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Evergroove trivia, pt. 47

Fri, 11/25/2005 - 11:43am — stevenl
Around 1978 or 1979 a certain student (who today is a respected health care administrator) walked through the CAB and was turned off for the 1000th time by the super serious and suffocating monoculture the student social scene had settled into by that time. So, accompanied by his snapping fingers, he started singing in a loud voice:

"I'm in with the in crowd,
I go where the in crowd goes
I'm in with the in crowd
And I know what the in crowd knows ..."

About 50 faces looked up to regard his performance, and 49 of those faces were looking blank. But he made me smile.

Comments

Sat, 11/26/2005 - 12:10am — Robert Whitlock

I wonder how the social scene

I wonder how the social scene of 25 years ago compares to the one of today.

There are certainly stereotypes, definite "types" of people.

But I think many people are evolving past the superficiality of social cliques. We are all distinct individuals, each unique - like snowflakes. If we nurture our uniqueness and individuality, we can each bring a greater diversity and interest to the social system in general.

But sometimes a desire to be cool or popular, seems to override. I wish I could be more descriptive.

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Sat, 11/26/2005 - 9:19am — stevenl

The TESC of the early 1970s h

The TESC of the early 1970s had an electricity in the air. It was a libertarian experiment and I think the student body was more diverse in 1971-74 than it was by the end of the 1970s. By decade's finish, the school had been around long enough to settle into its own insulated culture and, oddly, did not seem all that tolerant of viewpoints other than authoritarian Left. I have the impression the school has outgrown that stage since then.

When I returned to TESC to work in the mid-1980s, one of the original faculty members told me, "Old Evergreen is very unpopular right now." Isn't there some saying about the Revolution eating its own children?

I suspect TESC's evolution fits some typical model of radical concepts being tested against the reality of human nature. Evergreen's story is unique and fascinating to me in this way. I'm glad I'm an alum, but I must admit it is the dark, comical, and eccentric side of the place that draws my interest. Must be the cartoonist in me.