And The Band Played On

     It had been one heck of a morning. In my nine-thirty Philosophy class, the professor proposed that the human race, as a species, was a biological dead end, doomed to bottleneck itself out of existence by population explosion or nuclear explosion. As a species--it was offered--we are at the peak of our existence--maybe in decline from that peak.

     In my eleven o'clock Theology class the professor discoursed his belief that the class mobility in America was dying out, that America was developing a sort of caste system of financial and social classes that boasted of little ascent or descent these days. A new aristocracy of the rich was being born. The American Dream was dead.

     I sobbed uncontrollably before my twelve thirty class. I contemplated throwing my belt over a rafter and hanging myself, and only the fact that I was not wearing a belt and there are no visible rafters on the first floor of Haggerty Hall saved my life. For, I thought, what good was it to live in a time when all hope was lost?

     I paused to gasp for breath between my tears and thought of what I had learned.

     Mankind is certainly as technologically advanced as we have ever been. This in itself doesn't say much, but at least it shows we aren't in a new dark age yet.

     Granted, one of the arguments posed by the professors is that we seem to be on the verge of a social upheaval as diversity and pluralism lead rival groups into conflict. This prediction may be true, but even if a social revolution does occur, does it mean that humanity will backslide into barbarism? I don't draw that conclusion.

     Humanity, in our history, has been careless with the environment. There is a lot of pollution out there, and the landfills are becoming landfulls. There are more than five billion people on this planet. This does mean problems.

     The price of education is soaring. Now, instead of a right, it seems to be a privilege to go to college. The need of college to get a good job and the need of a good job to pay for college might be seen as creeping towards elitism and aristocracy. It certainly makes it hard for some people with less liquid assets to get ahead.

     Yet as a member of what some augurs might fear as the last generation of humanity, I'd rather view the problems as challenges, not impossibilities. We can overcome these difficulties, and getting a college education is definitely a step in the right direction. With the light of education, we can stave of the next Dark Age indefinitely--or even illuminate the world so it never need fear a Dark Age again.

     Unfortunately, it seems, there are some potential allies of ours out there who would rather indoctrinate us with hopelessness and dread than encourage to go forth and conquer (the challenges, mind you--not each other). I hate to think that the guilty professors believe they are doing us a service in not painting too rosy a picture of real life. Theirs is a picture darkened by disillusionment, and they might be passing on that disillusionment to us.

I, however, refuse to let my optimism be snuffed by fears that this is the end. I think we can take these problems head-on and emerge victorious. Even if the world can't be saved, we can at least be like the band that played on.