Portland State Vanguard Volume 75 Issue 9

VOLUME 75 • ISSUE 9 • AUGUST 25, 2020

WHY THE FEDS CAME MARCHING P.5 IN NEWS

Changes to campus safety

INTERNATIONAL Belarus protests

OPINION

Toxic productivity

CONTENTS COVER BY SAM PERSON NEWS HILL TO HALL

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CAMPUS SAFETY STARTS TO CHANGE

WHY THE FEDS CAME MARCHING IN

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INTERNATIONAL DAM DISPUTE ON THE NILE

STAFF

EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Dylan Jefferies MANAGING EDITOR Justin Grinnell NEWS EDITORS Hanna Anderson Aidan Kennelley INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Isabel Rekow ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Nick Townsend OPINION EDITOR AJ Earl ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings

LANDSLIDE ELECTION IN BELARUS PROMPTS ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS P. 6 ARTS & CULTURE CELEBRATING YOUR BIRTHDAY DURING A PANDEMIC

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OPINION TOXIC PRODUCTIVITY

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COPY CHIEF Sophie Concannon CONTRIBUTORS Jessie Boicourt Ida Ayu Karina Dwijayanti Nick Gatlin Alan Rodriguez Tiburcio PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Annie Schutz PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sam Person DESIGNERS Farah Alkayed Shannon Steed

DIS T RIBU TION DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Dylan Jefferies

To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com

T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Juliana Bigelow Kahela Fickle George Olson John Rojas

MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.

A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale

A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

AUGUST 19–21 NICK GATLIN

AUGUST 19: INDEPENDENT POLICE REVIEW INVESTIGATING

COMPLAINTS AGAINST PORTLAND POLICE

Portland’s independent police review board began to investigate over 40 complaints against Portland police actions during the nightly racial justice protests, AP News reported. The IPR, Portland’s oversight body to which the public can lodge complaints about police misconduct, released a quarterly report, covering the months of April, May and June, which detailed complaints of unnecessary use of force by police, according to The Oregonian. IPR director Ross Caldwell drew attention to a video recorded at a protest August 18 showing an officer hitting a woman multiple times in the head with a baton, and said the IPR is working to identify the officer and woman shown, according to FOX 12.

AUGUST 19: OREGON PROVIDES ONE-TIME $500 STIMULUS

PAYMENT TO UNEMPLOYED WORKERS

Oregon lawmakers approved a $35 million relief program in mid-July, and the program officially became available Wednesday. Up to 70,000 Oregonians waiting on their unemployment benefits became eligible for a one-time payment of $500, according to AP News. To be eligible for the payment, workers must have made less than $4,000 a month before losing their job, be 18 or older, be an Oregon resident and must have lost their job due to “executive actions by Gov. Kate Brown” to slow the spread of COVID-19.

As of August 21, all the funds for the program had been exhausted, and all 70,000 payments had been distributed or designated, according to FOX 12.

AUGUST 19: STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED OVER

OREGON WILDFIRES

Oregon Governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency on Wednesday to prevent wildfires, as much of the state was determined to be in extreme fire danger, AP News reported. Brown said in a news statement the state is at risk for hot, dry winds and thunderstorms, and the order allows state agencies to coordinate resources and the response to the emergency, The Oregonian reported. Brown said of the fires, “Given drought conditions and hotter than usual temperatures, Oregonians should be prepared for an intense wildfire season this summer,” according to KOIN 6.

AUGUST 21: JUDGE DENIES MOTION FOR IN-PERSON

INSTRUCTION AT OREGON SCHOOLS

On Thursday, a federal judge denied a motion by three Christian schools to reopen in-person classes, holding the state’s coronavirus restrictions were constitutional, according to AP News.The judge wrote, “In my view, the religious institutions here in K-through-12 aren’t being treated in any way differently than public K-through-12 institutions,” and found the state’s public health concerns outweighed the schools’ interests, according to The Oregonian. Brown said on Friday schools will not reopen in-person until Oregon’s COVID-19 transmission rate decreases substantially, according to The Oregonian.

PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 25, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

NEWS

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CAMPUS SAFETY STARTS TO CHANGE

CPSO DISARMS DURING PATROLS, PSU LOOKS FOR MORE CHANGE TO COME

CAMPUS PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICE. JUSTIN GRINNELL/PSU VANGUARD HANNA ANDERSON From spring to fall term, in the turbulent year 2020, change has been inevitable, as Portland State constantly adapts to current events. No change has been harder fought for, however, than to Campus Public Safety. With protests to disarm PSU on its office doorstep, and larger protests for greater police reform blocks away, changes to PSU’s own police force were minimal— until now.

