ASMTU or Die

This week's article, less than pertinent for non Tech students, may nonetheless contain some value:

The will of the people, like a warm day in March or a canceled class, is a pleasant thing; but it is hardly necessary that it coincide with the whims of governmental elites. If the people can be tricked into supporting an action, well and good; but if they cannot it is enough to ignore the majority, castigating them as a minority, since the government must act on its own for the good of its people. As Plato expressed so bluntly in The Republic: "It seems likely that our rulers will have to make considerable use of falsehood and deception for the benefit of their subjects."

Last year, USG attempted to get the students to ratify AMSTU (Associated Students of Michigan Technological University). Despite endeavors to keep the polls open in perpetuity, the system was widely rejected. The people had spoken. But since the elites know better, the will of the people, made manifestly clear, could be summarily ignored. If ASMTU was rejected, USG had but only to try again. Sooner or later the people would see how wrong they were and come to accept the suggestions of ruling elites, who obviously know better than us what is better for us.

In the interest of full disclosure, I voted no to ASMTU. I will not lay out my reasons for doing so because my good friend and USG member Shazoo Rivzi has already done so in a more succinct and eloquent manner than I could possibly hope to do. But even if I had never read Mr. Rivzi's fine article, even if I had never spoken to him about ASMTU, I still would have voted it down.

If certain member of USG wanted ASMTU to pass, they needed to do two things: first, identify and expound upon the problems facing student government. No doubt there are plenty of problems, inherent in any system of governance. But to a very large segment of the population, myself included, student government seems to works well enough as is. Second, contingent on the first, someone needed to explain how ASMTU would rectify the supposed problems student government now faces. Since we remain in the dark about the problems, it's no surprise people are leery that ASMTU will be a corrective force.

ASMTU was voted down last year, and those who pushed for it have only themselves to blame. My sources tell me that ASMTU is headed for another resounding and much-deserved defeat. ASMTU should be shelved for a considerable time period. Having failed, not once, but twice, to convince the student body of its necessity, it is neither prudent nor acceptable to march out a new and improved ASMTU to be again voted on by a slightly different student body. Voting until you get the votes you like is antithetical to democracy. It is embarrassing to pretend that the voice of the people is important, but only if that voice agrees with your own. Democracy should either be rejected as a vehicle for implementing ASMTU or the matter should be dropped entirely. One does not bow down before that which one does not respect.

In my home state of Minnesota, my dearly beloved Twins have been attempting to convince the taxpayers to build them a stadium. Despite the fact that I believe the Metrodome to be a mortifying monstrosity, and despite the fact that I regularly attend Twins' games, I opposed the misappropriation of taxpayer money which would have resulted had the measure gone through. So too did a majority of Minnesotans. It took a decade, but the measure finally came to fruition, even though sixty-eight percent of Minnesotans still opposed the plan.

I do not know what changes are in store for the student government; I do not know how many times the students must reject ASMTU before its backers get the picture. But should ASMTU be brought up again, or passed by circumventing the student body altogether, I know one thing. The elites of USG, like the legislators who bought the Twins their new stadium, will never have the satisfaction of claiming that they really represent the students. Plato would be proud.