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Show opinion/ MONDAY*SEPTEMBER 26-2005 Knowledgeable speech In our free society, do we really voice our opinion coherently? Rhinos! They're everywhere Did you know you might be a rhinoceros? Yes, you, the one reading this in the Hall of Flags or the cafeteria or the L.A. Building—I hate to say it, but you really could be a rhino. 'What?' you say indignantly. 'Are you calling me fat?' No. no, unfortunately it's something far worse and widespread than that (yes, there is something worse and widespread than obesity, despite what statistics in lyposuction performance may indicate). I'm talking about herd mentality, conformity, trendiness. The rhino reference comes from a trench playwright named Eugene Ionesco, whose play, "Rhinoceros," depicts a small town sud-. denly intruded upon by the strange appearance of a rhino. Before long, there are more—someone's boss becomes one, another's girlfriend—people don't want to be out of it, they want to be up to speed with the latest "movement," they want to fit in. Imagine being the only one in school, in church, in the workplace who hasn't caught on. So what happens? Everyone becomes rhinos. Only one person in the town resists jumping on the bandwagon. Despite being implored, abased, and ultimately ostracized, Berenger remains true to himself. I ' m the last man left," he declares, "and I'm staying that way until the end. I'm not capitulating!" Don't believe that blind conformity is a problem here in Orem, Utah? Weil, start looking around. Put down the paper for a minute and walk down the Hall of Flags and look at what people are wearing, how they're dressed, how they do their hair, makeup, etc. Amazing, isn't it? It's like they all came out of the same factory. Of course, clothes are just clothes-you can't judge a book by it's cover right? Sure, I'll concede that, though material conformity—from clothes, to cars, to houses—is a strange and often indicative phenomenon. But by far, the worst type of conformity, in my opinion, is that of the mind. George Orwell, author of 1984, referred to it as "Groupthink." We cannot think for ourselves, we simply, and often blindly, take the views held by the respective "group" we associate ourselves with. Imagine, for example, someone in Utah County who is part of the predominant culture and religion, but opposes the war and believes in giving homosexuals basic rights and benefits. Or someone in the philosophy department who voted for Bush over Kerry and believes in intelligent design. SeeJ0E-A7 Furthermore, making noise is A free society should not allow There are few things more im- presenting ideas when they say, also not acceptable. If someone a call to silence. There is no idea portant to a free and democratic "If you don't do as I say then I'll contained in calling for others is trying to speak and an indisociety than the freedom of kill you." They are presenting a to shut up. There is no benefit to vidual starts screaming to keep command. speech. that, and there is no justification. the first person from speaking, There may be more subtle The freedom of speech allows for the discussion of religion, forms of violence, but if the es- If one wishes to be ignorant of then the screamer is not exercising his or her freedom of politics, morality, science, speech, but depriving othliterature, and any number ers of their rights. This is of complex issues. We ofwhy we don't allow people ten hear the linking of the to talk constantly in classes. freedom of speech to the As students, we have agreed "marketplace of ideas." The to listen to the instructor question is, "What is the and allow others the ability marketplace of ideas, and to listen. what is and isn't appropriate I think this might be a good for it?" time to beat the dead Michael We must first know what Moore horse. Many claimed ideas are before we answer that Michael Moore should those questions. An idea is a not be allowed to come to belief, an opinion, or knowlcampus because the omiedge that is contained in nous and ill-defined "comsome sort of expression. munity" didn't like it. It was For example, complaining stated that Michael Moore about an elected official or wasn't having his freedom system of government conof speech attacked because tains an opinion about those he could still talk wherever things. Dialogue can teach he wanted for free. knowledge about how to However, the call to sibuild a computer or cook a lence Michael Moore was pie. Even interpretive dance an attack on UVSC's freeconveys feelings like anger dom of expression and its and hope. student body's right to disHowever, the relevant comcuss ideas. I will admit that ponent is the idea. Freedom the financial handling could of speech should protect all have been done in a more of these interactions. Furopen way. However, those thermore, we should encourwho were most vocal about age the flow of ideas in order him speaking at UVSC were to preserve many different spurred on by their hatred of opinions and beliefs. his ideas, not some concern However, there are two for fiscal responsibility. different types of speech that The more ideas there are, should not be allowed under Ryan Me<?ks/NetXNew5 any circumstance. The first How often do we use our First Ammendment right to free speech, in an informa- the more we all have to