[59] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: LIVING WAGE SIT-IN AT HARVARD (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Prez H. Cannady)
Thu Apr 19 23:42:43 2001
Message-Id: <200104200342.XAA18622@melbourne-city-street.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 23:38:33 -0400
To: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
From: "Prez H. Cannady" <revprez@MIT.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <200104192158.RAA02467@Press-Your-Luck.mit.edu>
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At 05:58 PM 4/19/01 , Christopher D. Beland wrote
>
>And I respect the janitors of Harvard for the important yet often
>probably unpleasant work that they do.
I'm sure blue collar America is eternally grateful for your
respect. I've worked shit jobs all my life, like most folk
in my family. Personally, I didn't give a shit what the
customers felt about White Castle burgers. Just so long as
I got my check each week and didn't have to work harder than
necessary, I was fine.
Save the pity for the cancer-stricken, or fork over the
check. Spare me the fanfare.
>It makes me happy to see them
>treated in a way that I would like to be treated if I were in their
>shoes.
Trust me, Chris. They really don't care what makes you
happy.
>I think it would be much nicer to have happy janitors that are
>glad to handle special requests that they don't necessarily have to.
Oh, yeah. $10.25 an hour and I'd go into my pocket and buy
you a drink.
>I think it's good for them to have time to properly educate their kids
>so they can go off and be productive members of society.
Good. Let them do it their own way. What's in it for you?
Nothing. I don't know where the hell my financial aid
came from, or who decided I make $7 as night manager at
a burger joint, and I don't care. I'm not sending out
thank you cards anytime soon.
If you're looking for a way to get a janitor to kiss
your ass and fall head over heals in love with you,
drop him a quarter mil.
>I think it's
>good for my neighbors in Cambridge to have time to socialize, and
>participate in neighborhood affairs to help make my world a better
>place.
Oh God, you're reaching. "Your neighbors?" When's the
last time you sat on a stoop with "one of the boys" and
split forties?
>It's nice for various minority groups (*everyone* is a member
>of *many* minorities) to stand up for one another; this week it's the
>janitors at Harvard who need public pressure, next week, it's the
>students at Random.
>What have they done for the community lately?
Me? Nothing. I'm a New Yorker. Let Cambridge and Massachusetts
folk take care of themselves.
>Maybe it's unlikely I'll end up as a janitor at Harvard, but I might
>fall on hard times someday and end up doing unskilled labor somewhere.
At which point you'll learn that sometimes a job is something
you do to get cash, no matter how much you make (within reasonable
bounds). Cleaning up shit for a four dollar raise is still cleaning
up shit.
>All of these things have real psychological value to me, in the same
>way that your brother's happiness has to you, and in the same way that
>the working and living conditions of Harvard's custodians has to them.
Well, it's a real dysfunctional relationship you got there.
An infatuation with a man who wouldn't give a crap if you
died next week.
>So in some sense, social problems *are* my problems, because a.) I
>care about them, b.) they have practical effects on society at large,
>which I have to live in c.) they have practical effects for me if I
>interact with people affected by them either personally or
>politically.
Well there's a lovely piece of emotional logic. Fortunately,
you have a good percentage of 535 people in Washington who
agree with you and made it their personal mission to go "fix
everything." Somewhere along the line, they lost track that
a lot of people in the world are ingrates who forget to give
thanks for all you've given them.
>So how does the typical MIT student know when to get involved in local
>politics?
Does it matter? A lot of us have no intentions of staying here
for more than four, five or six years. I've got my own
community to worry about, and even then I'm only concerned
about two things, pay and crime.
>Do I do a rigorous cost-benefit analysis?
That'd be a start.
>If so, how do I
>count the benefit of a achieving a personal sense of justice?
You don't. There's no such thing beyond delusion.
>Of properly raising the next generation?
Abortion up to age eighteen. The kid messes up, just blow'em
away.
>Of good relations with my neighbors?
Keep your property value up, confrontation down.
>Alternatively, I could establish a good set of
>democratic, capitalistic, libertarian principles, and generally mind
>my own business unless I felt one of those principles had been
>violated.
This would be the path most Americans follow.
>But how and why do I chose those principles?
You say so yourself: personal happiness.
>Is it not
>because of some higher goals -- usually either personal happiness or
>social good, right?
Who gives a crap about social good if it doesn't do anything
for you?
>How can I tell if following the general rule is
>creating badness, and that an exception should be crafted?
"Creating badness?"
>I actually believe in many of the principles you espouse, but the
>situation at Harvard presents itself as a practical problem to be
>solved.
No it doesn't. It's an emotional issue that Greenies have
thinly veiled with a convoluted vocabulary in order to pass
it off as a practical problem. Communists tend to be
better with language, hence their greater impact on world
affairs this century.
>The proposed solution does not really seem to violate any
>important principles, since it only involves private lobbying.
When somebody other than Allah asks me to go do something for somebody
I don't know, don't particularly care about, and probably will never
see face to face, then why should I?
>In the end, I can't blame other people much for not caring, but I
>don't know how much I can justify them yelling at me for caring.
Then dig out your own pocket next time. Start a charity
with likeminded people. Just keep people who don't give
a shit out of this liberal fantasy life.
>Next
>thing I know, my housemates will yell at me for doing their dishes and
>picking up their trash.
Feel free to wash my feet, just don't ask me to do the same.
Rev Prez
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Presley H. Cannady
Acting Chairman, College Republicans
CR Website <http://web.mit.edu/republicans/www/>
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