FS Vol. 4, Issue 14 by flipside

The Flip Side is a publication dedicated to providing an alternative news media outlet and forum on the UW-Eau Claire campus by welcoming the writings, views, and involvement of all students and community members. By reporting on news, perspectives, and opinions on local, national, and international issues, we seek to develop participatory democracy and freedom of speech. All published material remains the property of the individual contributors. Opinions of the writers and contributors are their own. Articles found within in no way reflect the opinion of the The Flip Side as a whole. The Flip Side reserves the right to reject any advertising, articles, letters, art, images, panties, hubcaps, or other material submitted for publication.

Andy Boden

4 CONTRIBUTING AN ARTICLE The Flip Side welcomes your writing. Send submissions to: flipside@uwec.edu Try to keep articles between 400 and 1500 words. When submitting, include your name and year in school and major if applicable. For more information or any questions on what we are interested in, contact: Phil Kolas, Editor in Chief –kolaspn@uwec.edu We strongly encourage the citing of sources when making arguments or reporting news. See format found within. Deadline for next issue: Thursday, Sept. 6th, 2007 Deadline for issue two: Thursday, October 4th, 2007 CIRCULATION The Flip Side is published every two weeks on Wednesday during the fall and spring semesters of the academic school year at UW-Eau Claire. Our circulation is between 1500 and 2000 copies and distribution is available upon request. The Flip Side is an officially recognized organized activity under the authority of the UW-Eau Claire Student Senate. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Students, Faculty, Staff, and Community members are all welcome to write letters to the editor to express their views. Letters must include the sender's full name and, if applicable, year in school and major. Faculty or staff must include their title and department, and alumni must include their year of graduation. The deadline for letters in the next issue is Thrusday, Sept. 6th, 2007. Send letters to: flipside@uwec.edu Letters must be no longer than 350 words. The Flip Side reserves the right to withhold publication and may edit for length and clarity. Send letters to: flipside@uwec.edu Writers whose content is made the subject of letters will be notified and are allowed, and encouraged, to respond. Responses appear just below the letters and may not exceed 200 words. ADVERTISING Those who seek to advertise in future issues should contact: Addison Miller – milleradd@uwec.edu. To submit events for free to our calendar, contact: Dana Thompson – thompsod@uwec.edu TO CONTACT THE FLIP SIDE The Flip Side Davies Center 132 Univ. of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Eau Claire, WI, 54701 Email: flipside@uwec.edu Phone: 920.285.3949

Cover By: Beth Beebout

Completely Justified In Defense of “Loners” Paul Johnson

Cigarette Burns

Andy Eklof and Nick Noscowiak

Lollapalooza: Part Three Phil Kolas

How Lovely This Life Seemed When Being Fucked Up Was Making One the Same as Every One Else Jeremy Miller

Interview with a Blugold Jon Radcliffe

Soul Play: Me Tarzan. You God. Jen Lind

At A Glance: RIAA Lawsuits Caitlin Heidbrink

Grace

Philip Kaveny

Eye of the Storm Tim Faiella

Cosplay or No Play Kristoffer Martin

In Defense of Revolutionary Socialism Ryan Milbrath

Calendar

STAFF

Managing Editor Jake Russo Director of Development Jen Lind Editor in Chief Phil Kolas Art Director Eric Miller Assistant Managing Editor Phil Kaveny, Dana Thompson Assistant Editors Dana Thompson, Jake Russo, Andy Boden, Jennifer Lind Layout Editor Eric Miller Assistant Layout Editor Scotch Tape

Website Manager Kristoffer Martin Calendar Girl Dana Thompson Circulation Manager Andy Eklof Advertising Manager Addison Miller Treasurer Kim Roegner Constitutional Advisor Aaron Brewster Faculty Advisor Dr. Marty Wood Founders Jeremy Gragert, Andrew Werthmann, Brian Vander Kamp

Completely Justified

Illustration: Beth Beebout

Andy Boden

Undergraduate / Political Science The Flip Side is a biweekly publication, which means that something interesting in the world can happen and that the timing for publishing certain articles relating to these stories can be a little late. We will be 16 days removed from the shootings at Virginia Tech by the time this article is published. However, there was another event that was all over the news last month before the tragedy in Blacksburg – the firing of Don Imus. Even though it may be inappropriate to voice my opinion on old news, especially when something of greater significance has occurred, this story still brings up many conflicted feelings on a controversial topic. So without any further ado, here’s what I have to say… Former shock-jock Don Imus was all over the news a month ago. Donnie Genius-Boy some how got the idea to refer to the Rutgers women’s basketball team in a derogatory manner, and a week later, NBC and CBS decided that they didn’t want someone like that representing them, so they fired his dumb ass. This seems sensible – a guy who’s had a radio career for 20+ years and who has used prejudice slurs on more than a couple occasions during his tenure gets fired. However, some people in the media found the need to bitch about this because the companies that fired him treated him “unfairly.” I do not see how they can be serious. This isn’t the first time Imus has used prejudicial slurs. The media executives gave him warning to knock that shit off or else he’d be out of a job, yet Imus still insisted on using a term that was offensive to blacks and women. However, the people who defend Imus still think he got screwed because other people are still able to get away with using offensive slurs, particularly those in the hip-hop industry. Imus defended himself in an interview by saying that there are many black men who use similar terms all the time. I do agree that the hip-hop industry has problems with the way they treat blacks and women, but it’s unfair to say that Imus should not have gotten fired just because the likes of Ludacris, Jay-Z, and Kanye West haven’t been dropped from their record labels. The reason why is because NBC and CBS took a progressive step towards eliminating racism by firing Imus. In my article “What is Racism Exactly?” [Volume 4 Issue 9 – Ed.] I stated that if society were to push for equality, then we must address the issue of the double standard, and I still hold true to my words. However, I do not