Beginning this fall, PSU campus public safety officers will no longer carry firearms while patrolling campus. PSU President Stephen Percy and Chief of Campus Public Safety Willie Halliburton made the announcement on Aug. 13, along with the creation of a new committee to “Reimagine Campus Safety” and change the way PSU approaches safety and policing on campus.

“Over the past few weeks, we have listened to many voices across our campus,” Percy stated in the email announcement.

“The calls for change that we are hearing at PSU are ringing out across our nation. We must find a new way to protect the safety of our community, one that works to dismantle systemic racism and promotes the dignity of all who come to our urban campus.”

FIREARM-FREE PATROLS

CPSO will finish the transition to firearm-free patrols before or during the month of October, according to PSU’s new Reimagine Campus Safety website, and will continue to carry less lethal tools such as tasers. While patrols have been disarmed, sworn campus police officers will still have access to guns, kept in the CPSO office, to be used in a “very limited” number of situations, such as an active shooter on campus.

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NEWS

According to Halliburton, while there were multiple discussions with the president and Board of Trustees, the decision for unarmed patrols was ultimately made by CPSO. “I want to do the right thing, so that CPSO officers are doing the right thing,” Halliburton said, “and the right thing to do is to patrol campus unarmed.”

PSU has stuck to unarmed officers in the past. CPSO wasn’t armed at all until the BOT began to consider a resolution to hire sworn officers in 2014, a decision that has faced controversy since its inception. A collective of students, alumni, faculty and community members advocating to disarm PSU has existed ever since.

The movement was reignited after the death of Jason Washington, who was shot and killed by CPSO officers on June 29, 2018. With protests across the country to reform policing across America, Disarm PSU also held peaceful protests to reform CPSO at PSU. Much of the significance of the announcement, however, isn’t with the decision itself, but what it means for the future.

“What this does is open up the possibility for students and faculty and the community in general to actually imagine campus safety without the constant threat and presence of a typical armed and militarized police force,” said Olivia Pace, a PSU alumni and organizer with Disarm PSU. “It is, by itself, a pretty small form, but it’s significant. It moves away from tendencies of the broader culture of policing and sets a precedent for changes farther down the line, that continue to kind of subvert typical like patterns of the constant militarized police presence that we’re used

to in the U.S. and that is at the center of the current racial justice movement.”

REIMAGINING CAMPUS SAFETY

In order to make more changes to policing on campus, the BOT has also created the Reimagine Campus Safety Committee to make further recommendations for change. While the committee is still in its early stages of development, a steering committee has been chosen, which will have its first meeting next week to create its procedures going forward.

“The perfect storm that we’re in today is that we have a new president, we have a fairly new provost, we have a disarm collective that has been working tirelessly for the last seven years on to address this issue...and then at the same time you had a new chief of [CPSO]” said Jose Coll, a member of the steering committee and dean of the School of Social work, “I really look forward to working with our community to establish and reimagine campus safety in a way that it hasn’t been done” “I think moving forward it’s going to be a very interesting conversation to have,” said Motutama Sipelii, another member of the steering committee and president of ASPSU. “Let’s start collaborating, because honestly, moving forward, that’s the only way we’re gonna get stuff done.”

The changes, for now, are small, and for the most part, limited to PSU. Much of the hope that comes with the change is what can come after. ”This is uncharted territory,” said Halliburton. “But it’s the right thing to do, and it’s the right time to do it at PSU. We want to make it right and create a safe path at PSU.”

PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 25, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

WHY THE FEDS CAME MARCHING IN ALAN RODRIGUEZ TIBURCIO On July 4, the Trump administration interjected the Department of Homeland Security into the protests ongoing in Portland—in spite of Associated Press reporting the number of nightly protestors to be less than 100—with no consideration for the questionable legality of these actions. With federal troops withdrawn, however, the actions of the administration—and the reasons behind them—can be called into question. According to two Portland State professors, the actions of the DHS may not only be questionable, but authoritarian.

“I think it is part of a strategy by the Trump administration to escalate things,” said Dr. Leopoldo Rodriguez, an associate professor of International and Development Studies at PSU. “Trump can probably see the polls, and see the public reaction of his terrible management of the country in taking care of the [COVID-19] crisis and his terrible response to the Black Lives Matter movement and protests.”

