Don't Drink the Kool-Aid
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Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid Volume XXIV Issue 3 A Journal of Opinion Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid /# Mission Statement Founded Sept. 27th, 1983 Member Collegiate Network The Oregon Commentator is an independent journal of Editor-In-Chief opinion published at the University of Oregon for the cam- Edward Niedermeyer pus community. Founded by a group of concerned student journalists on September 27, 1983, the Commentator has had Managing Editor Andrea Blaser a major impact in the “war of ideas” on campus, providing students with an alternative to the left-wing orthodoxy pro- Publisher moted by other student publications, professors and student Andy Dolberg groups. During its twenty-three year existence, it has enabled Editor Emeritus University students to hear both sides of issues. Our paper Ian Spencer combines reporting with opinion, humor and feature articles. We have won national recognition for our commitment to Contributors journalistic excellence. Dustin Stockton Ellen Greer The Oregon Commentator is operated as a program of the Eric Leeper Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO) and Guy Simmons is staffed solely by volunteer editors and writers. The paper is Nawal Alaoui funded through student incidental fees, advertising revenue Sho Ikeda Ben Hartley and private donations. We print a wide variety of material, Jake Sauvageau but our main purpose is to show students that a political phi- Charles Marshall Olsen losophy of conservatism, free thought and individual liberty Johnny Baggs is an intelligent way of looking at the world–contrary to what Board of Directors they might hear in classrooms and on campus. In general, edi- Edward Niedermeyer, Chairman tors of the Commentator share beliefs in the following: Andrea Blaser, Director Andy Dolberg, Director •We believe that the University should be a forum for Alumni Advisory Board rational and informed debate–instead of the current climate Thomas Mann ‘88, Charles H. Deister ‘92, R.S.D. Wederquist ‘92 in which ideological dogma, political correctness, fashion and Scott Camp, ‘94, Ed Carson ‘94, Owen Brennan Rounds ‘95 mob mentality interfere with academic pursuit. Mark Hemingway ‘98, Andrew Oberriter ‘98, Tamir Kriegel ‘00, •We emphatically oppose totalitarianism and its apolo- William Beutler ‘02, Tim Dreier ‘04, Olly Ruff ‘05 gists. Board of Trustees •We believe that it is important for the University com- Richard Burr munity to view the world realistically, intelligently, and Dane Claussen above all, rationally. Robert Davis •We believe that any attempt to establish utopia is bound The Oregon Commentator is a conservative journal of opinion. to meet with failure and, more often than not, disaster. All signed essays and commentaries herein represent the opinions of •We believe that while it would be foolish to praise or the writers and not necessarily the opinions of the magazine or its agree mindlessly with everything our nation does, it is both staff. The Commentator is an independent publication and the Or- egon Commentator Publishing Co., Inc. is an independent corpora- ungrateful and dishonest not to acknowledge the tremendous tion; neither are affiliated with the University of Oregon nor its School blessings and benefits we receive as Americans. of Journalism. And, contrary to popular, paranoid opinion, we are •We believe that free enterprise and economic growth, in no way affiliated with either the CIA or the FBI, or the Council on especially at the local level, provide the basis for a sound so- Foreign Relations. The Oregon Commentator accepts letters to the editor and com- ciety. mentaries from students, faculty and staff at the University of Ore- •We believe that the University is an important battle- gon, or anyone else for that matter. Letters and commentaries may be ground in the “war of ideas” and that the outcome of political submitted personally to Room 319 EMU or placed in our mailbox in battles of the future are, to a large degree, being determined Suite 4 EMU; phoned in to (541) 346-3721, or e-mailed to ocomment@ uoregon.edu. on campuses today. We reserve the right to edit material we find obscene, libelous, •We believe that a code of honor, integrity, pride and inappropriate or lengthy. We are not obliged to print anything that rationality are the fundamental characteristics for individual does not suit us. Unsolicited material will not be returned unless ac- success. companied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Submission con- stitutes testimony as to the accuracy. Socialism guarantees the right to work. However, we be- E-mails sent to individual authors that are directly related to the Or- lieve that the right not to work is fundamental to individual egon Commentator may be reused by the Commentator as it sees fit. liberty. Apathy is a human right. 