Today's Left Misses the Point

South Park has a name for them: "College Know-It-All Hippies." You've each either met one or are one: ultra-liberal folks hanging around every college campus who manage to mention how evil corporations are every time you speak to them and remind you that every time you shop at Wal-Mart, you kill a baby.I, for one, actually considered myself ultra-liberal before I came to Trinity, but now think I am more of a moderate liberal compared to some of these folks. What is it about these people that make them want to rekindle the student movement of the 1960s? Don't they realize that that noble '60s breed known commonly as "smelly hippies," or Foetidus hippius, eventually ran out of weed, got cut off by their parents, and had to get real jobs?

I'm getting ahead of myself, however. First, let me state that I don't disagree with the points that modern-day hippies (I'll call them hippies for lack of a better term) make. I do believe corporations can be cysts on society, I think Wal-Mart needs to pay a living wage, and I think the War in Iraq was the biggest mistake since Vietnam. It's their methods, or lack thereof, that I find issue with. Telling me that corporations are evil until you're blue in the face is not going to stop me or anyone else from going to Taco Bell.

As far as their favorite whipping boy, Wal-Mart (or similar stores), maybe they can afford not to shop there, but I can't, and neither can most of rest of the country. Also, the Wal-Mart in the Behind the Rocks neighborhood of Hartford in particular is probably the best thing to happen to that neighborhood in a long time. As there was no existing retail for that Wal-Mart to bully out, it actually created jobs and higher standards of living. So while those people working there are now making a low wage, it's better than no wage, which is what was available before Wal-Mart came and, coincidently, brought in other businesses.

Trinity students are also sometimes picking the wrong battles. We proclaim how evil corporations are while at the same time forgetting that local corporations like Aetna, St. Paul Travelers, and The Hartford are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into making our city a better place. Of course, their reasons are selfish. By improving their city's image, they improve their own image. But I didn't see anyone in the Hartford community complaining when the Travelers donated land for the new science center.

Also, we, for some reason, have a need to protest, even if there is nothing to really protest. A recent example on campus was the "cross-dressing day" which, as far as I could tell, protested to get the right to cross-dress. A more extreme example would be Northwestern University's recent hunger strike. That in itself is not so unusual, except that it was a hunger strike to get an Asian Studies program. It looks like Northwestern has out-protested us; we should start burning Buddhist monks to get longer library hours.

Of course, I don't want this article to be an entirely hippie-bashing one. VOID, for example, does seem to keep the protesting to issues they really believe in, and I believe they do sincerely try to make a difference, rather than just have a sit-in just because everyone loves a good sit-in (I'll admit, I do, too).

I think that the guy in your dorm who sits around babbling incoherently about corporations gives people like VOID members, who are probably interested in spouting more than just indoctrinated liberal rhetoric, a bad name. (That's not to say that VOID members and alike don't ramble on about evil corporations - lots of the ones I know do. They just happen to care enough to do something about it.)

Essentially, this article is a result of being told one too many times about evil corporations by some guy in Abercrombie and Fitch. Don't be hypocrites: if you truly believe corporations are evil, either do something about it, or move to Amish country, don't just sit there smoking pot. That's all I have to say on that subject. If anyone needs me, I'll be at Wal-Mart.