Monday, March 9, 1998
Don’t sweat the small stuff, and headlines are small stuff
HEADLINE: Letters show myopic, academic view of essentially
trivial event
By Juan Del Rio
I have chosen to respond to the Viewpoint "Letters" section on
March 4, due to the incredible level of misdirected insensitivity
that was displayed by Ms. Beazley and Mr. Danna. While I am sure
that both writers are certainly bright, their inadequacies in
observing the real point here has unfortunately led them to
unfairly criticize the Daily Bruin.
You see, these two writers have obviously fallen prey to what I
call the "hopeless victim of academia" syndrome (HVA). Countless
professors, campus administrators and graduate students fall prey
to this disease every day. When you’re locked up in your little
bubble on campus where you avoid the realities of the world and
blow things out of proportion, you become a victim of this
syndrome. Symptoms include what you have here – two people
extremely locked into the pursuit of what is often informational
bits of the most trivial nature. Sufferers of this syndrome also
pride themselves on their never-ending quest for criticizing the
smallest aspects of an even less important issue, (e.g. The Bruin’s
Feb. 26 headline "Albert Carnesale searches for No. 2 man"). But
take heart, Beazley and Danna, there is room for people such as
yourselves who like to take the time picking at such insignificant
matters … it’s in academia. The two of you could be chairmen …
uh, excuse me, chairpersons … of academic departments and further
promote the ‘big fish, small pond’ mentality which currently
affects the egos and behavior of everyone inside Murphy Hall, with
the exception of our chancellor.
Should people such as yourselves be forced to associate with
common people who, unlike us, cannot hide under the shelter of the
university, you would probably hear expressions such as "my
right-hand man," or "my No. 2 man" for that matter. Such
expressions date back to well before the time that your grandmother
was born and, consequently, before this ridiculous obsession with
degendering our language. Perhaps I should interject one of my
favorite expressions: Idle hands are the playground of the devil.
Hopefully the two of you will find activities to occupy yourselves
in the near future. It might lead you to really put everything in
perspective and hopefully realize that the little things such as
these don’t matter. To the rest of you reading, don’t catch this
virus. Enjoy the campus community but don’t forget that it is a
very large bubble that is damn near impenetrable sometimes. But we
can’t be in school forever – one day reality hits. It’s just a
matter of when and where.Del Rio is a third-year student majoring
in electrical engineering.