believe that eliminating the double standard involves giving white people the right to make racist remarks about black people. I believe that the best way to end racism is to set higher standards for people of all races to live by, not by allowing people of one race to lower their standards to the way some people of other races live by. NBC and CBS had the power to set higher standards for their employees and refused to associate themselves with people who failed to maintain them. The people who defend Imus by using the hip-hop industry as a comparison have the wrong idea. The problem is that the hip-hop industry has not set high enough standards for their entertainers to follow and that’s why those entertainers are able to get away with discrimination. However, I am also a strong believer in the First Amendment, and that if people don’t like what someone is saying, the best way protest is to not pay any attention to that person. Therefore, I believe that if real change is to be made, the general public needs to stop buying hip-hop albums with grotesque lyrics, and to stop

watching BET, so that way the message can be sent. Hopefully, the hip-hop industry will raise their standards in return. Free speech is all well and good, but so are standards. Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Ludacris, and Jay-Z all have the right to say whatever they want, but their employers are also allowed to terminate their employment if they don’t play by the rules. The bottom line is that people should think before they speak, especially when their asses are on the line (just for the record, I’m well aware that The Flip Side allows profanity, and I probably wouldn’t be writing this if we didn’t). Imus knew that NBC and CBS didn’t tolerate bone-headed racial/sexist slurs, but he still got caught trying to pull a fast one. Hopefully Donnie will be thinking that he should have watched his mouth while he’s looking through the help-wanted section.

The Flip Side | May 2nd - May 15th, 2007

In Defense of “Loners” Paul Johnson

Undergraduate / History Gary Tuchman is a douche bag. I recently watched an exclusive interview on CNN (online) with two former roommates of the gunman at Virginia Tech. All he wanted to discuss with them was how weird Cho Seung-Hui was. The only details worth inquiring about were those that reinforced the fact that Cho did not fit in. Of course, the media is looking for the details that are sensational. If it bleeds, it leads…. I just didn’t realize how sensational or controversial it was for an individual to be antisocial. I didn’t realize that being a loner was a crime or even that newsworthy to dwell upon. His former room-mates remarked that Cho was indeed relatively abnormal in his lack of conversation or social relationships. But the interviewer kept basically begging for more examples of this. After the interview, the summary can be paraphrased to this: “Cho never talked to anyone! He didn’t have friends and he didn’t even try to maintain a friendly façade in his interactions with others!” Cho Seung-Hui committed monstrous acts. There is absolutely no excuse for his decision to kill over 30 people. He was clearly dealing with a very powerful selfdestructive urge, but if he was going to get violent about it, he should have off ’d himself… and only himself. But there is something else going on now that the dust has settled. America is looking for answers. How could this have happened? What possible motivations could have led to this? How could anyone pull this off ? Who was this monster? How is the mainstream media handling this? How are they shaping public opinion? It’s actually a pretty simplistic approach. I am not defending Cho Seung-Hui. His actions take him perhaps outside the realm of forgiveness, for me at least. His video manifesto is also quite effective at conveying that he may have been seriously unbalanced. But the mainstream media is doing its best to dumb down the entire debate. Their apparent role is to completely marginalize the gunman. To show us all that Cho SeungHui was not one of us. What makes him a monster are his monstrous acts, not his personality before the shootings. It seems that since he cannot be put on trial for those actions because of his suicide, his personality before the shooting spree is now on trial. We are being constantly reminded that Cho was a loner. Perhaps it is his antisocial

tendencies that are now on trial. He did not fit in and he didn’t even try to. What kinds of details is the media zeroing in on? The many instances in which Cho made it clear he was not a “people” person. “He was known as a loner, almost a stranger, amid a student body of 26,000. He ate his meals alone in a dining hall.” (Fernandez, Santora 4/18/07) In another instance, as a candidate for student council passed out candy and pandered for votes, “Mr. Cho refused even to make eye contact.” (Fern, Sant 4/18/07) Well… who gives a shit? Are we obligated to take our meals with other people and chit-chat away inanely when we don’t feel like it just so that all of the sociable people feel comfortable that there are no loners in their midst? Do all of us have an obligation to treat aspiring politicians, whoring themselves out for votes, as actual people who merit eye contact? If it is okay for someone to objectify Cho as just a vote, then perhaps it is okay for him to be reluctant in granting the full familiarity to someone who is basically just whoring for votes. I am talking about individual liberty against the comfort level of the group. Statistically, there are way too many people in the world for everyone to be best friends. Kindness and friendliness to strangers is admirable, but not obligatory. To treat every stranger like a best friend is to be guilty of insincerity. It is to water down what it actually means to be best friends into insignificance. Cho’s antisocial behavior before the shooting is not the issue. I grant that it may be an incremental warning sign to the group that a particular individual is not exactly playing the game by the same rules that they do. But this is life. We didn’t ask to be born. And we are not obligated to be friendly and outgoing just because some other people act that way. The only thing we can be expected to be is not an asshole, to not harm others. Some people are just not that comfortable around other people, especially strangers who are simulating a familiarity that is not built upon an actual history of interpersonal interaction. Apparently Cho was like this about 99% of the time. Many other people should be able to identify with this as well. For me, I would say that I am in a fairly antisocial mood, or mode of being, about 35% of the time. And I know a lot of people who are the same way. I will never feel guilty for that, though, and it is absurd for anyone to feel guilty about it.

