Liberalism, The Emotional Disorder

In November 2009, the UC Regents (the governing board of the University of California) announced that tuition costs would increase 32 percent by the fall of 2010 raising annual tuition to $10,300. Immediately, student protesters assembled and lockdowns commenced on UC campuses across the state.

Students placed the blame for the increases on the UC Regents and not the actual culprits, the California State Legislature and the current and previous governors failure to veto exorbitant bills. The protests simply reflect that the students don’t understand the complexities of the fiscal crisis facing the state of California.

Because these students are attending institutions of higher learning, it’s incumbent upon them to examine the facts of the situation at hand, rather than to falsely blame the UC Regents for the dysfunctional politicians who have drastically cut UC general funding.

In response to the tuition increases, the students of UCLA really put forth a worthwhile campaign when 40 to 50 angered students locked themselves inside the campus’ Campbell Hall, issuing email statements declaring, “We choose to fight back, to resist, where we find ourselves, the place where we live and work, our university”. This surely solved the problem.

As a former UCSC banana slug, I saw firsthand how liberal college students could rationalize their own behaviors. The ever so “politically correct” and not to mention “open-minded” students of UCSC referred to me as “That Conservative” and gave me no opportunity to voice a rebuttal to their amateur claims because they were afraid I may have looked beyond their simplistic thought process and actually articulated an opinion that was well developed.

When speaking to my best friend who still attends UCSC, he told me how the protestors of the fee increases were so vigilant in their actions that in blocking the roads starting from the base of campus all the way to the top and forcing the bus system to be completely shut down, they made his quotidian four minute drive from his apartment to class a 45 minute bumper to bumper traffic jam allowing him to move a total of 100 yards and, therefore, miss his class.

In their protest, the students actually did more harm than good in keeping their fellow banana slugs from attending class just weeks before their finals. Also, the state of California had to foot the bill of policing the protests and fixing the thousands of dollars in damages the “peaceful” protestors left behind.

The problem with naïve liberal college students is that their emotions take over all rational thought and they are narrowly focused on protesting for the sake of defying authority instead of identifying the problems we are forced to face and coming up with reasonable solutions.

Our state’s fiscal issues lie within the liberal politicians whom they’ve elected. If these student protesters truly desire to be progressives, while being defiant and productive, they should make the drive (in an environmentally friendly vehicle) to Sacramento and protest the Democrats in the legislature and our governor on the steps of the State Capitol.

I’m not implying that protesting isn’t a logical response for the students to arrange, however, barricading the Capitol as oppose to buildings on the various campuses would surely get the attention of real wrongdoers and force the politicians to ameliorate their lamentable mess. Sadly, that would require the ability to think rationally.