etcetera, etcetera, etcetera…

it was a carnival of days as i waded through the many modes of harvardania.

my first “mode” was the iop, the political mode some may call it, though i would suggest every mode is political. the institute of politics or rather its subset the harvard political union (hpu) is filled with talk of pragmatic propositions and empirically proven methods, grounded, alas, in utterly baseless and uninformed flourish.

i am guilty of employing this flourish more than once, but i must detest it on principle, an elusive principle difficult to articulate, something along the lines of due-diligence–gather the facts before the flourish.

the facilitation today though was remarkably disappointing, the often organized chaos of hpu discussions lacked any qualifier as the discourse ended up being shaped by the kids (read: freshman) who knew the least and were bent upon repeating the same “points” over and over again.

i am hesitant to talk about the subject of the discussion because though it was titled “the war on terror after five years: is the us winning,” it revolved entirely around iran, iraq and islam, which to my recollection are nations and or religions, not necessarily the state-less, face-less terrorists we were hunting down five years ago.

although i tried to take seriously the discussion i ended up taking the moment to reflect on my own upon the tragedy and where we’ve come five years later:

nine-eleven was a watershed moment for many american-muslims, sixty percent of whom are either first or second generation immigrants. with it came a recognition of the duties, the responsibilities, of citizenship. american-muslims who had only recently chosen to become americans, were rushed through the process of biculturation and integration that most immigrant communities take decades to grapple, into a maturation as fully engaged american citizens. for me it was a reaffirmation of my identity as both an american and a muslim. the way my community embraced me afterwards, in a small town of a few thousand, offering support and seeking advice, made me quickly shed my insecurities and embrace this new identity.

my big picture observation is that though america post-nine-eleven was a nation rattled by fear, it was a nation united behind common principles. though it became a nation of heightened sensitivities, it was also a nation engaged in genuine discourse and dialougue. today, however, we have lost that unity and that discourse; we live in a fearful nation of uniformed sensitivities. we are talking about iran when we mean al-qaeda; we are talking about islamic radicals when all we really mean is simply radicals.

as we were sitting there, right after baroness kishwer falkner of margravine, a muslim member of the house of lords, stepped out of the room, one of the kids pointed out that the people who end up becoming bombers in palestine and lebanon are usually the most educated. this was his case for the “fact” that a dearth of social capital had nothing to do with the violence and terror, that people “wanted” to be terrorists and socio-political conditions had nothing to do with that. even if that were right, though i would argue perhaps otherwise, i wanted to push the envelope with an interesting token of history. the unabomber, ted kaczynski, was a harvard alum.

maybe, just maybe, some terrorists are just crazy. unfortunately, i wasn’t quick (or rude enough) to elbow in my comment.

all of this has little to do with the main theme of the day, anchored by the “harvard carnival,” a terribly exciting event of bumper cars and cotton candy and, suprisingly, harvard students having fun!

it’s easy to dismiss today’s hurrah in tercentary theatre as a big, over-funded party, but i’ll disagree. such events that bring together the college for a common, shared experience are what define “the college.” if being a harvard student is an identity that we share, there must be some existential formative process behind that identity. blah blah blah. more on community and identity is now becoming long overdue.

i’ll work on that.

here’s to the carnival and a new harvard that’s starting to care about undergraduates.