Was Cho shy? Yes. Many people can admit being shy. But why do so many people feel like that is a dirty thing to admit, something to be overcome or grown out of ? Maybe Cho should have drank more. After all, alcohol is a great social lubricant. Furthermore, drunkenness is a great leveler. Perhaps he wouldn’t have felt so alienated had he felt drunkenly bonded with others once every couple of weeks. But that euphoria fades away, and sometimes you just have to admit that you really don’t have that much in common with someone you had a merry, drunken time with. Which leads me to one piece of the puzzle. Apparently, one of Cho’s primary motivations was that he felt resentful of the prevailing “moral laxity he found among what he considered the more privileged students on campus.” (Fern, Sant 4/18/07) This is a tip of an iceberg of something meaningful going on. When’s the last time you ever heard about class warfare in the United States? This is allegedly the land of opportunity, but how often do you hear about lower-class resentment toward the upper-middle and upper-class? Cho seemed to be disturbed by some kind of moral flexibility combined with hedonism reflected by the lifestyles of some of his fellow students. Whether or not that hedonism exists does nothing to excuse the rampage, but the fact that the media would rather just marginalize and ostracize Cho from the collective “us” rather than examine just what it was that pissed him off and that he felt so alienated and aloof from is a disturbing development. My guess is that the national mainstream media is not interested in making rich people feel guilty about being rich when so many others are poor. That would lead them to actually think about the great gap between them and the poor, the immense separation of lifestyles and daily realities. And isn’t the American Dream supposedly that we will all become one of those successful people one day in the future? If Cho would have explained himself more, perhaps we could have a more meaningful debate about class, self-indulgence, and decadence. It is worth looking into. The main thrust of my ranting is caution that we do not draw the wrong conclusions from this tragedy. It is appropriate to look for warning signs in the hope of preventing future tragedies, but we must not think we’ve stumbled upon a smoking gun if all we can derive is that the gunman was a

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strange and conspicuous loner. The truth is that there are a lot of strange people and a lot of “loners” out there. Are we to consider them all potentially threatening? Are they all time-bombs worthy of only our suspicion and wariness? Are we entitled to change them, to force them to be more sociable to assuage our comfort levels? I would reject those solutions adamantly. Perhaps my formula would work out something like this. Loners = neither good or bad, although they make some people uncomfortable Bloodthirsty asshole loners who harm others = bad So how do we know which ones are the bloodthirsty asshole loners who might one day hurt us? The bottom line is that we can’t really know. We can only try to pay attention to meaningful evidence. For example, a childhood history of torturing animals. Cho himself did give signs with a few brushes with the law for “stalking”, but especially with his writings. I grant that those writings were enough to make people severely uncomfortable, but I don’t know if they were enough to justify locking him up. Assuming that Cho was going to explode eventually in a way harmful to others, the only thing that would have kept “us” safe is to confine him and wall him off physically from the rest of society. But I don’t want to live in a society that would deprive its own members of liberty based upon vague feelings of discomfort or hunches about whether any antisocial individual might be capable of actually harming others. I don’t think any of us would really want to live in a society like that, for our everyday behavior would be on trial. We would no longer be permitted to have moods! Just imagine if on one of your bad days, you were to be judged by a jury of your peers (who were having a great day, in great moods) for the crime of being a BUZZKILL. Nobody likes a “buzzkill.” Buzzkills are potential threats to a good time for everybody else who wants to have a good time. But we are all potentially buzzkills on our worst days… Just to remind you, in this hypothetical situation, the jury is not only fully justified in punishing or banishing the buzzkill for actual harm to others such as violence or even stalking, the jury is capable of punishing the buzzkill just for being potentially capable of making others uncomfortable. Cho did make others uncomfortable before his rampage. But he had a right to be himself. We all have the right to be ourselves as long as we are not harming others or expressing ourselves in a way the law disapproves of. The solution is not to expand the law in order to more

fully protect all of our comfort levels at all times, nor should that be thought of as an appropriate goal. Even if it were, it is unattainable and unrealistic. You can’t please everybody all of the time. Sometimes people who do bad things have certain descriptive characteristics that we view simplistically as things to watch out for in the future to prevent future bad things from happening. When is the last time you saw someone with a Hitler mustache? Adolf ruined an entire facial hairstyle. No one in their right mind would dream of cultivating a Hitler ‘stache in today’s world unless they were willing to accept the stigma that comes along with it. How uncomfortable are we now with black leather trench coats, years after the Columbine tragedy? Those jackets still remain in somewhat bad taste after those two assholes shot up their school. I write this essay hoping that we do not draw the wrong conclusions from the worst mass murder spree in American history. Cho will forever remain an asshole in my book for his thinking that he was justified in taking the lives of so many others just because he was feeling miserable. But he was not an asshole just for being a weird loner. I hope that no one will ever equate being a

weird loner as an associative “trigger” for being a threat to others, being a time-bomb that will inevitably explode. I maintain that it is okay for individuals to be antisocial. That it is not a crime, that it should never be seen as a Hitler mustache. I piss on Cho Seung-Hui’s grave for his bloodthirsty and selfish rampage, but I defend his and every individual’s right to be a “loner.” Sources: http://www.cnn.com/video/player/ player.html?url=/video/us/2007/04/17/ tuchman.cho.roommates.cnn “ C h o ’s Ro o m m a t e s S p e a k : C N N ’s Gary Tuchman Talks with Two Former Roommates of Virginia Tech Shooter Cho Seung-Hui.” (April 17, video clip) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage. html?res=9A0CEEDB1E3FF93BA25757 C0A9619C8B63&sec=health&spon=&pa gewanted=all Fernandez, Manny and Marc Santora [New York Times]. “Massacre in Virginia; In Words and Silence, Hints of Anger and Isolation.” Published: April 18, 2007.

The Flip Side | May 2nd - May 15th, 2007

Lollapalooza: Phil Kolas

...The Final Wave.

