(To be published in an upcoming edition of Bournbrook Magazine - subscribe here!)
I recently infiltrated a university’s Freshers’ Fair. I say ‘infiltrated’; I actually just walked through the main entrance. Nevertheless, having not been a student of the veritable institution for the best part of a decade I was unable to sign up to anything.
Freshers’ Fair is, of course, where university clubs and societies put out their stall at the beginning of the academic year in order to be infused with fresh blood. Free Dominos pizza being distributed all but ensures that even the least interested turn up.
On the whole the clubs and societies are benign; some lurching into the charmingly idiosyncratic. For any burgeoning practitioner of aikido or fan of croquet, there are societies for you. LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) is catered for, and there is even a Taylor Swift Appreciation Society too. The Whiskey Appreciation, Hillwalking and Musical Theatre societies all fill their particular niches as well.
Many are distinguished by their focus on career. Consulting, investing, real estate and entrepreneurship: each has its own club or society. Presumably they cater to students with more ambition and foresight than I had, preoccupied as I was with going to the pub.
Yet meandering through the fair, I eventually stumble into the ‘Political & Causes’ zone. Here my hackles are raised. Having been unfashionably right-wing at university over a decade ago – with all the concomitant grief that that brought with it – I dread to think what kind of reaction a specimen such as I would receive as an undergraduate today. A ritual burning at the stake before the end of the Freshers’ Week probably, though not before a mandatory struggle session.
The Palestine Solidarity Society, the Reproductive Rights Society, the Marxist Society, the Climate Justice types, the Period Project, the Migration Society, the Black Grads, and, of course, the Vegan Society. They’re all there. The latter looked slightly gaunt and as if they could do with a few McNuggets. Notably missing amid the rows of stalls were the Reactionary Club, the Roger Scruton Society and the Blackpilled Students Lamenting the Collapse of Western Sociey Society.
I have no particular beef with these student groups, or any tofu with the vegans. You know, that ‘I disagree with what you say, but will defend your right to say it’ schtick that people used to trot out all the time, but which I’ve not heard repeated in the last decade-or-so as society abandons the pretence of having to be civil with one’s ideological rivals.
Yet, given that these ambitious and thrusting types will be the kinds of people who march their way through our institutions – the entrances to which are held wide open by their ideological allies already firmly ensconced – it is alarming to see which way the winds continue to blow on campus.
They appear to be gale-force. It is not the issue that all, or even most, students end up in these Marxist/post-modern gangs, but that their ideological counterpart is so glaringly absent. It only takes a few crazies to enact all kinds of change. For proof, just look at what a few gender-benders have done to society’s ability to define the word ‘woman’, and what a few unwashed Bolsheviks did to poor Russia in 1917.
There isn’t much way round it. I don’t think the universities can be saved. Too many revolutionaries sucking on the teat of government largesse, supping soya milk lattes in their comfortable sinecures, egging on the destruction of the West. Their claws are planted so firmly and so deeply as to render the institutions a lost cause.
Conservatives tend to fear change and innovation. Yet, it is only through embracing elements of these that we will survive, as today’s institutions are diametrically opposed to practically everything we believe in. Better to start our own ventures than to try and resuscitate an already pulse-less corpse. Just look at this magazine: young, enterprising conservatives boldly creating their own venture.
Naturally it’s easier said than done, but then again, most worthwhile things are challenging.
On exiting the fair, I walked past some suitably scraggly looking types selling a leftist newspaper. “Are you interested in socialism?” asked a revolutionary. “Not particularly, but I’d like a copy,” I said, motioning to grab one, always keen to be kept abreast of the workers’ struggles. Posters reading ‘F**K THE TORIES’ and ‘EAT THE RICH’ surrounded them. The gang’s appearance contrasted unflatteringly with the nearby Christians calmly handing out copies of New Testament Psalms & Proverbs.
“They’re £2 each, or £1 if you can’t afford it,” he stated. I have to admit some shock at the idea: surely the revolution should come before any degrading notion of profit. “Some socialists!” I scoffed, before walking off.
My worry is that the near future will bring us a growing spread of graduates in agitprop, with a concomittant lack of people who can make, produce, design and repair things.
While the colonisers proclaim their commitment to the supreme dogma of identitarian gobbledegook, our infrastructure will slowly buckle: too many know-it-alls and not enough artisans, engineers, farmers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, joiners etc.