The Battalion
Jfonday • March 9, 1998
r toe;
ERSPECTIVES
Social death
idvances in technology diminishes thinkers, creates hermits
a to.:
Fridi
ioma
Quid’
a c 0 .: my computer
jos-vHe to implode
ies omorrow after-
as -m, I do believe, af-
ose:sobbing for a total
tiec three minutes, I
te'ht feel a strange
^' eto do a little jig of
p!a ' in my underpants,
n fact, I might
a tranquil breeze
serenity fanning
iubl
Voss
columnist
soul. 1
A/hj^? Because
|)j[iinlne lurks a person who wants all com-
ersko die a shameful and lurid death,
ffesj America we are at a crossroads in
existence as a culture, and we can
ose between two directions.
Jntlre left, rapidly developing technology.
F 3n the right, books.
- A/itliout hesitation, books would be my
lice. Why? Because technology is satu-
5 ngiour lives to the point that have be-
„Tie slothful, even a tad bit dimwitted.
^ lather than read the book ourselves, 90-
lute rehashings of classics like Moby
. A; and Great Expectations keep bursting
) pop-culture.
Cndwledge is no longer sacred,
ndped, anything we do know is only a
tiled 30-second sound bite of the actu-
vent, literary work or cultural myth,
he problem lies within our increasing
enBence on technology. Sure, the word
:hnology” is ambiguous, even overly in-
dve.
50, first off, let it be known that “tech-
ogy ain't so bad.
foul got your microwaves, your ATMs,
l those little tags you put on your car so
you don’t have to pay at the toll booth.
Great. But, what happens when Ameri
ca is so technologically advanced that we
don’t have to leave our homes? Food,
clothes, lovers, even children will just be
mail-ordered or some sort of vicarious vir
tual reality experience.
Initially, Americans will become anti
social hermits.
Yep, no more Howdy weeks with ubiq
uitous stickers, balloons and truck-loads of
people screaming “the word.” (Wait — that
may not be such a bad thing ...).
Anyway, Americans will just stay locked
away in their high-rise, 500 floor, space-
conserving, energy-efficient apartments,
with no reason to leave home, except for
that occasional dash for a bottle of Pepto.
Then, Americans will lose touch with
nature. .
Uh-huh, that’s right, where have all the
flowers gone?
Birds, trees, sunshine, grass will all be fil
tered through ourTV/computer sets.
No more romping in fields of buttercups
or picnicking by the bay — this will all be
available on the Virtual Reality Outdoor
Home Companion.
In the end, Americans will lose their
imaginations.
American reality will become uniform
since all of our thinking will be done by
inanimate objects named computers.
Which brings us back to the beginning,
all computers should die a lurid and
shameful death.
Hold on a minute there, sister, you might
be thinking.
Computers make our lives easier. Com
puters make us more efficient. Computers
make us more money. Computers make us
smarter, etc., etc., until we’ve listed all of the
trite and rather superficial reasons why we
love computers.
Yet, from the perspective of a non
java-scripting, no-zip-drive-zipping neu
rotic, this world is evolving into a massive
technocracy.
A technocracy wherein all economic re
sources, and hence the entire social system,
is governed by scientists and engineers,
(which ain’t too shabby for most of the pop
ulous at Texas A&M.)
This would mean ubiquitous sci-fi cable
channels and CBS’s world-wide coverage of
The Nagano Programming Olympics—just
the thought of skinny Lechner nerds in pink
spandex is terribly frightening.
In short, Lucifer is hiding in that little
Intel chip in your computer. What could
be more simple than convincing you not
to think.
Michelle Voss is a sophomore
English major.
rai
DICE FROM THE CROWD
iuack of contraceptive options must never be reality
John
Burton
and
Michael
Schaub
guest
columnists
Ralph
,) , Twant
I to be
oi J “ in ‘
Ol ble. I do
;rilla war-
m i. I paint
tij! face and
/el at
ht. You
Vt know
ver until
Ere in a body bag.”
^id, Jan. 1992
T dead, 1 hurt in blast at Al
ima abortion clinic” —
yshington Post, Jan. 1998
Family planning clinics
hed and bombed with
Qple inside. An off-duty po-
jfofe officer killed in a bomb
l \t also left a clinic worker
tided and maimed.
f mage girls dead of infec-
ns after resorting to illegal,
:k-alley abortions.