Data from RealClearPolitics illustrates the gap between Trump’s falling approval and rising disapproval rating has increased by nearly 20%. A poll by The Washington Post shows a distinction across party lines: about 63% of Republicans prefer he restores security as opposed to deal with the racial divide, and 72% do not believe the police have used enough force in dealing with looters and vandals.

“These are tactics that are very, very scary and I think the purpose of that is to scare people—to be quiet, to not be counted, and fully deactivating,” Rodriguez said. “It’s true that this thing about grabbing people, putting them in cars, driving them around and questioning them; that is a kind of tactic that I have seen used in Latin America by authoritarian regimes already about to come to power and after they are in power.”

A comparison to Latin America is not unwarranted, considering Operation Condor—a United States-backed campaign of political repression and state terror in South America. This operation generated right-wing, antidemocratic and hyper-militarized regimes in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Furthermore, the domestic use of authoritarian actions is not unprecedented.

PSU PROFESSORS DISCUSS THE LEGALITY OF FEDERAL OFFICERS IN PORTLAND “The federal government has intervened numerous times in our nation’s history to quell incidents of domestic unrests,” explained Dr. Joshua Eastin, an associate professor of political science at PSU. “Normally what happens is the Insurrection Act of 1807 is used to justify these actions; sometimes, when federal officials are sent, it is at the request of state or local officials […] we also have examples where federal troops have been sent in and local officials have opposed them.”

Thomas Jefferson signed the Insurrection Act of 1807, which allowed the federal government to deploy military agents within the U.S. It was last used in the 1992 Los Angeles riots to quell the anger caused by police brutality.

Yet, despite having this avenue, the interjection in Portland did not use this rationale.

“What’s different about this instance in my mind is that the president is not using the insurrection act to send in national guard troops to enforce federal law,” Eastin said. “What the federal government is doing is sending in non-military personnel—so agents associated with the [DHS] working in the US marshal’s office, customs, and border protection, immigration, and customs enforcement, and the federal protections services—under the auspices of protecting federal property. But this is a very broad interpretation of ‘a threat to federal property.’”

“And it’s not entirely clear if it’s legal; one of the consequences of having a huge administrative apparatus like the [DHS] with multiple law

enforcement agencies with overlapping administrative duties is that legal justifications can be stretched, or contracted, or contorted to fit particular circumstances and it feels like that’s what’s happening here,” Eastin said.

Determining legality will take time and depend on the decisions of ongoing lawsuits.

“I think it’s still quite early yet to call the Trump administration fascist, but I think that it would be appropriate to say there are overlaps with fascist regimes in history,” Eastin said. “So far, it seems that our liberal democratic institutions have been able to withstand much of the assault- in other words, it doesn’t seem that overall the public does not trust the judiciary anymore because the president continues to attack them.”

Whether authoritarian tactics devolve into fascism, however, depends on the public.

“I don’t want to conflate all authoritarian regimes with fascism; usually, when people mean authoritarian they mean non-democratic,” Eastin said. “It’s not out of the question that were President Trump reelected that we would see things continue to erode to a point that it might be much, much more difficult to retrieve them than it is now.

SHANNON STEED

PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 25, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

NEWS

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DAM DISPUTE ON THE NILE

PROTESTS BREAK OUT IN BELARUS. COURTESY OF FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

LANDSLIDE ELECTION IN BELARUS PROMPTS ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS

ETHIOPIA BUILDS DAM, ANGERING DOWNSTREAM COUNTRIES

ISABEL REKOW

IDA AYU KARINA DWIJAYANTI

After a disputed presidential vote in Belarus on Aug. 9, opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya fled the country and Belarusians rallied in mass protests against President Aleksandr Lukashenko, calling for him to step down after 26 years in power.

Lukashenko received over 80% of the vote, according to the Central Election Commission.

However, Tikhanovskaya said she received 60–70% of the actual vote, according to BBC. In previous years, international election observers were allowed into Belarus, but this year were prohibited from monitoring the election.

Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old former English teacher, based her campaign platform on a promise to run fair elections. She ran for office after her husband, an opposition blogger who had considered running for president, was arrested in May. He remains in jail.

After detaining Tikhanovskaya for seven hours, Belarusian authorities compelled Tikhanovskaya to leave the country for Lithuania after the election. She released video statements on Aug. 11 which seem to have been made under duress, according to The New York Times.

“I made a very difficult decision,” Tikhanovskaya said in one of the videos. “I know that many will understand me, many will judge me and many will hate me for it. But know that God forbid you will face the kind of choice I faced.”