Illustration: Ryan Carpentier

Undergraduate / Philosophy The secret to life is knowing exactly what it is you want, and going through anything to get it. Certain limits are to be followed, obviously, but for the most part, suffering makes a goal all the sweeter. We would’ve sat through the voluntary flagellation of a religious messiah for three hours, with a pair of kicks to our shins and knees as cherries on top, and it still would’ve all been worth it. Matisyahu was entertaining enough, an interesting mental challenge, to be sure. But in order for front view of who followed him, I would’ve sat through anything. Any prologue was inconsequential. In the order of your life and death, you realize that some things become inextricably linked to your very selfsurvival. Perhaps not at a time when you would admit it, but at a moments notice you might find yourself seized with the sudden urge to promise your life to something that, in a more sober state, would be insanity. Communicating this to weaker members of the human race is near impossible. You either know what I’m talking about or you don’t. You wait for a thing to fill you with the idea that you might be a part of the endall of everything you’ve ever understood, simply because you can’t imagine anything better. You know its coming. It makes no difference to you. Why would this feeling rise from something as mundane as Lollapalooza? Because it doesn’t matter the venue. It doesn’t matter the when or where of how you found it. You’re attaching to something greater than yourself. If you know something is going to last forever, then the more you’ve contributed to it, the farther YOU have lasted forever. It’s the infinite flow of solid time, and you mount it to your greatest ability. Queens of the Stone Age has become the one thing I was afraid I’d never have the impossible luck to be apart of in my whole short life: Some band of noise that would reverb through the dark echoes of time that came from MY time. I didn’t think anything I had ever heard before I first found them would or could ascend to the heights they have. I heard something, created by people who represent me, that will never be replaced or improved on. Better musicians may come again. Better lyrics. Better singer. Better anything. But this fingerprint has stained. Nothing will remove it. A new peak that will never quite be climbed again has been tread, and I was there for it. I care little whether you agree. You scream “Shit!” and call me foul for ignoring

who or whatever band it is that gives you that feeling. The point is that you KNOW the feeling. If God-Jesus-Lord himself appeared to me in The Spacesuit of TimeTravel and told me no one would remember Queens of the Stone Age a day after I died, I would call him a liar to his face and fart down-wind towards him. The power to change the very facts of history, THAT is the feeling I’m talking about. We’ll worry later about whatever that reveals about me: A psychosis break from reality due to improper potty training? You get to work on that. I’ll check in and find out The Why after my legs are broken from exhaustion, thank you. For an hour they played. I can’t remember what songs they played, but that always happens anyway with everyone. We were a queasing sea, probably looking like it was about to collapse in on itself at a moments notice from their viewpoint. Leans and bodies and no one with a weak constitution would survive. Trampling was a constant threat, as was raining bodies of crowd surfing from above. My spine was collapsed about 3 times from big fuckers who thought 220 pounds was light enough to try and ass-bump across a field of roving skulls. We were constantly moving out the wounded and fainted, since they could no longer defend themselves after the heat stroke got to them. Private space is an impossible concept, unless you want to try to push elbows out for more breathing room, in which case retribution will be swift and from all directions, and in a thousand pounds of pressure that no one could stop.

You’ll immediately become the enemy of every person there, as causal effect makes them feel ANY incorrect variation of space, and the strange inverted ripple from 30,000 people that comes back to you will most likely crush your arms to pieces against themselves. No place for children, which is exactly what no less than 50% of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ fans consisted of. Not my problem, unless said band was following QOTSA. Using the rule of patience through whoever precedes the band you’re waiting for, what happens when you’re 14 years old and the band prior has a penchant for attracting much, much larger men? You’re left with nothing to do but stand ground the best you can. I saw this, multiple times. Even big brothers trying to cover their youngers. You try to help, but you know it’s beyond a lost cause. You know these kids had been waiting all weekend and probably longer just to see their favorite White-Boy funk-rock quartet, only to collapse from heat stroke a mere hour short of everything, without bruises if they were lucky. It’s wrong, and the equivalent of shitting in someone’s ears in the middle of the night while they’re fantasizing about all their dreams appearing at their fingertips. A little forethought on the part of the organizers would have been prudent, but I doubt they’ll be losing much sleep on the nightmares that their beyond fuckedup schedule will be leaving hundreds of minors with in the ensuing years. Now at 3/4th of the way through the Red Hot Chili Peppers show. I’m still front

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row. I realize something, very important. In highly stressful situations, certain bodily functions are temporarily ceased. In laymen’s terms, pure excitement keeps your mind off your natural voiding process, until you receive clear signal that no more time can be spared. I needed facilities immediately. I entreated one of my fellow concertgoers to put me on the Upper-Flight Pass Express, where I swam on heads until I could fall out past the steel pens. A bouncer pointed me towards the exit. It was a clear swath back from the stage until I reached the soundboard, where I was instructed that I’ll have to march in the opposite direction of 70,000 people all wanting to be at the front as bad as I once had. Imagine being covered in 5 ½ hours of warm bottled water, your sweat, and the sweat of a thousand strangers, soaking every stuck-close hair on your body, contracting sphincter muscles against action that is delivering solids kept strongly

out of whack for over the past 80 hours, all while you’re marching in quick step against an angrier 6 dozen thousand people pushing in the direction you’re not going. Making it just in time, I let everything fly before concerning myself with the fact that there was no toilet paper. One thing at a time, lord. Emerging with the ability to speak in complete sentences again, I doubted these stalls had anything resembling bathroom tissue in them since 4 p.m. Friday afternoon. I didn’t bother myself asking around. A short while later, it was all over. I found Bishara and he told me how he most likely threw about 2 dozen children to their vertical doom at the hands of strangers. Good for him. I regaled my scatological near-death. We made it back to the car in relative silence. On our way out of the garage we noticed how disgustingly low on fuel we were. I was struck by visions of running empty alone in deep Chicago

with shit-sweat smelling pants and no one who’d miss us soon enough to find our bodies before they bled to death. Nothing was left of us, except just enough to get back and tell the tale, if we were lucky. I don’t know if it was the feeling I originally set out looking for, but I know I’d found something. I was left with the distinct impression that I had performed something perfectly. Some tight rope had been crossed that I didn’t even know I was on until I’d found wide ground again to contrast it all with. Short of actual war combat, there’s not often in normal life that one feels like a wrong turn would’ve ended in death or, worse, some sort of jabbering paralysis. There are only two places I can think of getting the feeling: Vicariously, through a Hunter S. Thompson book, or with a straight blast into the pupil and a hypodermic through the eardrum like a rock concert can be. At least as long as you do it right.

