Asymmetrical Information

From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:

Student Activists Seek Clue

For some fun, read this article about student activist Ryan Nuckel, leader of NYU's "Students for Social Equality". There's a lot of familiar and nostalgic territory:

Like most college students, core members of Students for Social Equality -- the 30 or so who show up for weekly meetings -- travel in a pack. They grapple with the same existential dread. Although a serious lot, they go to parties, listen to loud music, admire David Lynch and Bob Dylan, and worry about their relationships. Mostly, though, they drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and organize. They are sure that they can influence the world around them, and that they are right.

Could be any decade so far. Nuckel's background also comes straight from the 60s playbook - idle enough for guilt.

For Mr. Nuckel, activism was a slow evolution, simmering under the surface until he arrived two years ago at New York University. He grew up in Babylon, a mostly white middle-class Long Island town, listening to the music of Radiohead and Nirvana and reading the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. and anything by Kurt Vonnegut when the assignment was the Federalist Papers. His father is a general contractor and his mother works in a print shop. Both are Republicans.

Many a nickel makes a Nuckel, I guess. Ryan is into today's "causes":

Motivated by the peaceful protesters among the rioters in Seattle at a demonstration against the World Trade Organization, he realized there was a place for him in that world. In April 2000, he joined 42 other N.Y.U. students in Washington to condemn World Bank policies that they think allow corporations to run amok without accountability.

For him, the scene in Washington was ''amazing.'' He didn't do much except watch, but what he saw overwhelmed him. ''I've never seen that many thousands of people except at a rock concert,'' he says. ''It was amazing how many people were out acting on their beliefs and coming together. It was beautiful.''

Of course, we could also call the highjackings a group of people coming together and acting on their beliefs. But, based on the following description, the exact character of this group's beliefs appears to be up for grabs:

While people straggle in, a young man tapes an oversized flip chart to a portable blackboard. On it is the agenda of the meeting: 5 minutes will be devoted to an introduction, 15 minutes to group discussion, 10 minutes to explain the process, 25 minutes to unity, 15 minutes to groups, and 5 minutes to announcements.

Three student facilitators sit before the crowd. Everything will be done by consensus. The group will discuss every point and then vote. If one person dissents, the issue will be up for debate again. ''We're all leaders, we are all empowered to lead this group,'' Mr. Eastwood begins. ''Everyone's voice will be heard.''

To start, the students are asked to share why they are here. Justice, peace, civil liberties and racism are some of the reasons tossed around.

''We all agree that something must be done, like a change in U.S. foreign policy, not bombing innocent people,'' says Mr. Eastwood.

There is a lot of raging against the machine.

''They're taking away liberty and defending it at the same time,'' says one student.

''You can't be antiviolence in America and pro-violence in other countries!'' says another.

''Bush's view of justice is not the right view,'' says a third. ''Bin Laden was trained by the C.I.A.!''

A Japanese woman raises her hand. ''I'm afraid of a second Pearl Harbor,'' she says softly. ''Entire cities were destroyed, 300,000 people were killed. I really appreciate your participation here.''

The room explodes with applause.

Throughout the evening, Mr. Nuckel, wearing a black and yellow T-shirt bearing the words ''Union Democracy for a Strong Labor Movement,'' nods his head and claps softly. He surveys the crowd and smiles. ''It's a really beautiful room to be in right now,'' he says. ''Everybody's brilliant. I love it. It gives me hope.''

The group then tries to name the coalition and say what it stands for. Are they pro-peace or antiwar? What are the ramifications of ''pro'' and ''anti''? Should they focus solely on the World Trade Center, or use broader language?

Finally they decide: They are for peace and against war and racist scapegoating; in favor of defending civil liberties and for social and economic justice on a global scale, and for education.

Everyone agrees on all but one point.

Really? That was quite a list. So what's the one point?

''We don't have to worry about justice, we'll let God take care of it,'' one woman says.

Pandemonium breaks out. God? Who brought God into the room?

''I associate justice with punishment,'' the woman says. ''We need to quantify what justice is.''

''It's equity,'' says Ms. Griffiths.

''It's peace,'' another student says.

''Well, you can have peace without justice,'' another points out.

''It's an important question, justice instead of retaliation,'' Mr. Nuckel says. ''But what does justice mean?''

They decide to focus on that question in future meetings, and students sign up for working groups.