Lukashenko’s response to COVID-19 and its accompanying economic challenges weakened his grip on authority, according to AP News.

Initially describing the pandemic as “psychosis,” Lukashenko later backpedalled when he revealed he had contracted, then recovered, from the virus. He recommended people take

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INTERNATIONAL

a shot of vodka every day and go to saunas to protect against COVID-19.

Over 100,000 protesters filled the streets of Belarus in the wake of the election, chanting “step down!” According to Al Jazeera, Lukashenko said Belarus would “die as a state if it agreed to hold new elections under pressure.”

Thousands of protesters were arrested during the demonstrations, during which law enforcement used rubber bullets, stun grenades, tear gas and water cannons against protesters.

Police targeted members of the press, confiscating and breaking photography equipment.

Authorities also imposed internet shutdowns and restricted access to social media.

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet condemned the crackdown as a “clear violation of international human rights standards.”

According to Amnesty International, Belarusian authorities subjected peaceful protesters to a campaign of widespread torture in detention centers.

“The authorities have turned peaceful street protests into a bloodbath,” Tikhanovskaya said.

“I call for the government to stop the violence and start a dialogue.”

Lukashenko said he would consider changing the constitution to redistribute power, but not at the behest of protesters.

In an emergency summit, the European Union rejected the official election results and imposed financial sanctions against Belarusian officials responsible for election fraud and violently suppressing protests, according to Reuters.

“These elections were neither free nor fair and did not meet international standards,” said Charles Michel, E.U. council president. “We don’t recognize the results presented by the Belarus authorities.”

AFRICAN UNION (AU) PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA. COURTESY OF FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

An Ethiopian dam on the Blue Nile poses a threat to the water security of downstream Sudan and Egypt, catalyzing a feud between the countries and resulting on Aug. 8 in Egypt withdrawing and Sudan threatening to withdraw from dam negotiations.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia’s hydropower project, is crucial for the country’s electricity and a symbol of its position in the region. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed plans to transform the country into a regional exporter of energy through the dam.

The dam project remains significant for Ethiopia’s national unity and development. The country experienced ethnic violence in recent years, which critics said the prime minister failed to constrain, according to CNN. Addisu Lashitew, a fellow with the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institute, said: “The Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is a national project that [got] the support of the government, opposition parties and the public as well. It has been a uniting force in Ethiopia, as it has been built

by Ethiopians’ money.”

Sudan’s water and irrigation minister, Yasser Abbas, said Ethiopia took unilateral action, according to Al Jazeera. “This new Ethiopian position threatens the negotiations under the aegis of the African Union, and Sudan will not participate in negotiations which include the subject of sharing Blue Nile waters,” Abbas said.

The controversial dam poses an existential threat to dry countries such as Egypt, where the Nile serves as a key source for both drinking water and agriculture, according to BBC. The World Bank considers Egypt a waterscarce country.

Colonial-era agreements granted Egypt and Sudan most of the Nile’s water, as well as veto power over construction projects on the Nile, according to the Brookings Institution. A 2010 deal signed by Ethiopia and six other Nile countries removed Egypt and Sudan’s veto power.

In the negotiations revolving around the world’s longest river, the three countries used different treaties to claim their rights on the dam. According to Al Jazeera, Ethiopia used the 2010 treaty, while both Sudan and Egypt called on their rights from the colonial-era treaties signed in 1929 and 1959.

According to downstream countries, building the dam indicated Ethiopia’s refusal to take other countries’ needs into account. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said: “While we acknowledge Ethiopia’s right to development, the water of the Nile is a question of life, a matter of existence to Egypt.”

Egypt withdrew from the dam talks scheduled for Aug. 8, stating Ethiopia lacked regulations for the dam and a legal avenue to settle disputes, while Sudan threatened to withdraw from the talks.

South Africa, as the current chair of the African Union, is acting as mediator in the Nile dispute.

According to BBC, many Egyptians perceive South Africa as biased towards Ethiopia, with Egyptians claiming Ethiopians will receive a better outcome.

The current chairperson of the African Union, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, said in a statement negotiations were at a critical phase. “It is important that all parties should be engaged,” Ramaphosa said. “We would like to urge them to continue to be guided by the spirit of Pan-African solidarity.”

PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 25, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

QUARANTINE CUISINE CELEBRATING YOUR BIRTHDAY DURING A PANDEMIC NICK TOWNSEND Alright folks, we’re almost six months into this pandemic.