How Lovely This Life Seemed When Being Fucked Up Was Making One the Same as Every One Else. Jeremy Miller

Undergraduate / Philosophy And the masts of the glass-bottom motorboats appeared through the sky high above (all a purple Fanta vomit and green) carrying off the dead to store in the black caverns of hell—where all the aborted young go so sadly and the girl lay there on the dusty blue grass and smiled up so frightfully at the glass-bottom motorboats with aborted fetuses all bloody and such the sun hitting the unformed bones casting unborn bone eclipses on her face which suddenly shook as the twitch of a fetus arm seemed all but a pleasant wave as men tend to do in silent films to bid adieu. So like those bones aglow the girl’s hatred glistened and shone like soft light out of focus and all murky and untrue, unattended and rife with possibilities. Rage sputtered and the dream quite ended unexpectedly to find the black boy next to her and she screamed with pain knowing that his skin was no longer gone and it was such a chore in the other life to take off. Mother hated him so very much like the mating of beasts it was unspoken, detestable, and revocable. As the ambient noise kicked into her mind and the world was once again comfortably unclear the scent of formaldehyde left her mind and back at the airport to care for the lady screaming bitch I need my peanuts for that is always what the bitch herself desires—to get legumes all smashed bloody in her face mangling lips and tongues and broken teeth because she detested the taste of milk. Could it not be said the black lover

had something to do for this inspiring racism and hate in the mind of all who fell near her one would ask but the girl did not know rightfully not to me for she hated him so very much—No!, there would be none too clear a night as last night when she knew the baby would leave her body and float away in the masted glass-bottom motorboats and there being no need for the midwife. All is left unsaid as the scalpel carves a new hole in the way beside her bed while she pretends to rest as most young children do (if you cannot remember count the marks for I and her swear they will be there) and the creaking from the next room blazes on as a new baby brother is made mixed with the holes and holes where cheap wood once stood giving release to the girl that wished her brain was made of wood and so easily chipable and craftable and shapable and fair like a gazebo in the trenches of a war ten million years dead. What can be said for poor her is only that the black man now lay beside her bed all skinless and to her sad realization he was always the same as she half-down knew it would be and the fetus in the tub being the like or same. What a lovely nose and lovely feet and lovely face that would have been in the church member’s photo album she had bounced the check to make a family ornament upon the shelf where her porcelain figurines tread so lightly as she finally sleeps as they had since she was

quite young. The sound all perfectly ambient now and the mind scattering like broken glass into the faces of blind men as the K appeared in full fruition and the trees once again began to cease and winter came and showed her breath and proved that she was still living and what a sound it did make as the masts appeared once again and the babies cried this time half alive and how she shot them down so well the glass shattering and falling to her face and babies gliding so gracefully through the sky as she once did as a ballerina so pretty and pure and kind. And all was dead and all was fair beside for her and it came to question why she could not be too for the dead only accept the dead and it was a question why she was not one too. Bitch come on and get your peanuts the call calls again and cough coughing all the way to the seat she in her mind murders all and the plane crashes gracefully like a popular film and all cheer and shout and say how inspiring the story must be for though it made little sense to most a few felt it deep within them. A few it may have been but they were all babies shot down and laying in the glass next to the plane wreckage and her so silent and kind and pretty and pure staring at the murky Fanta purple vomit green sky that delivered only what she always wished for. What a lovely sound it all seemed.

The Flip Side | May 2nd - May 15th, 2007

Interview with a Blugold John Radcliffe

Undergraduate / Political Science Jon Radcliffe: Chip, I call you Chip, I assume? Chip: No problem, my name is Chip E. Wa, but you can call me Chip. JR: So, the burning question that seems to come to mind is why now? I mean this university has gone without a mascot for quite some time? What makes now different than before? Chip: First, I was formed out of the brilliance of the Sun and the purity of the Chippewa River. More specifically, 90 years ago there was an unusual solar explosion that launched a molecular “Sun Stone” at planet Earth. It was so hot when it landed in the Chippewa River that it fused the dirt into stone, creating Putnam Rock. So this Sun Stone was actually my egg and got swept away by the Chippewa River, through the St. Croix, down the Mississippi and out the Gulf of Mexico. It’s been at sea traveling the planet for over 90 years and that is why we haven’t had a mascot. Just now I am finding my way home. I must explain one of my mythological powers. I can cast an image of myself, which is what you are seeing now, both spatially and temporally. Essentially I can place myself in the past or the future at any place, but only within a certain distance from my egg’s current location. So I am assuming that next fall I will actually be at Eau Claire. JR: Oh, so this is just to prepare the university for when you actually come next fall? Chip: Yes, but more important is this energy, this buzz, that I get from the people here. They have been saying that they want school spirit. So now I am being summoned like the Candyman. You know you have to say his name two times and he is summoned. [Actually, three times – ED] JR: But you are a good version? Chip: But a great version! Like a positive affluent creature. Not one who is going to tear you up. So, I have been summoned here because the people here on campus are getting very antsy because they don’t have enough. They want leadership and something to identify with. I mean Blugold for the past ninety years has been meaningless so it’s not surprising that people are antsy. So that is why I am here. JR: So what do you think of this University community so far?

