Introduction 2022-23

Most of us grew up in an age of disconnection. Fruits grow with water and sunshine, but the growers sell them for $3.99 a pound and pay the workers pennies for each.

Everything is wrapped, shipped, and consumed with seemingly no margin for error.

But this is only an illusion. The system is actually failing! We’re being told that things are getting better, but the concentration of CO2 in the air has increased 50% since 1995. We’re told displacement is a local issue, while hundreds of millions around the world are forced out of their ancestral homes through plunder, privitization, and climate disasters.

Graph showing atmospheric carbon dioxide 1960-2021

Eventually, they’ll run out of places to destroy and colonize. What then?

The university says it’s a place where we can find solutions to these problems. But it seems like we only have time to think about changing things once the bCourses post is filed and the rent is paid! And the way we’re taught to “fix” things often involves turning our backs on our communities, assimilating into the power structure, or selling something.

Since we have no democratic control over the university, the only tools to achieve change seem to be ousting a person here or electing somebody there! But when the people on the top prove untouchable, it’s easy to start setting our sights lower and lower. We can’t confuse this for the only way to get things done.

This is a place with deep resources and real community within reach. So let’s grow something together. Re-connect. Take up a crowbar or plant a seed. Agitate, educate, organize!

Welcome to dis-orientation!!

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