Along with the massive human toll and economic, political and emotional fallout this will cause, it also means almost half of us have had a birthday under some degree of quarantine. Restaurants and bars aren’t the same kind of celebratory environment they once were, and throwing a big in-person party is at worst illegal and at best incredibly careless. Even if you’re still going to work in person, partying down the way you did last year could directly lead to someone else suffering. So, how do you celebrate yourself or a loved one without taking needless risks? Here are some options.

ZOOM PARTIES

Zoom parties are sort of a retro throwback to the early months of the pandemic when we were naive and optimistic, but they can still be fun! Especially if you thrive off the attention of others, or if you have a large social circle that you want to maintain, a Zoom party can be a great way to celebrate your birthday with everyone you care about. There’s a catch, though: have a concrete activity in mind.

Without some sort of activity to focus your party around, a Zoom party can quickly become boring or off-putting. In a live setting, parties are a great way to mingle and meet new people.

This doesn’t translate well to Zoom, where it’s impossible to carry on multiple conversations at once and the cold glare of the computer screen bathes everything in an unpleasant awkwardness. Break through that ice by providing your guests with something to focus on.

This could be as simple as playing 20 questions, hangman or mad libs as a group.

Children’s games work partic-

SAM PERSON

PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 25, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

ularly well because we have all emotionally regressed 5-10 years in the last six months. If you have a smaller-sized group, you could even do a one-shot Dungeons & Dragons campaign! Another fun option is to throw a Powerpoint party.

The Powerpoint party concept is simple; everyone attending the party prepares a short Powerpoint presentation about a topic they’re passionate about and presents it to the group.

This frequently ends up becoming a sort of Bizarro World TED Talks conference. A recent Powerpoint party I attended included topics such as “Which moldy fruits are most fun to chop in half out of the air?” “Which of my friends would win in a fight?” and “Cartoon characters I found conventionally attractive as a child.”

The presenter of the last one took no questions.

ANALOG PARTYING

Okay, so the stakes of the Zoom game are too high for you. I understand. Maybe your social circle isn’t built for video conferencing, which is fine, because they’re not a high-powered team of lawyers. That doesn’t mean you can’t still celebrate your birthday. If you’ve got a couple close friends, try hanging out in a park or at the beach. If your friends are a little more adventurous, try planning a grocery shopping trip together that feels safe for you. Maybe grab some of those cheap frosted cookies that they used to pass out at elementary school birthday parties.

If you’ve g o t

roommates, family or other people you’re bubbled with, your options are even broader. Throw your sibling or housemate a mini surprise party, complete with little banners and decorations that will stay up for weeks as sheer quarantine apathy prevents anyone from taking them down. I’ve had a JoJo Siwa banner from Walmart hanging in my living room for two weeks.

If you don’t have bubble-mates that you want to spend your special day with, and Zoom isn’t your style, consider taking a day for yourself. Think less self-care and more self-indulgence. Buy that big cake that you pass by every time you go to the grocery store. Order some delivery and tip really well.

Maybe get a stylish new dress that you can waltz around the house in. The possibilities are endless as long as it momentarily drives off the existential dread.

DRINKS AND CUISINE

If you, like me, are turning 21 this year, you might be feeling cheated missing the rites of passage that come at that age.

Jammed clubs with loud music and sloppy shots are a thing of the past, and who knows when they’re coming back. But you still can enjoy your special day in a boozy way. Think of a couple creative drinks or local brews you can set out for yourself and your housemates. Here’s one idea to get you started: Take a chilled 8-10 lb watermelon and set it on a flat end so it stands upright. Cut a hole about the diameter of a golf ball in the top. Using an electric mixer or a hand blender, puree the insides of the watermelon into watermelon juice. Pour in ¾ cup of tequila, ¼ cup of triple sec, ½ cup of lime juice, and ¼ cup of simple syrup. Stir thoroughly and either pour into cups with ice or add ice directly to the watermelon and drink directly out of it, perhaps with big ridiculous silly straws.

Your birthday is also a good time to get creative in the kitchen. Vanguard’s Quarantine Cuisine expert Nick Gatlin recommends chocolate depression cake because it’s thematically appropriate, easy to make and delicious. “Make a depression cake, pretend you’re eating with all your friends in person, definitely don’t portion out the cake and then eat it all yourself,” Gatlin told me over text. “Then dive straight back into the quarantine death spiral that we’re all living through.”

