To the apathetic student,

Today I am writing to you, the apathetic faceless student.  First a history lesson, in 1947, after looking over his life’s work and his artistic stand against the Holocaust, W.H Auden lamented that “not one poem saved one Jewish life”. In the same year George Orwell wrote that being a socialist is somewhat like being a doctor treating a terminally ill patient. As I doctor you have a duty of care and you will have sworn to fight for the life of your patient, as a scientist you know his cause is hopeless. These men dedicated their lives to raising awareness of horror, tyranny and oppression. They both fought in the Spanish civil war, they both wrote against the rise of Hitler and warned against future despotism, they also both died broken and disillusioned men.

When considering student politics Orwell was almost right, the only difference is that the student body is not dying, merely drunk and the issues facing students today are not going to go away if you continue to ignore them. The question of apathy is never far away. It is the perennial excuse of the poor organiser. In my mind a student is only apathetic if they know an issue, understand an issue and still do not care. Indeed this is the paradox of student politics; on the one hand the age of information has ushered in an era where thousand of causes lie at our finger tips. With an appropriately placed double click you have access to a world of information. Never before has it been so easy to discover the plight of murdered Columbian trade unionists, to understand the oppression of the Burmese people or to comprehend war crimes in Lebanon, Palestine or Iraq.  Yet as a mass you’d rather spend time drinking, playing guitar hero and living up to the crude stereotype of student hood then attend a protest, or campaign on a war in some far flung foreign field which is all too likely to become forever England.  Perhaps it is understandable that you choose not to inconvenience yourselves for those you have never met in parts of the world you will never visit. However, worse still it would appear that your general state of indifference also applies to yourselves.

Trying to raise awareness of crucial issues, such as climate change or student fees, to the sleeping student body often resembles attempting to climb Everest with a tooth pick, not entirely impossible but an endless struggle where endless determination, immoveable belief and delusional optimism are essential.  It must be recognised that student politics is a reflection of wider society. What is felt on the corridors of campus soon reverberates down the corridors of power. If something is debated, and held to be true in our educational institutions then it is a microcosm of sentiment held in pubs, offices and homes across the country. The student body is a political litmus test for the rest of the population, save the students and you save the world. For generations students have been on the front lines of society shaping protests. Students led the way in standing against the war in Vietnam, in calling to ban the bomb, student demonstrations even brought even brought down the government of Charles De Gaulle in 1960’s France. Sadly it appears clear that Portsmouth 2008 is not 1960’s France.

Student politics has always been a demoralising past time. How many meetings have I been too where the attendance can be counted on one hand? How many national conferences have I attended where the turn out is tallied in the dozens not hundreds? How many action days have I taken part in where students tell me that would sign the petition but – insert generic reason here. Too many. Far too many.  For three years, first as student and now as sabb I have organised campaigns and awareness raising events ranging from Palestinian human rights, to top up fees. I’ve done so without political agenda or with the intention of converting you, but merely as it was the right thing to do. For three years I have witnessed your indifference and your spectacular inability to care. For three years I have endeavoured to provide opportunities, opportunities to understand, to learn, to make a difference. Opportunities you have spurned.   

It would of  course be wrong of me to right you all off, since I have been here I’ve witnessed and worked with small, dedicated groups of students ranging from People & Planet, Socialist Students, Respect and Labour societies who have been fighting the good fight and continue to bravely face the uphill struggle of “smashing apathy”. We all owe them a great debt. This open letter is not a self righteous rant, or a defeatist moan, it is merely a sober assessment, a final warning. A call for you to awake before it is too late.  As my three years of student campaigning comes to a close, I leave you to wallow in your apathy, to be consumed by your indifference and to be victims of the fate that awaits you for your inactions. Issues such as Student Fees and the creeping barrage against our civil liberties will not disappear merely because you ignore them, and people will continue to die, horribly and partly due to our own inaction as you choose to look the other way.

Perhaps Auden and Orwell were right; perhaps fighting the good fight against forces far outside of our own control is a doomed enterprise or perhaps we shouldn’t look to the disillusioned, but rather towards  Margaret Mead who famously wrote,

“You should never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, and that, indeed, it's the only thing that ever has”

Yours sincerely,

Ben Norman

Student Activities and Development Officer

Comments have been closed for this article

 

 

Do not underestimate your circle of influence or belittle your achievements. You are an inspiration to many, including myself.

Steve Baker - Thu, 17 Apr 2008

 

 

Ben, you have done so much over the last few years - your fight against Top-Up fees, Racism, injustice all over the world have made a real difference. You got Government ministers to listen and you've made a real impact on the University staff and students. You have empowered people with great training sessions and workshops and highlighted major issues that students should be aware of through writing for Pugwash News (and those articles have been picked up in the press all over the world).  
As a fellow campaigner I know that it is hard sometimes when you are faced with so much apathy. We have to understand the times we live in. The fact that we have to pay for our education encourages the view that education is something that benfits the individual, not the whole of society. 
The capitatalist world we live in encourages people to be selfish in the quest for a comfortable life. We are sold this dream that material wealth = happiness. This is not human nature though - From a psychological perspective, humans are cooperative creatures. We are intrinsically helpful. We rely on society to raise us. And as Martin Luther King once said, "by the time you've finished your breakfast you've relied on half the world". Tea from India, Coffee from Africa, cereals from South America - That's why I'm so glad Union council has just passed a motion asking the Union to switch the hoodies we sell to Fairtrade - which means a better deal for cotton farming communities.  
 
Things are changing Ben, the 1,000 mile walk begins with a few steps. 
 
If anyone reading this wants to do something to make a positive difference in the world - come to Societies Carnival on Friday 2nd May. We will be selling badges for Amnesty international, and writing postcards to people all over the world who have been imprisoned for speaking out against their corrupt governments. Imagine the hope you will give someone in a dark cell, that people on the other side of the world are thinking about them. Amnesty has some great success stories too - their letter writing campaigns have meant that prisoners have been released in some cases, when the constant mail from Amnesty supporters is too much to ignore! 
 
We are so lucky to live in a country where you don't get shot or imprisoned for speaking out - so use it to your advantage! 
 
Elle xx

elle gray - Fri, 18 Apr 2008

 

 

I think you are right in what you are saying, and it is sad that you have to say it.  
 
As you know, the more apathetic students/the population are, then the more chance of unpopular/stupid/pathetic/murderous policies there are, such as the war in Iraq (everything leads back to the war in the end ;-) )  
 
However, i also see this as a real chance for those people who want to make a difference to be able to. The more apathetic people there are, the smaller base of people there are who want to change the world either positively or negatively- this makes it easier for people who want to make a positive impact to do so. Well at least in theory. 
 
And it is that last sentence which makes me more dissolusioned than student apathy. I mentioned the example of the Green Party to you last night and how they are not using the opportunity avaliable to them with the increase in importance of environmental issues to make a difference. this makes me sad :-( 
 
However i have faith in the small number of students there are at this University who actually care enough to do something will actually change the world. Shelia Hancock at her instalation mentioned that she firmly believes that Elle will change the world, and i think she will, and i think you will too, and i hope maybe somehow i'll be able to too. 
 
As my dad would put it, we would just have to wipe everyones arses for them.

Matt Blackall - Fri, 18 Apr 2008