Cause Junkies

Hi, have you pledged to save the environment today? Would you like to buy the latest edition of the Socialist Revolution newsletter and help us topple the greedy capitalist system in power and redistribute the wealth in society? Will you make a donation to the Save the World Foundation and help us find the cure for crippling social evils like unemployment, poverty and abortion? Would you like to pledge to stop oil drilling off the coast of Alaska and help preserve Earth's dwindling natural resources? Can you spare the air today?

Cause junkies. They're everywhere, almost as inescapable as the swarming candidates in the ASUC elections. You thought you could avoid them by staying away from Sproul Plaza at noon, but they've caught on to your apathy and are now prepared to catch you on Lower Sproul, up by Northgate and in front of Moffitt Library. Their witnessing and outreaching efforts are relentless as they attempt to convert self-absorbed Cal students into progressively conscious, propaganda-toting front-liners for their radical organizations.

These cause junkies bait you with euphemistic catch phrases, playing into the fading soft spot in your heart for the air, the water and the political freedoms you take for granted everyday. If they manage to persuade you to stop and listen to their spiel about the magnanimous causes they represent, you may regret giving them the time of day. They're often so excited that they actually got someone to listen that they'll take 10 minutes to explain their cause and purpose, infringing on your patience and ability to filter through their biased rhetoric and political jargon.

It is exactly this fervent energy and radicalism that estranges moderately indifferent students from these important social causes of preserving Northern California's watershed and repealing the affirmative action ban. Radical propaganda, annoying slogans and endless rhetorical political ranting do little to make people aware of and feel obligated to their personal responsibility to give back to the community.

The barrage of social causes and fervent advocates on Sproul epitomize how much Cal is a microcosm of the real world. There's a variety of progressive political causes and social organizations available, but people often don't take the time to listen to or learn about them. People are so overwhelmed by the variety of choices and important issues demanding their attention, their time and their money, that instead of tuning in, people often tune out of reality and escape any sort of social responsibility to their community. Dissuaded by the aggressive language and agitating tactics of political activists, moderate individuals stay on the fence, unmoved by the mudslinging political lobbyists.

Radical conservatives often can't stand radical progressives because they have to spend too much time filtering through the clichéd rhetoric to understand the progressive's righteous point. Similarly, radical progressives often don't understand radical conservatives because they have to spend too much time tuning out conservatives' cultural insensitivity that they're too frustrated to fully listen to their perspective. Words like liberation, justice and racism carry little salience among politically indifferent individuals, and often this language succeeds in further discouraging people from participating in politics.

Activists, advocates and lobbyists are necessary pawns of the social movements and organizations needed to conserve our environment, rally to protect our natural resources and push for legislative policies for the socially disenfranchised and disadvantaged. The Civil Rights, Free Speech, and Women's Liberation movements would not have been as successful without boisterous radicals like Stokley Carmichael, Mario Savio and Betty Friedan. However, as the poet Audre Lorde eloquently wrote, the master's tool of language will never dismantle the master's house of power institutions if the general population refuses to listen to the propaganda challenging these institutions.

Social responsibility extends beyond the few boisterous cause junkies who willingly thrust themselves into progressive, change-oriented social organizations. Their efforts are in vain if no one is listening.

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