Thursday, September 22, 2011

The absurdity of "Change" for change's sake

When I was twenty-one and approaching the prospect of my third year in college, I began to take a slightly more active interest in the workings of the school and our Student Senate (student government).
I say that I took an interest because I actually had a look one day at what the cost was for every student to pay into the funds which Student Senate used to run the many clubs and events it did.
I modify the term "interest" with the word "slightly" because the extent of my interest basically only went as far as a conversation over lunch with a former Senator, who laid out in basic and vague terms the amount of money which was paid out in honorariums to the people involved in Student Senate and its larger clubs, such as the student publication and yearbook.

What particularly struck a spark in me was simply the fact that, out of an estimated $100,000 in fees gathered every year, approximately $27,000 was being paid to the Senators and other paid positions. My initial reaction was, of course, shock. $27,000 is a lot of cash to a student paying his way through college on bank and federal loans and a small amount of goodwill- all subject to the whims of the currency conversion between the U.S. and Canada.
I immediately began to be irritated, perhaps even incensed, at what I saw as a waste of student funds. Especially after my somewhat disgruntled friend regaled me with impressions of a largely useless bureaucracy (however small), which seemed quite unworthy of the healthy sum being given it.

What followed as a result of my discussion with that man was perhaps as much a sad commentary on the disconnectedness of students with the goings-on and accountability of their Senate as it was an eye-opening experience. The summary of the next few weeks was that I determined, in my moments of great confidence, that I would be the one to bring change, hope, accountability, transparency, and perhaps even a decent sense of financial responsibility to a Student Senate seemingly plagued with troubles. I was of course successful in the coming election in securing the seat of Vice President of Finance, although (here enters the sad commentary) I won in a race against nobody, propelled to my landslide victory by scant campaigning, a brief speech, and the yearly triumph of name recognition over general student apathy ("Hey I know him. I'll vote for him")

To make a long story short, and to get to the point, over the next two years I served as a Student Senator and did what I consider a decent job of budgeting and disbursing funds to all the many clubs run by Senate. I talked and I listened in meetings, argued, laughed, and most of all learned. I learned about getting people to agree with you, and even a little bit about politics and bureaucracy (whether using it or attempting to fight it). Most of all, I learned that before I got into my job, I had absolutely no idea of what the position required.

In fact, I had no idea what any of the positions really did, apart from when one Senator or another appeared at a sponsored event. What I knew was a few soundbites worth of past information. I carried with me into that first day in office a feeling that there were many things I needed to change immediately, the greatest of which was ensuring that all the money entrusted to us would be used well. After all, not only the VP of Finance but also the whole Student Senate ought to be extremely concerned with the stewardly use of so much money, shouldn't they?

In short, I hadn't a clue about how things REALLY were. I thought from the outside that Senators were outrageously paid, until I spent so many hours in meetings and work and sitting in the office to answer questions. My position could be said at best to earn about $45 a week, for which at least 5 hours of the week were taken up in work. In Ontario, that's less than minimum wage.
I believed as well that Senate must be wasting all sorts of funding on useless things. To be fair, there was some of what I considered to be wasteful or frivolous spending, generally along the lines of "We have the money- let's use it now!" However, the vast majority of the fees given to Senate were used in excellent ways, whether to fund clubs that helped local kids, or to help do acts of charity and outreach nearby, or just to provide fun activities and opportunities for fellowship to the student body- from whom, after all, the fees had come in the first place.

By the time I finished my second term as the VP of Finance I knew far more about my position, and had even managed to change a number of things. What changed the most, however, was my own assumptions about things. I now understand that if passing something controversial is difficult in a Senate of 13 college students, I can only begin to dream about how difficult that would be in a ruling government of 400 or more individuals, all older and much wiser in general than we were.
I learned as well that compromise, and coming to an understanding, and cutting back and making allowances on certain issues is an unavoidable aspect of the democratic form of government- again, even more so in a full-sized national government.

Most of all, I learned this:
1. NEVER vote for a man who runs his campaign on the promise that he will change everything, especially if he can't detail HOW he will implement the change. Such people are almost always simply hiding their total lack of knowledge and experience behind a facade of outrage, and at best they will accomplish little to nothing once they reach office and see what things are really like. At worst, even what they accomplish will be bad for the country.