The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

The University of Vermont's Independent Voice Since 1883

The Vermont Cynic

Reject Rhetoric, Speak for Yourself

To the Editor:

Regarding the ongoing debate raging between the so-called extreme left and right on campus with the “hear-both-sides” camp caught in between: The latter group argues that the left and the right are equally close-minded and simply do not listen to anyone else, therefore failing to see that we really have nothing to get so huffy about.

I beg to differ. People form opinions based upon their world experiences. Someone might vehemently disagree with someone else, not because one does not hear that person, but because one’s experiences in a class society have led one to different conclusions.

For instance: It’s 1860, and someone gives a speech under the title, “Why we should have slavery.” If I were a slave, having physically experienced slavery, there would be absolutely nothing this person could possibly say to convince me that I should remain in bondage. Nothing! Let’s say I then organized a protest against this person, desiring to build a movement to eradicate the brutal manifestation of his/her argument. On one level, I am not listening. On another, this person is a slave-master, profits from my subjugation, will not be persuaded with arguments, but rather might be forced through mass resistance to emancipate me.

Try other examples: A talk in 1912 against women’s suffrage-there is no need to hear the argument. Or a talk in 1952 in support of lynches of African Americans-again, no need to hear the argument. A talk in 1982 in support of Apartheid in South Africa-no need to listen. What about a talk in 2002 justifying 250 billionaires, who own as much wealth as 3 billion people, being able to unilaterally and preemptively demolish any country, which for any reason impedes the profit-driven agenda of the aforementioned plutocracy?

The disagreement is not a matter of an inability to listen. Some of us are listening too carefully to what is being proffered by those wishing to perpetuate the status quo, and we are connecting those ideas to corresponding experiences-and it frightens us. Every second we wait for Mr. Bush to simply listen to us is a second conceded to the accumulation of injustice. And as Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his seminal work ‘Why We Can’t Wait,’ “Justice long delayed is justice denied.”

I want to listen to, strategize and exchange ideas with anyone who recognizes serious problems in our society, who is for a more equal distribution of wealth, who is for environmental protection, who is for an end to wars for profits or any one of the above. But if you categorically stand opposed to all of the foregoing (‘you’ being the American ruling elite), I wish to hear not a word you say, but only to remove you from a position of power where your ideas may be actualized into human atrocities.

As the old adage of slave resistance goes: “Listen less to the voice of your masters and begin to raise your own.”

Keith Rosenthal
Class of 2003

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Reject Rhetoric, Speak for Yourself