short of where we should be.  And if we're always falling short, we're always consuming more.  Lost in the bottom line, however, is the effect that this self-image crisis has on each American, woman or man.  An appeal to base instincts, and a liberating of them from all restraint in the name of freedom, sells, and it conveniently separates us and places us in easily-targetable demographic categories.  Welcome to America; freedom is expensive.

Top 100 Albums of the Decade

I know this post is about a month overdue, but this little project took a lot more time than I thought it would, so I haven't had time to work on it for a while.  In any event, it's finally here, the requisite "best of" list that people expect from someone who listens to as much music as I do.

Let me preface this list with a few statements.  First of all, you will not agree with me.  That's just the nature of lists like this.  However, I also feel relatively confident that most people, if they gave some of these albums a listen, would find something to like, as the list is extremely diverse.  That is one of the reasons why the list was so difficult to compile; I had to compare radically different genres, styles, artists, and years.  Despite this apples to oranges quandary, I was able to use some basic guidelines, which it is useful to keep in mind when reading the list.

For starters, there are no EPs, Christmas albums, movie soundtracks (sorry Garden State), or new recordings of old material (which eliminates most classical and some jazz that would have been released in the last ten years).  The ranking of the albums has a lot of factors, including the overall quality of the musicianship and lyrics, the effect it had on me at the time I first listened to it, whether it has had staying power, and the overall strength of the album.  These factors weighed in differently on different albums, and I arranged some of these largely by feel.  For example, there are more albums from 2003-2007 in the top 50 because in order to have made the list at all, they would have had to develop into some sort of classic for me, so that they're not mostly forgotten.  2009 albums, on the other hand, haven't had that opportunity, so there are more of them, but not as many highly ranked because they are fresh in my mind but have not achieved classic status.  Some albums are excellent works musically but failed to touch me in a particularly special or notable way, so they either are lower on the list or failed to make it entirely.  Some albums are ranked lower than is indicative of my actual liking for the artist, simply because their albums aren't strong from start to finish (ex. Stars is an excellent band, but half their songs are awesome and the other half are extremely forgettable - thus they only have one album on the list and it's 62nd).  Also, some of the rankings don't necessarily reflect how I think of them now.  The Killers' Hot Fuss album was one of my favorites for a while after it came out, but I rarely listen to it/them now.  However, its impact was large enough that it ranks highly. 

The other thing to keep in mind is that this list is in no way static.  On any given day the order could be completely different, but I had to pick one and stick to it.  Also, there's probably a significant amount of albums that either could have or should have made it, but didn't.  That is also the nature of things when you have as much music as I do.  With all that established, here is the list of the top 100 albums of 2000-2009 as I see it.

