You can’t do better than a close read of this article, by an Indiana University student. Foreign observers from, say, former Communist countries will recognize the article’s rhetoric immediately.
Title: SHUT UP AND SHOW UP
The student is enraged because many of his fellow students do not share his passion for the basketball team. They are failing to put on their team jerseys and join the fervent throng. They are failing to understand what Indiana University means. Their absence at the games demoralizes their fellow students. If they continue to opt out of these mass rallies, they should be punished.
I’ve noticed an attitude change in IU students over the last five years or so. No longer are they dedicated fans by the masses, that will plan their schedule around the games. Fans that will always wear their IU gear with their head held high and be confident in their university.
Comrade Brezhnev has noticed a deterioration in the dedication of the masses to the cause.
I do want note, there is a solid core of passionate students but there are far too few of them. It looks like no more than a few hundred.
The radical core remain intact, to be sure! But there has been a serious falling away.
There has been an attitude change and I don’t like it. In a group of about 50 students polled, only about seven classified themselves as a diehard IU fan that will watch the team no matter their talent level. The worst part about this informal poll was that about ten claimed they rarely watch IU sports, yet they are a sports marketing major.
Those who reap the benefits of the revolution should make their fair contribution to it!
Too many times I’ve said at my fraternity house that I’m getting ready to work the game and they ask what game and who they are playing. Seriously? I cover every game and how could they not know when their university’s top sport plays? Maybe these students won’t buy in until Indiana wins consistently and against good teams. I think it should go the other way around.
The revolution has no need of fair-weather friends!
[Students] they don’t like the fact that their section is not the prime seating surrounding the basket. Instead of being grateful for the largest section in the country, nearly 7,600 seats, they believe that they are above alumni and donors. How irrational. There’s no way Indiana can take away seats from longtime donors and alumni that donate thousands each year to the university.
Our leaders have sacrificed for the party; they deserve a little special treatment.
If students aren’t dedicated and in attendance for the non-conference games, they don’t deserve to stand in the student section for the big games.
… [If] the students don’t show, cut the size of their section… [IU] is bringing in too many students out of state that just don’t get what Indiana basketball is all about. They don’t get the history, tradition or culture. They don’t understand you should show up early and heckle the opponents during warm-up.
Little as I wish to do this, I have decided that punishment is in order. Insufficiently committed comrades will stand for the big games. The so-called intellectuals on the admissions committee will be instructed to admit only those who understand our indigenous revolutionary traditions.
December 7th, 2011 at 2:40PM
From the use of the term “regime” early on to the idea that he chose IU because “there is no team consistently more powerful than the IU basketball team”, this guy is desperate for a Führer, and he will be the illiterate dutiful minion who puts the unappreciative masses in their place. He even recognizes the importance of a nomenklatura of alums and donors. This isn’t satire, is it?
December 7th, 2011 at 3:19PM
Polish Peter: I indeed wondered, reading it, if it was a satire. I’m still not sure.