2 Oregon Commentator VolumeVolume XXIV,XXIV, IssueIssue 33 That’s right: five times, bitches. Five times. 33 Sailing the Kool-Aid Seas “We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” George Orwell n 1978, some 900 members of the People’s Temple increase, the first reaction was to label the move as “budget cult committed mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana cuts.” Totally ignoring the fact that the move was simply by drinking a mixture of grape Kool-Aid, Valium and a “smaller increase than usual,” insiders accused Senators Cyanide. Little could these poor souls have imagined who voted for the benchmark of “seeing programs as ex- Ithat the group they had joined for its promise of spiritu- pendable.” The next level of deception originated with a al understanding and social justice would end up asking memo from ASUO President Jared Axelrod, claiming that them to feed their children the sugar-laden poison before “A 2.5 percent increase will result in substantial cuts in ser- killing themselves. The sad truth, though, is that they had vices and in student employment.” By attaching a memo already drank the “Kool-Aid” long before they took their from the director of PARS, claiming that the Student Rec own lives, by killing off their ability to think critically and Center would have to cut services, Axelrod chose to trot out independently. Humans are endowed with extraordinary the scariest possible scenarios. He chose this deceiving tac- E powers of observation and analysis, and yet we are also tic rather than accepting the difficult task of not automati- D susceptible to deep-seeded desires for acceptance and con- cally granting substantial increases to groups or looking at formity which too often demand that we silence our incon- cutting stipends and other unequally-distributed benefits. I venient truths. This issue of the Commentator asks you to Axelrod chose this approach, because it raises unwarranted T brew up your own Kool-Aid, and to claim your own iden- fears about the movement for fiscal responsibility, while at tity--not as a member of someone else’s group, spouting the same time avoids any questioning of the budgets of the O someone else’s agenda--but as yourself: a capable, critical student groups which, in effect, got him elected. R and independent human. This would be bad enough if this were just any year at One has only to follow the goings on of the ASUO, our the ASUO, but it’s not. This year, the ASUO has a new and I student government, to understand the power of group- unique challenge on its hands: it must somehow find a way A think. Elections have been dominated by the mobilization to spend down an $800,000 “Overrealized Fund” before Sa- of fee-funded groups which elect candidates who are then lem sees it just sitting there, and scoops it up. In other words, L politically obligated to increase the budgets of the groups while we are being scared into thinking that basic services who elected them. This cozy cycle has gone on so long that will be cut, the ASUO is sitting on enough money to pay for the ASUO has completely forgotten what it means to be a this years entire budget increase... twice. Incomprehensi- public institution. It has abdicated its basic responsibilities bly, the Kool-Aid drinkers seem to believe that this money in favor of the comfortable logic of quasi-corruption. One should not be used to balance the budget because they say has only to speak with an ASUO/Programs insider to real- it would only be a “temporary fix,” and worst of all that it ize that the entire system has lost touch with the reality that would cause the fee to increase 15% or more in subsequent “all of the money they spend comes out of the pocket of ev- years. Of course, no one is advocating that we spend the ery student.” The Incidental Fee has increased nearly every entire fund to get the fee as low as possible as such a policy year in recent memory, and yet when faced with a move- would cause an inevitable spike in the fee. But rather than ment to restrain spending and reduce the financial burden seeing the possibilities for fulfilling current benchmarks, on students, the institution becomes defensive and angry. while holding the fee steady, insiders and five-percenters It digs deep for arguments which only make sense if you’ve (so named for their assumption of a minimum of 5% an- already drank their Kool-Aid. For example, when the Stu- nual budget growth) simply push another straw-man ar- dent Senate this year bravely set the Programs Finance gument... and for what? This scenario proves how twisted Committee’s budget benchmark at a historically low 2.5% the logic of the ASUO has become; balancing the budget 4 Oregon Commentator could satisfy both groups need for never-ending growth, The credibility gap is already widening for Das Frohn; he and the fiscal conservatives’ calls to get a handle on the has publicly responded to Harbaugh’s ethical complaints runaway Incidental Fee.