A Message to the Inattentive Public

By Anonymous Submitter

To the Inattentive Public:

We write to you in response to the overwhelming amount of apathy the public has begun to slip into.

For as long as man has lived, so have his ideas, thoughts, and passions, all sprung from his own being. From the moment he is brought into this world, so is a pristine new life. A man whose thoughts, emotions, and ideas are his own, not bending or wavering to the needs of the masses. Notwithstanding the fact that it is difficult for one to disagree with the aforementioned statements, man is also born with the capacity for passivity, submissiveness, and incompleteness.

The community in which we live forces individuals to abdicate their own personages in order to appease a broken system. We cannot have true ownership or responsibility for anything. Even our own thoughts are being usurped; we are indoctrinated relentlessly to accept unquestioningly the fact that all people are equal. This fact, since day one, has been foolishly oversimplified to allow for laws, rules, and legislation to be passed which undermines the individual.

We need to accept the fact that we are different and that we will always be different. However, rather than allow these differences to be divisive, we should seek to make our differences the strength of our unity. We, now more than ever, have the responsibility to accept everyone who shares our point of view concerning indifference, regardless of dissimilarities.

It is not a question of whether or not we are all equal, for we are not. Our equality ends as soon as we begin to speak. However, this is not to say that we should not be treated equally, for we must recognize that every human being should be treated as such.

Realistically, it is no longer permissible to simply remain indolent and passive in a semi-comatose state and allow this crippling passivity and indolence to dictate our actions. The time has come where we need to open our eyes and take a long hard look at ourselves and each other, as we are also crippled by restraints accumulated through the centuries. It is only after we remove the blindfold of discrimination, cast off the shackles of prejudice, and rend the veil of illogical stereotypes that we will have the ability to see the numerous and nefarious host of problems massing and swarming all around us.

In times like these, men have often sought enclaves in order to communicate contrary opinions to such irresponsible behavior. We are just one of these factions, hoping to ally man not only with his brethren, but also with his true self. It is difficult at first to comprehend the idea of such a guild, in which man can speak freely without fear of judgment or bias; a guild wherein a man can express his personal beliefs without the having to suffer harsh belittlement from others. However, such a guild exists, and it exists right here at Gettysburg College.

History teaches us that revolutions are promulgated and encouraged by groups of dissatisfied citizens or angry individuals, that they are unrestrained vehicles of death and destruction. We are taught that they topple the mighty, redistribute the wealth, that they right all wrongs, and that they are the panacea for all of society’s ills. We are taught to revere the leaders of certain revolutions and fear the leaders of others.

What we are not taught is that eventually they become what they hate, succumbing to the very forces that motivated them to anger, that they collapse into the same bastion of corruption and quagmire that originally filled them with rage. So, logically, the central question, the perplexing enigma, the riddle which has baffled and eluded comprehension for centuries must be why do humans even have revolutions? Generations of philosophers, scientists, sociologists, and scholars of all stripes have repeatedly failed to define why humans again and again resort to revolution.

It is, therefore ironic, that the answer should be provided by college students, members of society who are seen as intellectually immature compared to their adult brethren. Yet, for all their alleged superiority, many of these erudite adults fail to see the answer simply because they have lived in the system far longer than we have and are therefore more indulgent of its more nefarious aspects.

This must change.

This is why a group is vital to sustain such independent thoughts of respect, responsibility and self. But such a group is only as strong as its patronage and is limited by its methods of communication. This dialogue helps people understand one another. Only by engaging in dialogue with others will we be able to comprehend differences. Rather than being forced to believe what is right or wrong, we begin to know one another, ultimately achieving what man has desired since the inception of humanity