Before they disperse, a boy in the back of the room stands up. ''Tonight is the beginning of Yom Kippur, and I just want to say that I can't think of a better way to atone for my sins and the sins my country is about to commit than this.''

The group bursts into applause. Mr. Nuckel is elated.

I guess religious atonement is OK, but justice from God is not. Get the picture? Its not the policies or events that matter so much, it's how "beautiful" the protests are, how much "unity" and "compassion" they display. After all, "unity" got the largest time block on the meeting agenda. Richly deserved, too, since the only unity we see, sadly, is the "anti" antecedent. No wonder even the press scoffs at these folks. They can't even decide whether justice is equity or peace, can't "quantify" justice, and can't abide "punishment." Are they socialists, antiwar (the two don't go together that well, historically) , a labor movement?

With or without definition, the demonstration comes off, by coincidence, the day the bombing starts in Afghanistan.The police are less than thrilled.

Police officers silently walk alongside the group, moving them along. ''We're supposed to be digging downtown and they got us here for these people?'' says one officer angrily, using expletives. ''They're dividing the force for this?''

Sabrina Lee is exasperated by his words. ''We're not doing this to take away from any effort!'' she shouts. ''We don't want more families to die. Retaliation can only make this worse.''

Mr. Nuckel's face is ashen; he looks as if he is about to cry. ''I'm afraid of things getting twisted around,'' he says. ''We all want this'' tragedy ''never to happen again.'' He does not consider himself unpatriotic or even antipolice. ''The whole country cried for the police and firemen, and they were heroes,'' he says. ''The aftermath was filled with such compassion.''

Well. I'm afraid that's right, Ryan. Part of having beliefs is prioritizing. Doing one thing often means not doing another. Having a demonstration uptown distracts from the recovery effort. If we tear down the world's institutions, we have to think about what might take their place.

Oh well, it doesn't seem to trouble him long. Nuckel shakes it off and, observing the protests, provides the article's concluding quotation:

The unity reminds him of one of his favorite authors, Jose Saramago, the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner. Mr. Nuckel has read his novel ''Blindness'' three times. ''It would be a beautiful book to read now, actually,'' he says. ''One day, everyone goes blind. They can't explain why, it just spreads like an epidemic. This small group of people who never knew each other just gets together. No matter how lost and confused everyone is, there's always love and solidarity.''

Now there's an appropriate literary analogy for Students for Social Equality. Lost, confused, blind, but with love and solidarity. The lack of alternatives proffered by this group calls to mind this epiphany of a letter to Matt Welch from Roscoe Carter about the lack of alternatives provided by the "anti" left:

What should we do about a repressive regime?

Option 1) Military Aid. Obviously wrong. We are providing the weapons that kill the innocent. See Israel, Turkey, Columbia, Reagan-era Iraq, etc.

Option 2) Economic Aid. Wrong. We are financially propping up the regime. See Egypt, Indonesia, etc.

Option 3) Humanitarian Aid. Still Wrong. By relieving the regime of its financial duty to feed its people, we free up their money for military uses. See Afghanistan, where the US supported the Taliban by providing $43 million in humanitarian aid in exchange for the Taliban not exporting Heroin, thus sacrificing 12 million women to the alter of the failed War on Drugs.

Option 4) Trade / Constructive Engagement. Wrong. This is merely an excuse for US corporations to profit off of the regime's repression of its own people. See China and Reagan-era South Africa.

Option 5) Economic Sanctions. Wrong. The economic sanctions in Iraq have killed 6,000 people a month for the past 11 years, or nearly 800,000 victims of US foreign policy.

Option 6) Military Attack. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! See every military conflict that the United States has every engaged in. (Caveat: There may be a possible exception for the US Civil War, which will be considered obviously justified if you are talking to any white person born in the former Confederacy.)

Option 7) The Prime Directive. Wrong. It is intolerable for the most powerful nation in history to sit by and do nothing while thousands die. It probably stems from a racist lack of concern for people of color of persons of other religions. See Rwanda, Bosnia (not to be confused with Kosovo, which falls under Option 6, above).

So let's all have a love-in and show unity and compassion by watching this photo-montage, complete with cloying Enya soundtrack, and discuss the definition of two other important 25-cent words "prevention" and "security".

Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at November 11, 2001 10:23 AM | Technorati inbound links