Chip: I think they are great. They are great people, just warm and friendly, but I see them as somewhat empty. Just like empty shells walking around. The do their routine, you know, enjoy themselves on a Friday afternoon, but really they are looking for meaning, a specific purpose to being here, so I hope that I can fill that for them. I want them to all believe that we are Blugold and are in this together. They are warm and friendly people, but I wish they would reach out more. I see so much potential. I see these people selling out at an early age, you know, drinking and getting depressed. They do things they don’t want to do and have much faith in. I don’t think you can force a person to change, but I believe you can change yourself and lead by example. What I really want is to stick out. I want to help create an atmosphere where acting out is acting in. Where people make decisions, not to conform, but because they feel it is the right thing to do. I don’t see people thinking for themselves, and only doing things in the safe and secure way. I want to encourage people to find the courage in themselves to do something they feel powerful about. That is what a Blugold can do. JR: Ok. Well it seems you have made an impact already with the high-five Mondays. You change it up every so often with this other student on campus, I believe his name is Casey yes? Chip: Yes, it’s Casey JR: So first question is how do you like your current occupation, this free highfive gig? Chip: It is going fantastic, but any business that is handing out free stuff would be doing fantastic. This is really me trying to get my name out there, you know, a little free advertising for old Chip, and maybe I could be hired later on as an authorized mascot. This is just warming people up and I am enjoying it, and would love to keep doing it, but if I am not authorized soon I may have to leave because, you know, a guy has got to eat. I am sure there is a market out there for Blugold mascots, so I might check out Stout and La Crosse and see if they need some help. And this guy Casey, he is the copy cat artist. JR: Actually that was my next question. How is your occupational relationship with this Casey fellow? Chip: Well, give him and inch and he will take a freaking mile. We agree I need some

time off, and he is a helpful guy that wants to be there. So he was just supposed to stand there on Monday mornings once in a while, but let’s just say it has gone to his head. Casey, just stay at the bottom of the hill, but no, he has to go running around the entire campus. He is really stealing the spotlight. I am sure he makes people laugh, but back off buddy, ok? JR: I am sure it makes getting employment a bit more difficult, without that name recognition. Chip: Maybe I need a trademark or something, but actually it has created my biggest pet peeve. People somehow got the idea that I am Casey in a costume. So they are always walking by and calling me Casey. Hi Casey! Great costume! That really gets me going and it kind of hurts. I really wish people would just call. JR: How do students react when they first meet you? Chip: You know, I see Casey walking around with this high-five board and everyone loves it. I think they connect because he is a human being, while I am a Blugold. I really feel invisible at times. He walks around as a center of gravity because he is a person doing something outlandish, but when a Blugold does something outlandish I really think it is the best way to disappear. You may think digging a twelve foot hole in the ground and burying yourself would be the best way, but no. Try walking around as a Blugold for a day and people will just shun you, keep their eyes to the ground. But I really think that they are just nervous. The high-five board helps out to break the ice. The students, I have found, have a difficult time picking up on this. It really is momentum. It starts with an eerie smile, then the high-five, and by now I put my hand up and people understand it’s the high-five. It is also nice that people don’t stop and ask me what I am anymore. You know, I am not a pumpkin and I am not an asparagus. I will give you two more guesses. Seriously, when people ask me who I am I don’t really get it. JR: You are definitely blue and gold. Chip: Yeah, but the students have had a hard time picking up on it. Most of the rest of the people absolutely love it. They admire my beauty. Some do think that Casey made this costume or something, but this is my body, so they are just admiring my sheer splendor. I don’t mean to be boastful, but

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when you are trying to get hired you have to be honest. Oh and children love me. [Random Student walks by]: Hey you make my Mondays by the way! Chip: Great! What’s your name, and where are you from? Student: Danny, from Horan, but I spend most of my time in Governors. Chip: Is it because there are girls in Governors? By the way, high-five! JR: Very popular I see. So has there been any animosity, or is there just general acceptance? Chip: Well, like I said children love me. They make me feel like I have a future in this community. As far as the animosity goes, not really too much. They just sort of ignore me. I am not sure if that is animosity. I don’t try and solicit myself in desperation. I just want people to accept me. So they had this chancellor’s round table where they discussed a mascot. So I went just to be cordial and see what the input was, but they didn’t go for it so much. They are stuck on this idea of a Blugold spirit as the mascot, but then I don’t know why

By: Jen Lind

Me Tarzan. You God. . Is faith in our genes? Is religion just a base need, written into the human design, unavoidable except for those who recognize and resist it? Are atheists more enlightened than the God-fearing masses? “I’m willing to believe they’re smarter and more knowledgeable about reality than clubwielding hunter-gatherers, or the members of the Christian Coalition,” says Morton Hunt, author of The Biological Roots of Religion. “But can I suppose they’re more intelligent than such profoundly religious believers as Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Newton, William James, or even Einstein? Or, for that matter, the majority of today’s American scientists,