1. Explosions in the Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place (2003)
2. Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinoise! (2006)
3. Keane - Hopes And Fears (2004)
4. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism (2003)
5. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away (2007)
6. Frou Frou - Details (2002)
7. The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love (2009)
8. Mew - And The Glass Handed Kites (2005)
9. The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (2003)
10. Snow Patrol - Final Straw (2003)
11. Death Cab For Cutie - Plans (2005)
12. Neko Case- Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006)
13. Gabe Dixon Band - Gabe Dixon Band (2008)
14. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2007)
15. Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood (2008)
16. Anathallo - Canopy Glow (2008)
17. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2002)
18. Coheed & Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003)
19. The Decemberists - Picaresque (2005)
20. 311 - Evolver (2003)
21. Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself (2005)
22. Sufjan Stevens - Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State (2003)
23. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (2005)
24. Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Dependence (2009)
25. Oren Lavie - The Opposite Side of the Sea (2007) (US-2009)
26. The Killers - Hot Fuss (2004)
27. Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs (2009)
28. Keane - Under The Iron Sea (2006)
29. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife (2006)
30. Kings of Convenience - Quiet Is The New Loud (2001)
31. Feist - Let It Die (2004)
32. Interpol - Antics (2004)
33. Eisley - Room Noises (2005)
34. Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething (2003)
35. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine (2005)
36. Norah Jones - Come Away With Me (2002)
37. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (2004)
38. Imogen Heap - Ellipse (2009)
39. The New Pornographers - Challengers (2007)
40. The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute (2005)
41. Coldplay - X&Y (2005)
42. Coheed & Cambria - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV. Volume 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (2005)
43. Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone (2007)
44. Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now (2005)
45. Foo Fighters - In Your Honor (2005)
46. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin (2007)
47. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (2001)
48. A Fine Frenzy - One Cell in the Sea (2007)
49. Carbon Leaf - Indian Summer (2004)
50. The Reign of Kindo - Rhythm, Chord, and Melody (2008)
51. Embrace - Out Of Nothing (2004)
52. Mew - No More Stories… (2009)
53. This Day & Age - The Bell and the Hammer (2006)
54. Melody Gardot - My One and Only Thrill (2009)
55. Michael Bublé - Michael Bublé (2003)
56. Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (2004)
57. Muse - Absolution (2003)
58. Kings of Convenience - Riot On An Empty Street (2004)
59. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (2009)
60. 311 - Uplifter (2009)
61. The Weepies - Say I Am You (2006)
62. Stars - Set Yourself on Fire (2004)
63. Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns (2008)
64. Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light (2009)
65. Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog (2007)
66. As Tall As Lions - As Tall As Lions (2006)
67. The Mars Volta - De-loused in the Comatorium (2003)
68. Andrew Bird - Noble Beast (2009)
69. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations (2006)
70. Muse - The Resistance (2009)
71. Pinback - Autumn of the Seraphs (2007)
72. Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope (2006)
73. Madeleine Peyroux - Careless Love (2004)
74. Mute Math - Mute Math (2006)
75. Circa Survive - Juturna (2005)
76. Emiliana Torrini - Fisherman's Woman (2005)
77. Aimee Mann - Bachelor No. 2 (2000)
78. Brandi Carlile - Give Up the Ghost (2009)
79. The Hush Sound - Like Vines (2006)
80. Kate Havnevik - Melankton (2007)
81. Porcupine Tree - In Absentia (2002)
82. Zero 7 - Simple Things (2001)
83. Tegan & Sara - So Jealous (2004)
84. Joshua Radin - We Were Here (2006)
85. Anberlin - Never Take Friendship Personal (2005)
86. Deas Vail - All the Houses Look the Same (2007)
87. Sondre Lerche - Heartbeat Radio (2009)
88. Feist - The Reminder (2007)
89. The Wailin' Jennys - 40 Days (2004)
90. Honeycut - The Day I Turned to Glass (2006)
91. The Weepies - Hideaway (2008)
92. Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams (2005)
93. Audioslave - Audioslave (2002)
94. Beck - Guero (2005)
95. Wolfmother - Wolfmother (2006)
96. Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (2008)
97. A Fine Frenzy - Bomb in a Birdcage (2009)
98. The Arcade Fire - Funeral (2004)
99. Metric - Fantasies (2009)
100. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (2007)

Tune in to my radio show this Saturday (February 6th) and next Saturday (February 13th) at 12 noon when I will be counting down the top 25 albums on this list by playing a representative song from each of them.  So if you want to know what my top choices sound like, listen in to one or both by going to www.wrcufm.com and clicking "Listen In".  Message me on AIM during my show (screenname "wrcu") to give feedback or let me know you're listening in.

Ambling Alp

I don't do this very often, but I simply have to share the brilliance that is Ambling Alp by Yeasayer.  I listen primarily to albums rather than individual songs, and rarely do I listen to a song over and over again, but such was the case with this song a week or two ago.  As it has still not grown old for me, and is currently sitting at 23 plays in my iTunes (a lot for me in the span of a couple weeks), I would like to share the video with you, which is as entrancing and disturbing as the song itself.  Enjoy the crazy.

Note: There's some nudity (nothing overkill) if that sort of thing offends you.

The Gap in our Education

This is a question I've been unable to formulate since I've been here at Colgate and now it seems suddenly clear to me. With an education like the one I'm getting, at one of the top schools in the nation, with excellent professors and an excellent liberal arts learning environment, why does something still feel missing academically? Why do I still want something more? Certainly not more work, I have quite enough of that thank you very much. No, this flaw in the Colgate system, (and I think, to a greater or lesser extent at different schools, the American college system) is nothing the professors can do anything about. Now comes the part where I make a lot of generalizations which will assuredly not be true in all cases. Please bear with me.

The problem is extracurricular discourse and discussion. From all my reading, both historical and literary, I gather that at various points in the American past, college students passed much of their time in discussion and friendly debate with one another about various issues ranging from philosophy, to music, to religion, to literature, to politics, and so forth. Dissenting opinions were welcomed and even sought out, even among the best of friends. In fact, in some cases the friends who truly were the best of friends were those with the most diverging views, because it facilitated the most interesting discourse and maximized learning and expanded perspectives on both sides. The issues up for debate were, of course, different at various moments in history. Princeton in the 20's, for example, would have fostered significantly more debate on literature and philosophy, whereas the 60's saw a great deal more concern for political issues.

