On the Fence | Why I wrote: A look back at campus events, politics

Ian Saxine Columnist

Three semesters ago, I wrote my first article as a columnist for The Miscellany News about the danger of narrow-minded liberalism. I had gotten fed up with the shockingly one-sided nature of “dialogue” on this campus, a situation that seemed to create a level of intellectual barrenness in the realm of political discourse. Starting out this column, I remember worrying that I would run out of things to write about after my first three submissions, spread over six weeks. Looking back, that seems funny, considering that now I write every week, and still find myself bumping up against the upper reaches of my allotted word count.

The truth is, I had doubted that my relatively moderate politics would be provocative enough to justify putting in print for any length of time. Fortunately for me, I had underestimated the ability of Vassar to warp normal political discourse and turn people like me into an oddity. Once I realized that, I did my best to try to shake things up around here a bit, since the two prevailing emotions on this campus were mind-numbing apathy and moral outrage.

I wrote because I saw the noble idealism of the liberal movement being tarnished by ignorance and intellectual bigotry. I wrote because I was tired of people here who were so eager to surrender “American-ness” to the conservative bumpkins waving flags and yelling about who we should bomb next. Why are they more American than you and I? Why must we surrender the use of the American flag for the jingoistic, self-styled patriots and treat any display of the American flag as an exercise in warmongering idiocy?

I wrote because I saw pacifism being co-opted by a particularly stupid strain of anti-Americanism. I was in classrooms in March 2003, when my professors and most of the other students discussed the likelihood of American defeat in Iraq with a tone I can only describe as relish. When the armed forces of the U.S. and its allies made it into Baghdad in a matter of days, the same classrooms that had been abuzz with talk about the war in Iraq quickly stopped talking about it at all. How an American defeat by Saddam Hussein in 2003 would help anyone wasn’t made clear.

I was present when Vassar’s self-styled anti-war activists said flat out in 2004 that they supported the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that such a decision would result in an increase in Iraqi deaths. (The leading cause of Iraqi deaths at that point was due to inter-ethnic feuding and vigilantism, according to nearly all foreign observers on the ground.) This hyper-antinationalism is just as intellectually bankrupt as the empty headed patriotism displayed by the flag wavers, sacrificing reason and human life in adherence to a self-congratulatory ideology.

I wrote because I attend a school that actually paid money to have two Iraqi women come and speak to Vassar about feminist issues in Iraq. Instead, they brushed aside issues of feminism to inform the large audience that Saddam’s regime had not, in fact, been murdering Kurds, all evidence to the contrary. One of these ladies had been a card-carrying member of the Baath party, and assured me that she wasn’t prejudiced. She even had a Kurdish friend! During an extensive question and answer session, nobody in the audience thought to press the issue. (I did, but the student panel moderating the event declined to call on me.)

I kept writing because last fall, the only non-liberal political publication on campus was effectively shut down because it contained several (admittedly dim-witted) articles that made some students “feel threatened.” This sentiment was used to justify a subsequent ideological witch-hunt that served to demonstrate that it isn’t enough for liberals to be anti-racist. Oh no. We have to make fools of ourselves and our cause in the process, by attacking legitimate free speech, and confusing “offensive” with “threatening.”

Over the past three semesters I have been yelled at, confronted at parties, and received screaming visits at my door. I have been accused, at various times, of hating just about every group of people under the sun. Since that has been the principle defense of the more intellectually bankrupt strand of activists on this campus, I can only take that as a sign that I was on the right track in writing what I did. The screamers and complainers deserve my thanks and respect just as much as the individuals who have said or written nice things about me, since all of them have made this experience far more interesting.

I’m not sure that much has changed around here, but if I have contributed in any way to enrichment of the discourse at Vassar, I’m satisfied. I myself have had my mind changed on a number of issues over the course of four years here, and if I’ve helped anyone else have a similar experience, then I leave this place happy, because if you can go to Vassar and not change your mind about anything, I don’t trust you. After all, I vote for flip-floppers.