it’s not the Eau Claire spirits. For identity, you know, but I feel it is a copout to make something that has no being. I mean we are the hydrogen gas guys. We are empty space. You can’t see us. It is hard to rally around and identify with something you can’t see. They also thought it should be a menagerie of different objects; an elephant one year and a stick the next. I think they were just saying this cause I was there. All that I want is for them to show me something better and I will leave. The administration seems to be having a hard time understanding that only they have faith in the Blugold spirit. The students see it as a joke. I mean there is a Facebook group called “What the hell is a Blugold?” with nearly 2000 members. In the past people have tried the traditional route to get a mascot but that never worked so for my job campaign I want to make it grass roots and organize people. Serve their needs and you will be rewarded, and it’s working miraculously. JR: So you said something about the administration not accepting you. Chip: Yes, they invite everyone to this roundtable and when someone proposes an idea they don’t take action. The people who, according to surveys, profess some kind of religious belief ?” Nearly all human beings in every known culture believe in some sort of God or gods, accompanied by customs, doctrines and institutions. Sociobiology, a branch of human behavioral science popularized in 1975 by Edward O. Wilson of Harvard University, asks the question: Why do humans need religion? “We may view religion, parallel to language ... as a long-lived hybrid between cultural and the biological traditions,” says Professor Walter Burkert of the University of Zurich. “We have biological tendencies and capacities that cause us to need, learn, value, and practice religion - not any specific religion, of course, but any one of the thousands of religions that, despite the vast differences among them, all tend to fulfill similar needed functions for individuals and, just as important, for the society they live in.” One of the primary needs met by religion, sociobiologists say, is the explanation of the world’s many mystifying phenomena. “Primitive humans developed a sense of awe at the wonders they could now think about – birth, the return of life in spring, the rainbow – and with that sense of awe came a need to explain those wonders,” Hunt says. “Religion…except for fundamentalism…has minimized explaining in supernatural terms whatever

in the positions love it, but their positions make them timid. I think they feel that if they are told we need a mascot in a couple months we can get to work on it, but right now I can’t do much about it cause me hands are tied. The faculty and staff love it though. JR: Do you have any short term goals? Chip: I have been working on this puzzle that is all blue that I can’t figure out; just kidding. Getting my own university email so I can officially contact people and I could create my own Facebook profile. These would make me feel like I am being accepted. JR: Last question, what if your favorite curse word? Chip: Well I don’t have a favorite curse work but I do have a least favorite one. This is the most abominable word in the English language. It starts with c and end with nt. It is derogatory and limits people. People really don’t think when they say it, but it is truly disgusting. C-a-n-t, I will say it once, can’t. Who says that word!?! You haven’t tried so give it a chance before you write it off. can be better explained in natural ones and focused instead on phenomena that cannot be tested or disproved, such as God’s mercy, the existence of soul, and the afterlife,” Hunt says. In this way, religion acts as a kind of rationalization to account for all that we cannot understand. Human beings also need a method of accounting for the joys of “health returning after sickness, hardships survived, crops harvested, problems solved, wrongs righted, and the aesthetic pleasure yielded by the many beauties of the world around them.” Religion thus meets the human need to understand and control life. “Religion serves the same purposes as science and the arts – the extraction of order from the mysteries of the material world,” says Wilson. Another major function of religion is to serve as a unifying social force. “Religion is...empowered mightily by its principal ally, tribalism,” Hunt says. “The shamans and priests implore us in somber cadence, Trust in the sacred rituals, become part of the immortal force, you are one of us.” Religion thus helped meet the need of human beings to live together, a need that is biologically based – we require social life to thrive emotionally and physically. Source: The Biological Roots of Religion, by Morton Hunt.

The Flip Side | May 2nd - May 15th, 2007

At A Glance: RIAA Lawsuits Caitlin Heidbrink

Undergraduate / Journalism Amidst all the chatter, legal action, and commotion surrounding the Recording Industry of America Association’s crackdown on illegal file sharing, there are a lot of facts to be considered. Two individuals within the university system are spotlighted as we delve into the inner workings of the recent music downloading dramas. According to Jodi Thesing-Ritter, the campus conduct officer, there are two processes that students have gone through once the RIAA has detected activity that they consider illegal. First, the copyright officer receives the notice with a specific IP address of a student’s computer. The IP address is then passed on and matched to that computer and the student is notified. This notification is required and asks the individual to remove the song and the program they obtained it from. If this happens, then the case is closed. The second process has attracted the bulk of the media attention. Thus far, letters from lawyers of the recording industry have reached 22 students. Unlike UW- Madison, Eau Claire does not have a subpoena yet, therefore they have not released any names to the RIAA. However, students were contacted by the university, informing them that they had been detected as having an illegal downloading device on their computer. In addition, an e-mail was sent university- wide warning students that the RIAA was on their tails. Students met with Thesing-Ritter to verify the IP address was in fact theirs and to contact ResComm to have any illegal programs or songs removed from their computer. In addition, these students met with Harry Hertel, the campus attorney, for legal assistance. Many students chose to

settle, as this is a much easier and cheaper way to end the process. Thesing-Ritter expressed her concern in the matter. “I care a lot about the students and it’s frustrating to see this happening. I want to do more to educate the students so they know what the consequences are,” she says. Information is now being given to new students upon orientation, as well as information on the ResComm website, posters, wing meetings, and other interactive mediums on campus. Thesing-Ritter hopes this will prevent such an ordeal from occurring in the future. To compensate for the removal of other file sharing devices, there is a music downloading program, Ruckus, available to all students. This can be found on the Student Senate website. Also, www. campusdownloading.com has a video that illustrates the experience of students who have been legally targeted. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has become a bit of an issue among those involved. Both Thesing-Ritter and chief information officer, Chip Eckardt, feel the Act is inefficient. “The act needs to be revised,” Eckardt expresses. “I wish there was a better way to grab the people’s attention besides threatening them with legal action and going after thousands of dollars in fines. There is a difference of opinion between a number of recording artists and record companies. Somehow we have to make this work so artists get the exposure they are looking for and everyone is compensated for their work. I wish I had the answer, but I don’t.” The system involving this act is seen

as confusing. Specifically, there are students who may be accused of illegally downloading music when in fact they haven’t. But because it is so expensive to take it through the court system and fight to prove their case, they are forced to settle regardless. While both Eckardt and Thesing-Ritter are against the illegal downloading of music, they both hope that additional efforts and revisions can be made to make this process less expensive, stressful and confusing for students. Naturally, these incidents have frustrated a great number of students, even for those who are not being penalized for their file sharing. Sophomore Mitch Hustad speaks for many when he says the RIAA shouldn’t be targeting college students. “I think that illegal things always happen and they are uncontrollable,” he says. Some feel that there are bigger battles to be fought, both on campus and in the community, and that tracking down IP addresses on university computers will do more harm than good. Hate it or love it, the urge to increase awareness regarding these relatively new legal troubles is a necessity. The repercussions of peer-to-peer file sharing networks have become all too real for a host of students at UW-Eau Claire.

one ounce of pity in his eyes. And yet, years before, he may have loved me in a way that I could not comprehend. I was not the kind of man that read those sorts of signs. I simply chose not to. He shared with my first lover a flickering madness in the eyes. Perhaps they loved and hated the same thing in me. He held my soul before me as a hypnotist might swing a charm back and forth in front my eyes. My fortunes slipped as his soared. At 26 he was a major. I was busted to private three times and then discharged.

