Chapter 6: More than everything I know

This is a true story:

I was sitting with CB at a bar last year, talking about the end of the semester. He related to me the story of his Russian history class. It was the end of the semester and he was exhausted. The final exam consisted, apparently, of the essay question "Explain two positive contributions Stalin made to Russian society." CB, being a snarky mofo, and up to here with schooling, wrote only the phrase "He died." and turned it in. His professor was apparently so impressed with his straightforwardness that he got full marks.

I don't know if this really happened to CB. It sounds too good to be made up, quite frankly, just quirky enough that you can see it being fictional, but it'd be a brassy move to try to pass it off as real if it weren't. So I believe it. But it's a true story nonetheless, because they story wasn't about CB writing a sarcastic answer to an essay question, the story was about CB telling me about it.

See what I did there? True story. That happened.

There are these student council elections going on at school lately. In the past I was vaguely aware of them - glossy posters would adorn campus bulletin boards featuring a bullet list of noble objectives and an impossibly happy-looking, overachieving student dressed casually. I'd be aware of them, then eventually feel guilted into voting, and cast my vote randomly. This year I will not be doing that. This year is different. I am consciously abstaining.

This year, which I had not noticed in previous years, the candidates have organized themselves into opposing political parties. The green team and the orange team. Both of their objectives are more or less the same. They're not like the liberals and the conservatives. Everyone knows what students want: lower, manageable fees, a TTC discount, cheaper textbooks, maybe a place to crash or some parties. Whatever. Who cares.

They both have more or less the same objectives. One's been in power already, the other is alleging they have failed in their duties, and the first is claiming the second is lying about that (this was an actual exchange two of them had in front of me, courting my vote: One makes a statement about the ruling party's performance, the ruling party interjects, "That's a lie.") They don't differ in ideology, their resources have to be close enough as to be indistinguishable, and there's only so much the student council can do anyhow. There is no way one can prove to me they would be more effective at running the school than the other.

So I'm abstaining, but it's not just voter apathy. It's voter irritation. It doesn't matter to me who is in control of the student council. I am not the least bit aware of their actions or what they do, and frankly there's no way to make me aware, or care, so why bother? Worse than being interested and not voting, would be to cast a totally uninformed vote, which I have done in the past. Then I'm jut fucking up Democracy. Dad always says, if you can't complain, but I never complain anyway. In my local elections I vote, and I complain, as is my right. Here, I simply can't see it making a difference.

What I'm really getting at here is a reaction against the type of people who run for these positions. I'm not saying it's a popularity contest or anything, but I'm saying that although they will surely do as good a job as they can, they really just want bragging rights, and something cool to put on their resume in the future. It's like the movie Election.

If I find myself this time next year sitting here thinking "Shit, I wish the Orange team had gotten in power," I will be very surprised.

Not a lot interesting has been happening, I have been squandering the hiatus between papers. I ought to write one soon.

I remember when Cary and I ran through the Half-Past script, and he observed, "I like how all your characters are secret Jews." The Jewish people have a way with dialogue, and moreover I seem to have absorbed it through some kind of cultural osmosis. One actor apparently declined to audition, saying "I can't play Jewish."

Keep on rockin'
-Scotto