Are You Now or Have You Ever?

Reeling from the recent election commission debacle and the ill-fated motion to remove its vice president, the Undergraduate Council seems to have abandoned democracy in favor of Orwellian social conformity. Economics concentrators beware: the words "rational choice theory" will have to be said in a hushed whisper and talk of self-interest will become taboo. And while there are no five-year plans yet, there is a five-day one: Spirit Week.

From March 13 to 17, "Social cohesiveness" and "camaraderie" will be the battle cries of the impassioned movement. Although there aren't little red flags or military berets just yet, there are plans for Color Tuesday and Crazy Hat Friday. And since a significant portion of Harvard students already wear their nighttime apparel to class, Pajama Day should be a smash hit for the masses. For the council's next trick, maybe it could institute "spirit marches" to class. Or put on a military parade through the Yard to display the council's downsized, yet still formidable, cadres and the captured booty from the last Ivy Council meeting. We can feel our blind devotion swelling already.

Before the last vestige of our free thought evaporates, though, we must register skepticism that the very real problem of campus community can be solved by silly costumes and council propaganda. The idea is almost as farcical as chastising students for forgetting to "take pride in the official governing body of Harvard College," as the council did. Encouraging students and faculty to dress alike for a week, something which to most of us sounds like a bad memory from high school, is not likely to focus discussion on the tough problems at the root of Harvard's fragmented student body. Instead, Spirit Week will only mean that the few card-carrying council representatives who troop to class in the prescribed attire will look pretty silly for a few days.

Spirit Week may provide a few fun diversions, and we are not denying that Harvard students could stand to loosen up a bit. But it will not, as the council claims, unite us around anything other than ridicule of the council itself.

Take heed, members of the council, of what your Russian counterparts learned the hard way: "camaraderie" cannot be created from above, but rather bubbles up from below through meaningful dialogue and realization of common ends. Spirit Week may momentarily amuse the proletariat. But our lovable student Politburo should get moving on issues of real significance to students, lest the masses, though fragmented and discontented as they may be, decide to organize a coup d'tat.