Invisible
Why Berkeley's left no longer matters
By Alexander Marlow
From the February 2008 Print Edition
It is difficult to separate UC Berkeley and its tradition as a hotbed for radical liberalism, but those far-left elements have made few strides during my waning tenure as an undergrad. There simply is no excuse for it: We have an unpopular Republican in the White House and we are engaged in a war that’s less popular than the Robin Williams DVD box set. Still, the left has struggled to mount events that even Zachary Running Wolf will attend. The reason is simple: The left’s ideas aren’t resonating with UC Berkeley students.
On December 6 in Dwinelle Hall, I attended a student-andfaculty- organized “teach-in” called “America’s Current and Impending Wars, from Campus to the Middle East.” While the speakers were insufferable, the night served an important purpose: It signified the degraded condition of leftism at UC Berkeley. Most observably, the event was poorly attended. A mere 200 people showed up to take in the America-bashing, filling only about 40 percent of the auditorium — these are pathetic figures considering how frequently our current wars are compared to Vietnam. It was raining that night, so you could argue that the rain had an adverse effect on the turnout, but considering how people left the symposium early throughout the night, I began to suspect that many of the attendees only showed up in the first place to shelter themselves from the storm. This poor turnout undoubtedly confirms that the students are no longer identifying with the left with the same vigor they have in the past, and it is easy to understand why. Allow me to point out what passes for inspired thought in Berkeley’s radical leftist community lately:
A couple of UC Berkeley grad students set the tone for the evening by criticizing Commander David Petraeus’ report delivered to Congress in September, predicting it will fail to “measure up to reality.” The fact of the matter is the violence in Iraq is plummeting at such an unprecedented rate that the citizens of Oakland ought to be jealous. Let’s just leave the war to the generals. Moreover, this undermining of the military is unfounded since General Petraeus has no political allegiances and was confirmed unanimously by the Senate to take over Operation Iraqi Freedom. Besides, if grad students had to fight the war in Iraq, who would write up my worksheet for next week’s discussion section and how would they find time to have their lattes at Starbucks and play Scrabble on their laptops?
The same student continued to suggest that the Annapolis peace accords of November of last year should have included Hamas. A quote from the organization’s charter provides a poignant illustration of why Hamas wasn’t invited: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” Suffice it to say, only a Berkeley grad student could make such a numb-skull suggestion.
Later on, journalist Dahr Jamail lectured us on U.S. imperialism: “If you are a big fan of the U.S. trying to become a global empire, rest assured, it is in writing, it’s in the books, and they are doing their best to make it happen.” This is an argument the left makes every time we deploy a troop, but the reality is that the United States has not expanded through military acquisition since the Spanish American War in 1898. Any eighth grader could have corrected Jamail on his assertion.
The next speaker was UC Berkeley rhetoric professor Samera Esmeir, who began her speech by suggesting that Israel is also an imperial power: “Israel has no official borders ... Israel is expanding.” She’s right; Israel has expanded, to roughly the size of New Jersey. I think Esmeir can relax because a democracy the size of the Garden State in a vast region of Islamic and military dictatorships is hardly a threat to swallow the region whole.
Esmeir’s main concern wasn’t Israeli hegemony at all, but rather it was Palestine’s supposed inability to generate favorable news coverage. Her speech crescendoed to an anecdote about how NPR reported the death of an “Israeli cow” but does not often report deaths of Palestinian humans. Esmeir’s story generated the most enthusiasm from the audience of any moment of the entire symposium, but the anecdote was founded on a web of lies and misinformation. I tracked down the NPR piece (from November 11 of last year), and it never once referenced an “Israeli cow,” but instead the journalist noted that Palestinians fired a kassam rocket from Gaza into Israel, destroying a cow shed and killing seven cows. A news-worthy story indeed, because aren’t you curious to know what buffoon would attack a cow shed? Furthermore, the very next story in the NPR broadcast reported that Israelis had killed two Palestinians. The most inspirational moment of the evening was in fact a falsified story based on the faulty premise that Palestine does not generate enough media attention. If you can’t defend your position with the truth, Ms. Esmeir, you should be ashamed of yourself to create lies to bolster your agenda.
The final speaker, UC Berkeley political science professor Wendy Brown, did not spare the theatrics either, suggesting that UC Berkeley is being increasingly run by the infamous “corporations.” She first said that “public funding for education has diminished,” which is an outright lie, and then cautioned us to the dangers of corporate donations to our schools. I, on the other hand, am pleased to live in a magnanimous society whereby those that possess the capital invest in education because they recognize that it is important to our nation’s future. Moreover, we know that public education in this country has become a very expensive disappointment, often rendering substandard results while burdening taxpayers and bankrupting state and local governments. On the other hand, private education has been a resounding success, demonstrating efficiency and more positive outcomes.
The Berkeley “Teach-In Against the War” confirmed the degenerate state of the hippie movement in present-day Berkeley. We can rejoice, for the time being at least, because not only is the movement ostensibly invisible, it is not about to inspire anyone else to join.
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