Topic 102: Intellectual Alarm Clocks

Carol:

Wake Up Call 1

In September 1969, I set out for the University of California with a brand new driver’s license and a used but spiffy little Corvair  I kept my car behind the dorms in a parking lot full  of clunkers and Volkswagen Beetles, one of which belonged to my someday husband. My Corvair stood out, and I was proud of it.
 

The campus reflected the increasing political and social tensions in  the country.  The quad was filled with groups pamphleteering for various causes, and anti-war demonstrations occurred on a regular basis. The energy was chaotic, aggressive and idealistic   Whatever  the cause, whoever the speaker, the message was “ We can make a difference.”  
 

First, there was the newly formed Venceremos Brigade,  returned from Cuba where they showed their solidarity with Castro and the Cuban people by working in the sugar cane fields.  Then there was a charismatic former NYPD officer  who was hitting the university speaking circuit to advocate for police reform. His idea for combating corruption and racism within police departments was to recruit college-educated young people willing to work for social change from within. 
 

In the middle of the year, Ralph Nader came, his name linked to a growing consumer advocacy movement and a book I hadn’t read, Unsafe at Any Speed (1965).  The room was full, the applause enthusiastic as Nader strolled up to the stage. He lacked the youthful zeal of the Venceremos and the charm of the former cop, but Nader commanded our attention with his passion and intellect.  His credentials were Ivy League: magna cum laude from Princeton, law degree from Harvard. Yet, he was fighting for consumer rights and political reform. And, he was doing it with a cadre of young people dubbed by the press as “Nader’s Raiders.” We could make a difference. It wasn’t long before Nader got into Unsafe at Any Speed. And, omigod, there was a whole chapter on the Corvair.  My spiffy little Black Corvair, a loving gift from my father, was a death trap. I was stunned.  I was so naïve, so gullible, so unsafe at any speed.
 

Marc and I have heard Ralph Nader speak several times over the years. Marc reminded me this morning that he had stood in line to talk to Nader at one rally. No, no he wasn’t volunteering to become one of Nader’s Raiders. He wanted an opinion on the Volkwagen Beetle,  bought because Marc thought it was a well-made, efficient, and economical car.  Nader  cited safety standards and crash tests showing lethal damage at 25 mph. When I asked If Marc remembered Nader’s exact words, he responded, “Oh yes. He summed up his opinion with a little sneer on his mouth. ‘A car with such minimal safety standards should be banned from the highway.’" Marc’s car was a death trap too, unsafe at any speed.
 

Forty years later, the Venceremos Brigade has a website with the banner “For USA-Cuba Peace & Friendship.”  They are just one memory from a memorable year of my college life. Ralph Nader?  He has been praised as a consumer crusader, but he has also been called arrogant and a political spoiler.  He was also  the first person to sound an alarm that woke me up to my own power to make choices-- on the car lot, in the grocery store, and at the ballot box. I think about that whenever I get into my Volkswagen Passat, strap on my shoulder harness and count the  5 airbags installed for my safety.

We can make a difference.
 

Sources:
Academy of Achievement: Ralph Nader .
    http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/nad0bio-1 

Nader Image: Speaking at BYU’s Alternate Commencement.  Uploaded on April 27, 2007
Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wickenden/474602694/)
Author Don LaVange (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wickenden/)
Venceremos Brigade -- http://venceremosbrigade.wordpress.com/2011/01/

Megan:

Wake Up Call 2

The idea of a wake-up call for your mind is an interesting concept. I’m sure most people have experienced that moment where everything seems to change – a new piece of the puzzle suddenly alters the image, a different perspective or interpretation on an old idea opens a series of opportunities previously unconsidered.  I believe this is also known as a paradigm shift.

Where this has occurred for other people I know, it is not my story to tell (although this may be the only time I don’t jump at the chance to take other people’s stories for my own), but one example from my own experience came literally in the form of a wake-up call.

On September 11, 2001, my friend Kelly called my dorm room to wake me with the news. I met her in the TV room downstairs and together we watched the second plane hit to the tower. In my journal, I recorded an errant thought that eventually changed everything I thought about media from then on: “How do we know it happened the way they said it did?” This is not going to turn into an essay advocating the 9/11 Truth Movement (although I do believe there are some valid questions) ; it is truly a coincidence that I started questioning the veracity of televised information on that day.  This awareness was solidified when I saw the BBC documentary The Power of Nightmare (2005), which can be found online here.

The main way I have chosen to cope with my distrust of the media marketing machine (aside from assigning alliterative addresses) is by reducing my exposure. I’ve managed to block most of the advertising on the sidebars, I watch very little TV, and am selective about the way I inform myself on current events. Reading news articles online instead of watching them on TV ensures my mind is clearer to question and evaluate, instead of being distracted by images and music and the other entertaining qualities used to hold one’s attention.

Despite the investigative and research skills I have acquired through my education and career, I have done little to fix what I’ve determined to be a broken system. For now, instead of writing articles or trying to educate people on the ways the media manipulates the public into being afraid in order to sell them stuff, I am more interested in empowering people to come to their own conclusions. Information literacy has been a buzzword of the academic and library professions for a while now – having the ability to sift through and locate, analyze and evaluate the overwhelming amount of data and detail available has become an essential skill. On the Internet, anyone can pass herself off as an expert, and as we’ve recently seen in Egypt, anyone can be a journalist. There is no longer one explanation available (nor was there ever), no reason to assume that there is only one truth. I’m okay with never really being sure, but for those who aren’t – there’s probably an app for that too.