What Memory Would Serve

When I was a freshman in college, my original goal was to major in political science, with an emphasis on international relations - perhaps a law career in the far future.

What I didn't count on was my periodic and perverse academic listlessness, and, after some exposure to the university version of the science of politics, my burgeoning apathy.

It was an election year - 1980 (here I date myself for once and for all), and one of my classes, American Government, was taught by one of the most engaging professors I've ever had the pleasure to meet, Dr. Elder Statesman. His reputation on campus and in the larger political community was sterling; his passion for the American spirit of democracy, and those ideals in action, was tremendous.

Dr. Elder Statesman had the ability to make the path of democracy come alive, to present potentially dry political ideals with more than enough energy to thrill anyone who would listen.

Through the course of his lectures, he instilled in all of his students, including me, an acute sense of pride at the Founding Fathers' accomplishments. He never took any of it for granted, and certainly did not hold them to a higher standard than was appropriate for men who were, after all, products of their time.

In his class I was introduced to the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbs, John Stuart Mills, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison.

Part of our classwork, as it was an election year, was to volunteer locally for one of the presidential campaigns. Running for president that year were Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and John Anderson. There was a general sign up sheet for each campaign in the classroom, so before I selected I checked how my classmates had chosen.

The straitlaced uptight ones were signing up for Reagan, the hopelessly tweedy, homely, granola group were listed under Carter, and all of the hot guys and the most intriguing women had signed up for Anderson.

The lure of hot guys! All of my principles governing anything other than the proxmity of hot guys went straight out the window, and I signed up for Anderson.

I don't recall too much about my candidate's stance on the issues although if memory serves (well, memory filtered through a hormonic haze of lust, beer and pot) none of them were horrible; I remember him as a pretty liberal guy who had some interesting ideas.

But jeez, did we have fun at those campaign meetings. Located in a huge Victorian house just off of campus, the campaign was a hotbed for hooking up, drinking heavily while cold calling potential contributors, and smoking dope after hours out in the back.

So, one might think that after such a rousing introduction to the world of politics and bedfellows I couldn't possibly have become disenchanted.

Au contraire, mes enfants - while I will always remember that campaign, that class and that extraordinary professor most fondly, as I proceeded along the path of international relations the environment became less and less free, and the ideology got narrower. Criticism of the current administration, criticism about certain parts of government, criticism about democracy at all just simply wasn't done.

The euphoria of the campaign faded very quickly, and the defeat of my chosen candidate took a lot of wind out of my sails and my orbit definitely away from that of this cadre of hot guys.

My official class responses became more parrot-like and less likeable to me. Perhaps philosophy would have been a better choice of study - at least in the philosophy classes I did take there was dialogue, the freedom of a give-and-take area where all ideas were entertained and examined rather than listed as the single unwavering option.

In retrospect, I can certainly understand why those who choose the foreign service must be indoctrinated so thoroughly. Ideals need to be inculcated as steel into the spine so they can be reliably called upon later in dark, depressing, or dangerous situations, when there is no leisure for reasoned debate.

I still consider the pure version of American democracy to be one of the more useful forms for society to take, but I also learned that with great rights also come great responsibilities.

I think Dr. Elder Statesman would agree.