(Vhat exactly is “pro-life”
iut that?
Between 1977 and 1989
c0i ne, terrorists acting in the
ne of “life” torched or
nbed 77 women’s clinics in
United States. In recent
rs, clinic doctors and work-
have been harassed, beaten,
imed and even assassinated.
e realize, of course, most
H-albortion activists are
peaceful, genuinely concerned
people. However, the mislead
ing and aggressive speech of
these groups can incite violent
action by paranoid and militant
anti-choice factions.
Planned Parenthood’s recent
decision to expand services in
Bryan drew significant protest
from an anti-choice minority.
It would be unfortunate for
our community to become
the site of domestic terrorism
as a result of such inflamma
tory rhetoric.
And we cannot help but be
concerned by the conspicuous
silence of local religious leaders
on the issue of terrorism direct
ed at family planning clinics.
A few years ago, the home and
car of an influential Texas pro-
choice advocate were shot full of
holes, with the woman and her
longtime companion in the
house, the night before a national
pro-choice rally in Washington.
The gunmen were never
caught. That pro-choice advo
cate was Norma McCorvey —
“Jane Roe” in the landmark
1973 Roe v. Wade case.
McCorvey, now an anti
abortion advocate, made no
mention of the attempt on
her life in her speech at A&M
last month.
How quickly McCorvey has
forgotten the violence that ac
companies the “pro-life”
movement.
McCorvey’s speech, spon
sored by Catholic Students As
sociation, neglected to address
such relevant issues as contra
ception, age-appropriate sex
education and the complex is
sues facing America’s urban
and rural poor.
Indeed, few members of the
audience (which seemed to be
composed mostly of white,
relatively affluent students)
seemed to notice the obvious
lack of pragmatic discussion
by McCorvey
In fact, we must wonder how
McCorvey made such a dra
matic change from reproduc
tive rights pioneer to anti-abor
tion poster child less than a
year after she published her
landmark pro-choice book I
Am Roe, which earned her the
title of “a feminist Joan of Arc”
from the New York Times.
McCorvey obviously stands
to profit financially from her
new anti-abortion book, Won
by Love, and her videotape, Re
versing Roe, both of which she
has ostensibly released to gain
money for her new effort, Roe
No More Ministries.
Whether McCorvey’s “con
version” is due to exploitation
by the anti-abortion move
ment, to a sincere change of
heart on the abortion issue, to
her realization of lucrative
deals to be made on “the other
side of the fence,” or a combi
nation of these, is unclear.
What is clear, though, is her
particularly malicious and ob
noxious disparagement of
Planned Parenthood, and orga
nization whom she referred to
as “Planned Death.”
Planned Parenthood, which
recently announced plans to
expand its facilities to Biyan,
has always been a favorite tar
get of anti-abortion activists.
But lost in the rhetoric of
these misguided protesters is
the fact that the vast majority of
Planned Parenthood services
are not even related to abortion.
Unfortunately extremists
represent Planned Parenthood
as an “abortuary.” However, this
does not reflect the diverse and
important services Planned
Parenthood offers.
In 1996, five million women
and men received reproductive
health and educational services
at Planned Parenthood’s nearly
900 clinics.
These services include con
traceptive instruction, HIV test
ing, prenatal care, infertility
counseling and literally thou
sands of adoption referrals.
In fact, through the provi
sion of contraceptive services,
it is estimated Planned Parent
hood helps avert more than
235,000 abortions in the United
States each year.
The proposed clinic in
Bryan will bring these valuable
services to the Brazos Valley,
where a diverse population —
ranging from college students
to working-class men and
women — can utilize these vi
tally important resources.
Poll after poll has indicated
up to 80 percent of Americans
support a woman’s right to a
safe and legal abortion.
We cannot allow a loud mi
nority to rob the majority of a
valuable community asset.
And to those who would
have women return to the dark
ages of substandard prenatal
health care, denial of safe con
traceptive options and danger
ous back-alley abortions, we
say: never again.
John Burton is a junio
bioenvironmental science ma
jor. Michael Schaub is a junio
English majoi
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MAIL CALL
Free candidate publicity
inappropriate in column
I must have missed the an
nouncement that the new name for
the Opinion Page was the “Republi
can Candidate Propaganda Forum”.
Donny Ferguson once again used
his column not to inform students
and stimulate debate, but rather to es
pouse his personal politics and adver
tise for right-wing political candidates.
