Libertarian student insults my brother because of his call for student unionization/organization

As I mentioned in the thread "I'm an Unemployed College Graduate", my brother wants to create a union for college students as well as unemployed or underemployed graduates and veterans. He sent an email to all members of a college club he was involved in regarding his new idea. One member of the club sent him a nasty email attacking him. The following is a blog my brother posted in response to the email. It includes the email in its entirety, but fragmented to allow for my brother's comments. I'm editing out personally idenfitiable information for my brother in fear of retaliation and blacklisting for daring to support economic progressivism and unionization.

Here is my brother's post.

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Yesterday I delivered my appeal to members of *my club* for a Youth/Student Movement. One response was particularly interesting. Here I will post this response and comment on it.

"Youve said alot in this message, but with little content. What is it that we should feel shorted by?"

Economic policy and the education system. Idiot.

"and what are the problems that we face?"

Have you seen the tuition rates? Have you seen the job market?

"You have suggested nothing except that you are displeased with your situation."

I suggested one thing: the formation of a movement. I'm a prospective student at G- Law, so I'm not really that displeased with my situation at the moment. I'm displeased at the situation of certain friends and family members who don't have the privilege you have. Maybe when you graduate, you'll be in a similar situation. I will be willing to help you out, even though you insult me today.

"who do you think you are?"

*Name*

"Lenin?"

No.

"stop you ridiculous outbursts and realize that you are not the first person in *our college's* history to be upset with the business like attitude at running the school."

I will not stop my "ridiculous outbursts" until we either wake up or until I am convinced that nothing can be done. I know I'm not the first person to be upset. That's exactly why I propose what I am proposing. If I were the only one who were upset, I think I would go to the park, read some Coleridge, and try to forget all about it. Since this is not the case, I make my appeal to you and to our peers.

"its pathetic."

No. It's not. Unless being committed to bettering the cause of my peers is pathetic, then it is certainly not pathetic.

"you are no savior."

This we agree on. We can only save ourselves by uniting together. Not a single one of us can be a "savior."

"just a spoiled kid who wants something to fight for other than a bumb in his allowance."

I would much rather not have to fight for this. It actually pains me. I would much prefer to not have to think about issues concerning my generation. 'Ignorance is bliss.'

"I say we do something about people like you."

What do you say we do to people like me? Is that a threat? Would you like to hang me? Well, don't fear. The Movement would work to protect your right to engage in controversial speech like this; though I'm sure the school administrators whom you love so much would be horrified to see such a death threat (and would probably take immediate action against you, considering the recent tragedy of pent-up hatred at another university).



Finally I would like to address certain points of hypocrisy as I can garner from your profile. Apparently you studied at St. Bernard's School, Indian Mountain School, and The Anglo-American School of Moscow. These are probably terrific private institutions and I am sure you thrived in them. However, I don't think it is fair to insult a ------ County public school boy like myself of being a spoiled brat when you yourself apparently come from a relatively privileged background.

Also, I see that you are interning as a financial analyst in Moscow. I have Russian friends who tell me that it is excruciatingly difficult to find good employment in Russia without good connections. This implies that you perhaps received your internship through a connection, likely a family connection. I have nothing against this; but I think you should have compassion and show a sense of camaraderie for those who are not so lucky.

If, in the end, you feel that you were given a raw deal, then, as I said, I will be more than happy to help you to the best of my abilities.

To sum it up though, I highly disagree with your message, and I find it highly distasteful.

unions give the lower wage people a bargaining lever. It is natural to the capitalist to keep the workers competiting with each other, but when they get together, you realize something: the capitalist can't run his enterprise and get rich without workers.

Graduate school is pretty intense for most students, and they only want to get through and get out.

There's no excuse for being rude, however.

But the student who said that was someone who just finished junior year of college.

There's even less excuse for this.

I hope your brother has thick, tough skin. It will be a long journey.

If grad students are in a union, the increased wages and benefits that come with an assistantship will make it less likely that they'll have to take a second job while in school. What better way to get through and get out faster?

Though getting people to unionize is tough. Big business will do its best to use scabs.

Some graduate student programs within a given university are paying their students very well, to the point that they not only don't have to take a second job, they are able to buy modest homes and drive decent cars. Although this is not the case for many programs, those students doing well have no interest in unions. (it is ever thus...)

In my day it was very different.

Today's college students are a greedy bunch.

now they have shiny SUVs and wear makeup

That they're no longer really interested in politics. Internet porn and all that.

In the 1960s, their parents grew up through the privations of the Great Depression. Materialism and consumerism was simply something many parents could not indulge their own habits or the habits of their children in. We have a couple generations now who have never directly been forced to evaluate what is really important and what is really unnecessary in life. Bad habits have built up over time. That, and the fact that the news media, after being bought by corporations, has sufficiently dumbed down succeeding generations of Americans into good little consumers.

I worry about the docility of people. It seems that they forget about justice because a pacifier's been put into their mouths every weekend - a cultural pacifier of high-speed porn, reckless sex, and lots of drinking. Then they're back at square one on Monday morning.

There's no intellectual or rebellious spirit at all.

I know my history, and the 60s was not a period of abstinence. . .

The student, that is. Those schools are not for average folks.

Having done some research, I think his father might be one of the lawyers on his page involved in oil and gas projects. http://www.russianlaws.com/about/moscowlawyers/

Even if that's not the case, I don't understand how someone who has such a good life and good opportunities can be so callous about those who don't.

the whole world shares the advantages they had.

This guy will never share the problems ordinary students face. For him, starting at the bottom means starting near the top in a plum job one of his dad's friends gets for him as soon as he graduates. Top corporate management has become as much an inheritance as money and Ivy League education is.

The best thing to do with this ignorant, mean spirited little shit is to allow him to speak for himself. I'm sure he will make his character fully known to all who read him.

He could come study at MY school. Heh. Heh. Heh.

Truly, the person your brother was responding to was doing advance work in Obnoxious Privileged Little Shit.Those kind of people make me want to take the laces off of their Topsiders and garrote them.

Yeah; it's maddening.

Better than that -- force him to wear socks with his topsiders.

I am not inhuman.

It's called the "Student Association," but it is wholly dominated by the school administrators or by students who predominantly come from Greek organizations and are deferential to the administrators. In point of fact, Greeks hold disproportionate representation in the SA to the point of controlling on average 2/3rds of the cabinet level positions.

It is useless in terms of airing problems students have with major issues such as bureaucratic red tape, pork barrel spending by the administrators on frivolous things such as parties and excessive renovations, book prices, student parking fees, privatization of the school cafeteria, high meal ticket prices, and of course tuition.

Unfortunately, the rules say that if an alternative student union where power is vested in the base instead of at the head were to arise, the administrators would not have to recognize it. The only thing recognized is the SA. They can, if they wish, simply expel all students who try to cause "disturbances" on campus by trying to form an alternative student union.

We had that at my college too. It was an echo chamber and nothing more than an opportunity for some people to exploit in writing their resumes.

Sad.

It's the college equivalent of a government-controlled labor union.

those who from suffer from Libertarianism aren't truly responsible for the stupid shit that's always coming out of their mouths.

You wouldn't slap a retard for being stupid. Be merciful likewise unto the Libertarians. It's not their fault.