-LETTITOR ©

a --You’ll Keep Getting What You’ve Got

~ best I would get was a shrug of the shoulders. “It’s a student thing,” pink say.
_ “Tt makes sense.” Everyone knows students are potheads, in other words, so
. why not just embrace it?

The problem with student culture today is that we're far too eager to
champion mediocrity. The media presents an image of students as lazy slackers,
and we happily conform to the stereotype. Parents and authority figures greet us
with low expectations, and we revel in the light workload. We’re asked to put

_ on events for our peer group to enjoy, and we throw together something centred
around alcohol and weed. Hypocritically, however, we also tend to react with

outrage and perplexity when we under-30-somethings aren’t considered a

_ demographic worth listening to or taking seriously. Instead of getting a seat at
the adult table, at the nation’s important organizations, events, and instructions,

we're shuffled off to various “youth wings” where are graciously allowed to be
as noisy as we want—and influence j just about nothing.

Of course, some youths don’t see anything wrong with this current _.
arrangement. They defend the second-tier status of students in the adult world
as a way to preserve the purity of our student lifestyle and student voice. Let
students be students, they say.

| Sadly, a lot of people use the label of “activist” to cover for their own
laziness. They embrace causes not out of high-minded principle, but rather
because it offers them some form of self gain. Mr. Emery, for example, would
The Other Press i isa member of CUP, which ee ee Coad University have a far more profitable pot empire if the drug was legalized in | North
: - Press. It’s another one of those massive ope ee which you've America, and many students embrace a dopey slacker lifestyle because it’s
4 ‘ : easier, and gives them more immediate gratification than thé alternative.
_ But the long-term consequences are far less fun. The longer students take
_ to demonstrate maturity, the steeper and steeper the “real world’s” learning
 eurve will tilt. The best jobs and positions will remain the monopoly of the
ee ee ee re ee

‘being part of world in which we're treated as valuable
useful members of society, rather than rowdy munchkins to be delegated _

- mus! nae ieee Spe sent to the eed
expectations of “what students are” and “what students do.”

We're all student leaders in our own way—some of us more powerfal than
others, -granted—but all of us hold some degree of influence over our peers.

As long as we continue to use this influence to merely solidify the status quo,

_ demean ourselves, and perpetuate negative stereotypes, very little will ever
change. If your greatest ambition in life is to one day speak to a bunch of

/ ene bout the SR ae ms aaa eos oe) ai But

tan cecascaly ding is :

his one slt-vidend) point up with —*

 

Letter to the Editor

Criticize Celebs, But Don’t Stoop
to the Shock-Jock Level

 

 

Pussy? Whore? Spearhole? The article “Worshipping Britney Spears is a whore, a degenerate, or an unfit mother is
False Idols with False Eyelashes” [October 11 issue] falls crass consumerism no matter what your conclusions are.
short of its promise of cultural criticism, and instead rests The article contains valuable insights into consumer

on the premise created by the very culture it is trying to culture, but it is flanked on both ends by more unfortunate
criticize: when all else fails, say (or do) something crass. hatred to fuel the fire, and it is my opinion that the author
Such enthusiastically mean writing is hypocritical in that it needs to take one step back and gain some rhetorical

embraces the cruel shock-jock mentality even while it derides _ perspective. There are already too many Perez Hiltons in the
the culture that created it. Hatred of specific superstars isn’t world of celebrity writing.

a viable solution to commercialism. In fact, it’s the other side

of the same coin; the very act of arguing about whether or not © —Aimee Ouellette