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[A potpourri of cultural observations, thoughts & trends]

ARE YOU FOR SALE?

Selling our selves has never paid so well—or cost so much, according to

	BROKEN EGGS, ANYONE? You can’t have an omelet without breaking eggs. The same is true of confronting evil. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Gandhi took some amazing risks. They had to go through a lot of suffering and hardship, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The point is not to return to violence.” —Utah Phillips, musician, in Hip Mama, #20

Jeremiah Creedon in the Utne Reader: “It used to be said that America’s young lacked a ritual to mark the start of their adult lives. ‘They ought to be sent on vision quests or flogged with holy reeds,’ we declared, . . . but thanks to the triumph of the market and all its values in recent years, this problem has been solved. Americans now have a new rite of passage: selling out. “For centuries after Judas took his silver pieces . . . selling out was viewed as evil. . . . With the economy on a mad run and most Americans feeling flush, attitudes have changed. The rewards are now so high it’s often seen as foolish, even pathological, to resist. Dreaded no more, selling out has become the ultimate career goal, the universally desired destiny. . . . “The sale itself can be a spectacular thing, as in the case of spies and traitors. More often it’s an insidious process that can leave us numb to the moral horrors we commit as calmly as we brush our teeth. By far the most common form of selling out is the quiet betrayal of our selves, the squelching of the inner voice that tells you what you want from life, along with what you will (and won’t) do to get it. . . . Today’s tremendous wealth should be funding a time of great creativity and free expression, but that has yet to happen. Instead, this may be one of the great conformist eras, perhaps even more so than the 1950s. “[We] are victims of good times, not bad. The real price of our wealth may lie in how hard it has become to see beyond it.”—Adapted from the Utne Reader, November-December 1999.

A DANGEROUS EUPHORIA
“Economic euphoria may lead us to ignore trends that have the potential to reverse progress in areas from HIV/AIDS in Africa to falling water tables in India,” says Lester Brown, president of Worldwatch, in a recent “State of the World” report.

DO YOU SHRUG? “The golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. Spiritual darkness comes because of something I do not intend to obey. Watch the things you shrug your shoulders over, and you will know why you do not go on spiritually.” —Oswald Chambers, Pulpit Helps, July 1999

“While the world economy is booming, the HIV epidemic is devastating sub-Saharan Africa, a region of 800 million people. Life expectancy—a setinel indicator of progress—is falling precipitously as the virus spreads. Other countries, such as Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia, are experiencing similarly graphic declines.” One surprising finding is that the number of people who are overnourished and overweight now rivals the number who are undernourished and underweight, each group containing roughly 1.2 billion people. The fast-evolving information economy is affecting every facet of our lives, but it is environmental trends that will ultimately shape the new century, says the Worldwatch Institute in “State of the World 2000,” its first report in the new millennium. —Undated report. See more info in State of the World 2000, by Lester Brown, president of Worldwatch, www.worldwatch.org.

PUSH THAT ‘SUBMIT’ BUTTON

	OPEN YOUR MOUTH “I believe we were born with a mouth to do more than just chew, spit and whistle.” —Ralph Steadman, Living Marxism, November 1998

The use of Internet-based college applications is on the rise. California schools experienced a surge in the number of admission applications filled out via the Internet this last year. California State U. received 59,826 applications over the ’Net, a fourfold increase over the previous year. The University of California received so many that the school extended its deadline to accommodate students with slower computers.—Source: National On-Campus Report, February 1, 2000.

NOT YOUR TYPICAL CLASS LOAD . . .
Tired of the same old basic courses? Drowning in the depths of your major classes? Just need a break? Here are some of the more unusual offerings around the country:

From Bach to Rock, where students study everything from folk to jazz to the music in film and then work to compose audio and visual materials on state-of-the-art equipment.

 

	OVERHEARD ON CAMPUS College students carry an average of $1,366 in unpaid monthly balances on their credit cards. —Public Interest Research Group.

Paranormal Phenomena addresses spiritualism, ESP, astrology, UFOs and more for those who like this kind of thing.

Philosophy of Science Fiction teaches students what it means to be human by studying what humans aren’t. The prof uses movies such as Star Trek, The Bride of Frankenstein, Alien Nation and Total Recall to contemplate the creation of men and women, self and other, memory, sin and redemption.

Dinosauria covers everything you’ve ever wanted to know about dinosaurs and then gives you a chance to pick apart Jurassic Park.

	OVERHEARD ON CAMPUS “The first time I was ever challenged to really examine what I believe spiritually and deal with life’s confusion was by a secular professor. It bugs me that the Christian authority figures in my life have discouraged me from wrestling with the chaos that is present in this world; challenges to think seem to come only from non-believers. I don’t want to be so quick to offer easy answers when I am an older Christian.”

Singing Psych explores the lyrics of popular songs to get at the usual basic themes of a psychology class—identity vs. confusion, intimacy vs. isolation and more.

Socratic Accounting doesn’t tell you that two plus two equals four; it asks “why?” As the teacher poses questions, student learn to think and to ask their own questions. But apparently, the teacher never answers the questions. He just asks more.—Adapted and summarized from National On-Campus Report, January 15, 2000.

THE YEAR 1000—NOT MUCH DIFFERENT?
Rudolfus Glaber, A.D. 1000: “On the thousandth year after the birth of the Lord from the Virgin, men have fallen prey to terrible errors. While we strive to understand the many facets of things and should like to adjust our behavior through the study of the past, forth rushes innovation, reckless of dangers.

	BETTER'N BILL “I preach about Jesus with as much pride as a computer consultant speaks of having lunch with Bill Gates.” —Craig Brian Larson, quoted in Leadership, Spring 1999.

“Look at our contemporaries, scoffing at olden times, compounding scurrility with debauchery and adapting their behavior to the mixture!

“Turpitude does not shock them, they trample upon what is earnest and discard the rules of honesty, which used to guide just men. Fraud, larceny, all sorts of crimes reign in the world; there is no worship of God, no respect for sacred things. Hence war, plague and famine are everywhere raging, nor does yet human iniquity relent before the punishment, and, did not God’s great mercy delay His wrath, Hell would devour these people with its frightful, roaring mouth.”—Contributed by Brett Desper, InterVarsity alumnus in AZ.

FREE NEWSPAPERS FOR PENN STATE STUDENTS
The Newspaper Readership program at Penn State wants to promote increased awareness of current events and better reading habits. For an entire semester, about 2,500 off-campus Penn State U. students will be given cards that open newspaper machines dispensing papers such as The New York Times and USA Today.—Source: National On-Campus Report, February 1, 2000.