April 25, 2008 - The Enemy

This is a truism of politics: few things can unite people like the struggle against a common "enemy", whether this enemy is personal or impersonal.

Last April, 3000 students who had nothing in common, from all political allegiances, assembled in the middle of the exams to oppose the Code. I hope you were there. It was truly an awesome time. And we won. [By "we", now I really mean all students, rather than the insider "we" I am using elsewhere in this blog.] So I hope you didn't miss it, because the way things are going, we won't see that kind of unity anytime soon.

The irony, of course, is that despite the far-too-obvious purpose of the Code - silencing an increasingly vocal activist crowd - the administration gave a huge boost to student activists and their representatives on the SFUO. If it wasn't for the Code, we would have ended the year with a highly-divisive Fulcrum AGM and a slightly controversial trip to New Orleans to campaign against the SPP.

Now the Code is gone, and some people in the movement need a new enemy. But what happens when the new enemy is part of your membership? This happens.

You think that the SAC is a legitimate instance? You don't agree that Seamus is making a farce of it? Then you're siding with RPG. And by the way, RPG is racist. Don't you remember how he betrayed us during the CFS referendum, and sided with conservatives? CONSERVATIVES. I even heard that some of them are anti-choice [pro-life]. Do you really want to be associated with these people?

So instead of uniting the student body, the role of "the enemy" is to ensure uncritical support from those "inside the base". We can't afford internal debate when we're at war. And we'll always be at war with Estasia (or what is Eurasia?).

[Tomorrow - The Rules]