However you choose to celebrate your birthday this year, remember that it’s not going to be the same as previous years, and that’s okay! Everything is a disaster and in the grand scheme of things, your birthday is not the most important thing that’s going to happen to you during the pandemic, so take it as an excuse to just enjoy yourself and have a day off from life. Make it your own.

ARTS & CULTURE

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JESSIE BOICOURT Here we go, adding yet another hashmark to the number of days we’ve been isolating at home.

I’m beginning to realize the accumulating anxiety I’ve felt since that first fateful day isn’t something my Zoloft prescription can fix. It can’t be pinned on an anxiety disorder that, until recently, has been laying dormant inside of me, waiting for the right trigger for it to jump into action. The slab of concrete that has been weighing down my guts is thanks in great part to the work of American productivity. You know, that gravitational pull that urges you to keep busy, because otherwise, you’re failing. We all witnessed the barrage of sourdough loaves being baked and proudly—or perhaps not so proudly—shared on social media.

Look what I made! Look what I have been able to accomplish since I’m not an essential worker!

We found new hobbies, or dusted off old ones.

Something, anything to feel like we’re in control.

This particular breed of anxiety, which is spreading with the same unbiased ferocity of COVID-19 itself, is much more existential in nature.

It first dawned on me what was happening a few days ago, following an impressive two weeks of bottom-of-the-barrel productivity.

Dishes accumulate in the sink until you have no choice but to wash them, but then you let them sit another day longer because COVID19’s America is lawless! It was the first time I began to question that low-frequency hum that’s been making my pulse race and sending me into a slight panic. Why do I feel like this?

It’s no news we operate on a capitalist economy, one which demands a highly productive society in order to achieve optimal functioning. So what happens when members of such a society are unable to perform? They bake. And learn TikTok dances. And in general are consumed by an existential dread that they’re not actively doing something productive to occupy all of this spare time. It wasn’t long ago that I was right there with them. Coordinating scavenger hunts for my kids, doing the arts and crafts, keeping up with their daily journaling activities from school. I made pretzels from scratch, I devoted more time to Duolingo, planted a garden and the list goes on.

Now, there isn’t anything wrong with wanting to feel productive. Sometimes I’ll color code all of my books for the hell of it then sit back and feel accomplished for all of my hard work. Where it does become an issue is when you feel like you are taking up valuable space if you don’t feel productive enough. We keep

ourselves busied with miscellaneous tasks of varying importance, only to find ourselves feeling restless once the task has been carried out. Sure, there can be some semblance of meaning in the mundane acts we perform on a daily basis. But keeping up with chores and baking another cake isn’t going to fill that void, which we’ve been taught to believe requires the constant nourishment of a fulfilling and thriving career. This is, in my humble opinion, 100% a cultural construct. The problem isn’t that we can’t be as productive.

The problem is so many are feeling a loss of meaning due to their lowered productivity.

So much value and emphasis has been placed on productivity; as a worker, as a consumer, as an American trying to chase down that dream. Why does this matter? Life needs meaning after all, otherwise it’s utterly meaningless. Yet here we are, backing the wrong horse. For some, maybe working will fill that void, and that’s alright. This is for those out there, hunkered over their laptop in the pajamas they’ve been wearing for three consecutive days, wondering if this is it. What I’ve learned over the last five months, in large part thanks to my therapist, is to remain present and practice mindfulness. As new agey as this may sound, roll with me for a minute.

You don’t have to stay busy all the time in order to feel good. Because you don’t have to feel good all the time.

TOXIC PRODUCTIVITY 8

OPINION

There is no amount of programming in the world that will make it normal for people to work 40, 50, 60 hours a week. We aren’t robots. We are humans, and experience a wide range of emotions. This dystopian world we’re existing in right now is a serious drag.

The pandemic sucks. Racism sucks. Our president, suffice it to say, seriously sucks. People not giving a shit about anyone’s safety or livelihood really. Freaking. Sucks. So put down the dry activated yeast, turn off your phone and give the void the good screaming-into

that it deserves right now. Take time for yourself, listen to your body. Honor all of your emotions with the space and quiet they need, not just the good ones. It may not bring new meaning into your life, but at the very least you won’t be emotionally constipated as a result of keeping every moment of every day full. What I can promise is the feelings will pass, and it will make you a more empathetic person in the end. I think we can agree a little more empathy would go a long way right about now.

BUSYING OURSELVES INTO EXISTENTIAL DREAD

SHANNON STEED

PSU Vanguard • AUGUST 25, 2020 • psuvanguard.com