From: gadfly@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (Gadfly)
Newsgroups: soc.singles
Subject: Re: Fraternities (was: Re: E.W.- Average age of subscribers)
Summary: Talkin about my g-g-generation redux
Date: 30 Jul 92 17:07:24 GMT
Organization: AT&T

> > I've got news for you.  You could have gotten the same--and
> > more--skills in a communal, co-op house.  And much better drugs. 

> Why did you work at a co-op house?  Did you volunteer in your
> community?  Did anybody out there who has nothing but bad things
> to say about frats ever do anything for charity while in college? 

The idea was to create a new society--to live differently from the
traditional, rigidly hierarchical models provided for us.  We all
spent quite a lot of time at community offices, rape and drug crisis
lines, etc, and did our jobs (running the stores and houses) essentially
for nothing (except free rent or free food).  Building a better world
was our *whole lives*, not just an occasional benefit for a charity group.
We may have been hopelessly naive, and failures to boot, but at least
we tried another approach.

> I doubt many of you did, but one of the first rules in a
> fraternity is to be aware of your community, and I don't know of
> any fraternity that does not hold at least one charitable event
> per semester.  If you think having fun in school the rest of the
> time is a crime, then maybe you're a little too old to remember
> college.

Whoopie--one charity event per semester.  And all your sins--all your
drunken revelries, sexual harassment, and gay bashing--are absolved?
Nice racket.  (I know--*you* don't do that sort of thing.  But you
know people who do--and you say nothing.)

> I guess old people really are the problem in this society.  When
> I was 13 I had a job washing dishes and I paid taxes on my
> earnings yet I was not allowed to vote.

Oh you poor boy.  When I was your age I was in the same situation,
the wages were a lot lower, and you had to be *21* to vote in most
states.

> I would call that taxation without representation.

Shows what you know about rights and child labor law.  I had friends
who were drafted and sent to Nam but couldn't vote.

> While that was going on I was a
> freshman in highschool, and an active member of my Model U.N.
> club.  I learned a great deal about world politics and started
> learning a lot about U.S. politics.  I probably understood more
> about politics then than most of the adults (at that time) did
> around me.  Yet I couldn't vote and they could.  Now that they're
> older they are still equally uninformed.  Just because they got
> older doesn't mean they got wiser.  I still know more about
> politics than they do, and I have continued to study it.

OK, Mr. Smartypants, what are you going to do with all this knowledge?
After your 4-year non-stop party (oh, excuse me, modulo the one charity
benefit per semester) how are you going to make the world a better place?
I'm anxious to see what sort of politicians your generation produces,
btw.  Mine's produced a decidedly mixed bag.

>                                                          Thus I
> know exponentially more about at least that area, and probably
> more in many other areas.

If your net.traffic is an unbiased sample, we are not impressed.

>                            From this I can only say that age has
> nothing to do with wisdom or knowledge and for all of you older
> cats out there that try to give us young guys the benefits of
> your experience, I say no thanks, because if you were doing it
> wrong when you were young who says you have gotten any better
> just because you got older.  You all know the old saying you
> can't teach an old dog new tricks. 

Hey, some of us at least tried some new tricks.  Frats are as
conventional as you can get.  If that's what floats your boat, hey,
whatever--but it's absurd to think that you will have any creativity
in the social and political arena if all you try are the same, safe,
mainstream approaches.  Dare to be different.  I dare you.

> > No--it's wonderful.  It's too bad you were born 20 years too late.

> Yeah man back in the
> 60's when kids really made a difference and spread all kinds of
> cool STD's and started really abusing drugs and all that other
> cool stuff huh? 

You think drugs and STDs began in the *60's*?  I hope you know
politics better than you know history.  "Abusing" drugs?  Excuse me,
but marijuana, mescaline, and LSD were sacraments of the culture.
We treated them with great reverence; we *never* abused them.
Ahh, there was a time, you know, when LSD was legal, and the very best
was made by the son of a US senator.  Face it, Tom, you're just jealous.

> Get a hair cut ya bum. 

Flattery, sir, will get you nowhere.
Get a life.  Seriously.  Carpe diem!

               *** ***
Ken Perlow   ***** *****
30 Jul 92   ****** ******   12 Thermidor An CC
            *****   *****   gadfly@ihlpa.ATT.COM
             ** ** ** **
...L'AUDACE!   *** ***   TOUJOURS DE L'AUDACE!  ENCORE DE L'AUDACE!
Newsgroups: soc.singles