This is not to say these things are nonexistent today. However, a significant number of people I have spoken to not only find the idea of people spending a couple hours debating the existence of God, in a respectful and tolerant manner, "weird" or "unfathomable", they would themselves feel extremely uncomfortable in such a situation. The reasons for this are twofold: for one, people today do not like to have their beliefs challenged in one way or another, and for another, people frequently take any such challenge as a challenge to their character and shut out the other person entirely. What people do not realize is that academic fulfillment and true intellectual growth are most fully realized in these situations. Without true scholastic discussion, we are all merely running around with our hands over our ears and our mouths spouting inaudible nonsense while we cling to familiarity and condemn difference and dissent. Indeed, divergence from a popularly held opinion is the quickest ticket to a social and/or academic leper colony in this environment of intellectual conformity. Try offering a religious perspective in Western Traditions to see what I mean.

The unwillingness to listen to others is one reason the nation has become so polarized, politically and socially. How many times do we hear people say something we disagree with, but choose not to respond, for reason ranging from fear of being attacked or shunned for our opinions, to fear of having the other person mistake our disagreement for an attack on them, to simple fear of debate or tension or "awkwardness." If people listened to each other, and stopped for a moment to consider that everyone has something to say that is worth hearing, perhaps we could get to the real heart of the issues and recognize our common ground and go from there. We could acknowledge that nobody wants anyone excluded from health care and then sit down in respectful discussion to determine how best to attain this goal. We could cease arguing about things that have concrete answers substantiated by facts (by merely opening our eyes and recognizing that a birth certificate is, in fact, proof that one was born in the United States). If we could stop closing our ears and opening our mouths about easy issues like these, we could be less afraid to argue on more complicated and polarizing issues, like abortion and gay marriage and so on. People seem to believe a pro-life person and a pro-choice person cannot sit down and respectfully and rationally discuss the issue without tearing each other apart. Thus, rational discussion is almost nonexistent. The playing field becomes dominated by radicals and extremists on both sides, whose vitriol and verbal sparring (or worse) undermine both sides and cause the breakdown in communication so prevalent today, a breakdown which makes it taboo to discuss almost anything relevant. Thus, we talk about sports and our neighbors and TV and pretend to feel good about our unfulfilling consensus.

This is the world we will be entering in a few years. And how are we being trained to combat this? We aren't. We think ourselves intelligent and cultured and somehow better than everybody else, but what have we done, really? We go to class, we cram for an exam, we get good grades, and we all forget most of what we learned by the next semester. We enter the real world in some capacity and begin to live just like everyone else, earning money so we can buy cars and iPhones and jewelry. What have we learned that we can carry with us into the world? College is not a time to absorb all the minute details and facts that we can possibly cram into our minds and hope that they all stay there through our lives. College is about learning how to think, how to interact, how to challenge and dissent, how to respond to challenges and different points of view, how to be true intellectuals and true human beings. Yet here at this training ground for the rest of our lives, what are we really learning? How many people will really take these lessons out of college? When I walk through Frank Dining Hall or sit on the Cruiser, I do not hear people discussing Plato or health care or the existence of God or the merits of modern music. No, mostly I hear sordid tales of weekend misadventures and cliquish social intrigue. If this is what we're really learning to take out into the real world, is it any wonder that it is in the state that it is? Can one be an alcoholic at school and immediately become a sober family man thereafter. Can one make poor choices week in and week out and hope to be responsible in business, medicine, academia, or whatever one chooses to do after college?

The fact is few can do these things. We can sit in a classroom and take notes every day and write our formulaic papers, and we will certainly learn. We may even pass with flying colors if we keep our heads about us. But even among the comparatively responsible and studious, academic discussion is less than prevalent. This needs to change if we are to go forth into society to truly make a difference in it. America does not need more businesspeople and politicians, teachers and artists. It needs thinkers and feelers, lovers and dreamers. It needs rational, respectful, conscientious individuals with some sense of integrity. And most of all, it needs dissent. America cannot function without healthy dissent. Dissent is not treason, argument is not a personal attack, rebuttal is not reprisal. When we can look someone whose views differ starkly from our own in the eye and say "I respect you as an individual and I will listen to what you have to say with the full knowledge that you will also listen to me, and I will attempt to find any common group that we can with you", then we can consider ourselves educated and cultured. Then, the college system will have done its job. Then, America can become truly great once again.