Will Palmer ‘21
Special Projects Editor
I said that I’d write a humor piece on the SBA elections for this week, but I’m going to subvert everyone’s expectations and do neither of those things. Well, kind of. You’ll see. Just bear with me on this.
Before we get started, I should note that I don’t intend this piece to be an attack on anyone, overtly or otherwise. I’m not going to ride in on some high horse and lecture you about how to live your life. Hell, if I wrote a self-help book it would be called Bad Advice You Shouldn’t Take. I just want to put my thoughts out there, and I’m too lazy to start a blog.
Now, I don’t intend to examine the mechanics of the elections or discuss the results; rather, I aim to use them as an example of what I just now decided to call intra-institutional estrangement. (I’m not married to the term, so we can workshop it, but I think it captures the concept adequately.) The idea is, in retrospect, somewhat obvious. It’s entirely possible that everyone else has known and integrated this into their lives from a young age and that I’m just an emotionally stunted man-child. More surprising things have happened. But I digress…
I’m not going too far out on a limb when I say that I sensed a certain level of heightened ill-will in the air during the recent SBA elections. The passion and level of engagement brought about by elections and the like are certainly good things, but I’m sure that you’ve also realized that they can change our views of others in an unnecessarily negative fashion.
People with different opinions than our own are not a problem, obviously. The institutions we’re working within, in and of themselves, are not a problem. What is an issue is the way that institutional disagreements shift our views of others: In elections, for example, we’re inclined to view people who have perspectives that differ from our own in a more adversarial light. It can be far more comfortable (for me, at least) to think that someone with significantly different views on a divisive topic is just mean, or foolish, or misinformed. Attempting to objectively examine someone else’s views and reckon with them in an honest fashion is a more difficult endeavor—but it is a worthwhile one nonetheless. I’m not great at it, but what I’m saying is that I’m trying.
I’ve been attempting to think of it like this—a difference of opinions with someone doesn’t mean things have to devolve into some sort of old-school blood feud with pistols at dawn. It means we have something important in common: We care, deeply, about the same thing. At the end of the day that’s what needs to count.
Let’s not allow institutional disagreements to distance us from each other. It sounds cliché, but I honestly think that we have a great community here. The people I’ve met at the Law School have made me a less cynical human being by, if I had to guess, at least 35 percent, and I hope this article helps to pay that back, even if it’s just a little. All I want to do is encourage us to emphasize the parts of UVA that made us happy to be here in the first place. Let’s celebrate the fact that we have so many things in common that we care about and not allow our views of our friends to be altered by differences of opinion.
I’m not trying to stand on a soapbox and condescend to you, and I apologize if this whole thing came off like that. I feel like I should end on something self-deprecating to keep things light. Here are a few reasons why you should never worry about me acting patronizing toward you:
1) I still unironically enjoy the 2005 action-adventure film Sahara, starring Matthew McConaughey, Penelope Cruz, and Steve Zahn.[1]
2) When stressed, I will discuss my woes with my chinchilla, Brutus. The conversations are somewhat one-sided, but I like to think that if he talked he would have the voice of James Earl Jones.[2]
3) I haven’t worn one in a while, but I still own a non-zero number of flat-brim hats representing sports teams I’m not particularly a fan of.
Clearly, I’m not in a position to lecture anyone about much of anything, so don’t worry about that! Please do get in touch if you want to discuss Sahara, though. Great flick.
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wtp7bq@virginia.edu