discuss. However, to maintain and most obvious type of tive and competant manner? dialogue, it is important not to speech is violence. Violence allow people to threaten us or sidoes not carry an idea with it. It is sential message does not contain other views, that's fine. Individunot possible to contemplate and it an idea, it should not be accepted als can always leave a discus- lence us. sion. is not acceptable. People are not by an open and free society. Idler/ lo the editor Faith in fellow man Dear Editor, Marijuana legalization I am writing to you about an experience I had while moving to Phoenix a few months ago. While driving down, I stopped in Orem, Utah to look for a hotel for the night. While searching, I accidentally pulled into one of your student housing buildings and got my truck and trailer stuck under a low clearance. It took a couple of hours to resolve the situation, and while waiting, I was very surprised by the attitudes and behaviors of your students. Quite a few just ignored us, without hardly a look in our direction. And some were outright rude, impatiently asking us to hurry up or honking their horn. Only two students paused to ask us if there was anything they could do to help. To these two students - Thank you. We all need to remember that there will be times where we all have to depend on others, even complete strangers. Even though there wasn't much that a person just walking around could do (we needed tools) it was nice to know that someone had enough faith in their fellow man to try to help. — Brian Martin School spirit mystery Dear Editor, In your article Mr. Vance, you challenged me and my fellow students to come up with a better conclusion for why there is little school spirit here at UVSC. Here are some of my answers to your "mystery." Reason 1.) Transient Student body. UVSC has been a "commuter school" for most of its existence, meaning that most of the current student body is using UVSC as a springboard for better things like (for older students) getting a degree to stay employed, to get a promotion, or to finish what they started years before, or (for younger students) to transfer to another school later. Reason 2.) Jobs. A majority of the students here at UVSC are paying out of their own pocket for school, unlike many students at other schools around the country, and this means that many seats are empty because students are at work instead. I can only attend 26 games out of more than 100 this whole school year because I have to work. Reason 3.) Anti UVSC sentiments. Besides last year's daily skewering of our school by the blatantly one-sided Daily Herald (does "Cougar Blue" ring a bell?) UVSC has received bad press from some really bad people. Orem's favorite bigot, Kay Anderson, is a prime example. Lack of business support doesn't help either. I can't count the number of businesses that have BYU paraphernalia hanging proudly, but conversely have no UVSC stuff at all. Even NetXNews does it a little bit. Why do you constantly cover BYU Football? That isn't our team, the Wolverines are! I think all of these reasons add up to the empty seats that so many of us die-hard Wolverines are tired of seeing. — Matthew Garner Visit u>. online at www.netxnews.net Dear Editor, Yet another sign that morons are among us appeared in the September 19th issue of the College Times. Mark James began his letter with, "I want to smoke marijuana" and he then claimed that evil Uncle Sam and "insane bureaucrats" were preventing him from doing so. He then spent the majority of his article rationalizing his desire to smoke pot by saying that all of the suffering cancer patients in the U.S. should get marijuana to lighten their pain because Canadians do. He ended his comments by saying, "In my opinion, keeping marijuana from cancer patients and other suffering individuals equals inhumanity." Well, the part I don't seem to understand, James, is how "I want to smoke marijuana" and the "insane bureaucrats" won't let me, equals cancer patients needing medical marijuana and evil Uncle Sam not giving it to them. It sounds more to me like you are reaching way out on a limb trying to justify your lust for illegal vegetation. Maybe cancer patients should get it, maybe not, but definitely not you! Or are you going to tell us that you have cancer too? You know that Cocaine comes from a plant too, right? Should we legalize Cocaine? Uranium and Plutonium are "naturally-occurring, ultra-useful, and God-given" as well, should we legalize the possession of them? I don't think it's a good idea to legalize any of them, and most people would agree with me. So, if you still want to smoke your marijuana like the Canadians do, move to Canada. — Matthew Garner LETTERS TO THE EDITOR * E-Mail letters to uvscopinions@hotmail.com * The NetXNews room is located on campus in SC220. * All letters become property of NetXNews and may be edited for content, specifically clarity, length or other concerns at the discretion of the Opinions Editor. * Letters between 50-250 words are encouraged and those letters marked by their succinctness tire more likely to be published. * Letters must be accompanied by full name, address, and phone number for verification purposes (contact information will not bo published). Occupation, title or major is optional. Send story ideasto uvscopinions@hotmall.com |