While a column urging students
to go out and vote would have been
much more appropriate, Ferguson
instead chose to campaign and
cheer on his personal political heroes.
One is left wondering whether these
candidates paid Ferguson for this free
public relations campaign.
A column is supposed to present a
well-informed argument that serves to
educate readers on a subject. Ferguson
instead misuses his column to advance
his own ultra-conservative agenda and
provide free advertising for right-wing
political candidates and ideas.
While it is certainly Ferguson’s right
to produce columns on conservative
ideas, it is simply inappropriate to use
his opinion column to provide free ad
vertising for political candidates.
Jon Apgar
Class of’99
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77843-1 111
I 9
Vigor of
Howdy
Week
crosses line
H owdy Week
has come
and gone in
its noisy little way
And after this latest
round of tradition-
based atrocities,
one would hope it is
painfully clear that
Howdy Ags! is a
group of vapid,
squalling children
whose idea of self-
importance is im
posing A&M’s own version of political
correctness on the general populace.
Let me make it clear right off, I sup
port the tradition of “Howdy!” I think it
makes A&M a friendlier place, and it has
been a great pick-me-up time and again.
A&M would be a far" worse place than it
is today if it were not for “Howdy!” and
other fine traditions.
Which makes it almost physically
painful to see Howdy Ags! abusing stu
dents’ patience and eventually destroy
ing tradition, all in the name of tradition.
Howdy Ags! has routinely verbally
badgered students who do not want to
wear their little stickers or have actually
walked up and put the stickers on who
students who have clearly refused to
wear them. I have seen it happen many
times and have heard of it many more.
They have also paraded en masse
around campus, bellowing “Howdy!” at
students in what can only be described
as an attempt to blast whatever small
spirit remains in the common Aggie
right out of them.
In yet another blatant display of ma
turity, Howdy Ags! also ran around cam
pus waving “Howdy!” banners, acciden
tally flag-whipping innocent bystanders
left and right. And, of course, tire Howdy--
mobile. It just cries out: “Holy student
organization gone wrong, Batman!”
Unfortunately, the people who claim
to hold up traditions including “soldier,
statesman and knightly gentlemen” act
like immature, high school sophomores ■
on a regular basis.
Those Aggies who fall under the cate
gory of “two-percenter” will never begin ^
saying “Flowdy” if, in their minds, it
means having to act like those wackos -
from Howdy Ags! They would rather let
the tradition die, and they do outnumber
Howdy Ags! by a very large margin.
The problem is that here at A&M it
has become avant-garde to ruthlessly
advocate tradition, even at the expense
of other Aggies or common sense. A&M
has developed ultra-conservatives that
masquerade as normal people and make !
G. Gordon Liddy look like a moderate.
This is not a political term.
This ultra-conservativism means
these students are resisting current
change and trying to reverse recent
changes. These ultra-conservatives move
for “the good old days” with more furor
than the Ku Klux Klan of the 1870s.
This can be seen everywhere from “it’s,
always been this way” profanity on Bon
fire pots to the traditional and damaging,
polishing of Sully.
These students, who have embraced
this ultra-conservatism, are embracing
this philosophy for one reason. They
feel they need an organization like
Howdy Ags! to identify with and give
their lives purpose.
Howdy Ags! provides students with a
place to belong, something to define
who they are and what they stand for. It
gives them something to fight for and
someone to fight against. Kind of like
the Nazi party, but without the goose
stepping. Or the helmets. Or the war
mongering and genocide.
The members of the ultra-conservative
groups like Howdy Ags! are using their as
sociation with these groups to set them
selves apart because they need a group like
Howdy Ags! to make them feel adequate,
not because they truly believe in the meth-'
ods Howdy Ags! uses to promote tradition.
They need the group, and will do anything ‘
to stay in their “non- conformist” group,
even if it means violendy conforming to
what the group believes. Meanwhile, as
was said before, their activities are destroy
ing the tradition they hold so dear.
This pathetic mind game is being
supported by our student fees. Frankly, I
do not want to be even partially respon
sible for subsidizing the self-disillusion
ment of my fellow Aggies. The ends do
not justify the means. It is time for
Howdy Ags! to find a way to restore tradi
tion that does not undercut the very
heart of Aggieland.
Chris
Huffines
columnist
Chris Huffines is a sophomore speech
communications major. 1