He seemed to keep in contact only to take pleasure in my misfortune, coming in to haunt me in whatever dive I chose to linger. This was the last time he would see me, for he was off to a command school in a great city. He chose to taunt me one last time. He knew the only way to make the pain real was to give me a last chance and watch me lose it. He knew it was my curse to wander the neighborhood always looking for that small deal that would keep me alive. Perhaps it was only the memory of distant

References: Jodi Thesing-Ritter, campus conduct officer. Chip Eckardt, chief information officer. www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

Grace

Philip Kaveny

Undergraduate / Religious Studies As I stared across the chess board into his dark, seductive, and sardonic eyes, I tried to recall how it was that he came to hold my soul in his hands. The flame from the lamp cast long shadows across the board and I remembered. In a drunken bet we had tried to show our youthful contempt for it all by playing chess for souls. It was simple, literal, and brutal. If we valued nothing then let’s collect souls. He had won mine some years before and I wanted it back. He was like a rapier, spring steel in his hands and arms and not

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nobility that kept me alive. If his hands and arms were spring steel, then mine were wet clay. He moved with easy grace and I with the leaden feet of a man slogging through a nightmare. And then he said “Fat man, you move first and we will play chess for your soul.” The light flickered and rose again. As fat from the lamp popped and exploded in the flame, the table seemed to move. I saw that his own terrible flame burned in his eyes. I, who worshiped no gods, was sure he would take my soul back to hell with him. If he was fire, what chance did I have? Love and youth flashed back into my mind. Drunken laughter, wenches we had stolen; all of the places we had fought our way out of merged into a heavy image of this place we were in now. I remembered how we had boxed to exhaustion. But then I speculated on the eternal void after death. “Philip,” he said, “I bet you cannot drink this long yard in a draft.” “William,” I said, “Two for your one.” Now we were back in the present and

he would drag me into hell. I had never seen him relent when we had taunted the weakness in others that we hated in ourselves. We were young and cruel, and I was to be humbled far more by failure than he would ever know. Lost ventures, failed investment and broken dreams and imaginary castles were swept away along with my illusions of redemption. I had become that which we hated; what we gave no quarter to be I had become. I was to carry this burden heavily for years as I stumbled in the void. ”Your move fat man.” The lamp crackled, the fire popped and I moved my king’s pawn two squares. He had a burn scar on his right hand. It was old and red and ugly. I had the same on my right. We had twice twisted arms with lamps on each side. He stood the burning smell of his own flesh. I could not and released him. He did not release me until I screamed in pain. And yet in a drunken moment had I held this large man’s hand as we reveled down the street. I had his woman once and he seemed to enjoy in it.

He moved the black Queen’s Bishop Pawn Two in a defense hundreds of years old. “The Sicilian Defense and the last chance for your soul, fat man, its mine and I shall have it forever. We play for it this one the last time.” He was fire and spring steel for me to answer only once. Our eyes met. I held his gaze and saw only blackness in his soul. His god was fire, but mine had become ice. It was over in 11 moves. No chance for him, no mistakes by me. We did not play chess. I simply killed his king on Bishop’s Three. I was free and he was empty. I had my soul back and never played for it again. He went to the city and became famous. I stayed and did not. “I once loved you fat man,” he said, as he left. I thought only of the size and strength of the hand of this man whose hand I once held in mine, a man I once called friend.

Eye of the Storm Tim Faiella

Community Member When will the shit-storm end? We’re halfway to hell in a Hummer and nobody seems to care. The news reads like the script to an obnoxiously ridiculous apocalyptic horror movie. American society is devolving at an alarming rate. We’re socialized by action heroes and Hollywood assholes, so I guess it isn’t surprising that we live in the most violent nation in the history of the world. Newscasters pump glorified carnage into our living rooms for hours every night, and then point the finger at Marilyn Manson and Quentin Tarantino. Their art is a reflection of the American experience, not the root of the problem. Pointing the finger is a juvenile distraction tactic. Unfortunately, some of us have matured enough to develop object permanence. We’re mired in a war intended to maintain the current international order. We’re top dog, and the only way to maintain the mirage is to lash out in every direction. When will it end? It seems the political class has finally heard the silenced pleas of the overwhelming majority. Everyone except Bush and his inner circle has accepted that our presence in Iraq makes that country less safe for everyone. We’re taught that it’s the bravest soldiers

that undertake the most dangerous missions, but it’s a lie. The country’s poor bear the brunt of our military ambitions, accepting the one job offer that will allow them to travel to distant paradises, if only to obliterate whatever lay thousands of feet below, comfortably out of sight. The military grunts have more in common with the people they massacre than their own commanding officers. We veil our military adventures in myths of humanitarian salvation, the inevitable victory of democracy, and other patriotic rhetoric. There is never mention of industry. We are trying to pry our way into a market that has been impenetrable, and we’re willing to sacrifice as many of our own poor as that end demands. It seems military force is only prudent where there are resources to exploit and markets to be opened. The government manufactures consent while corporate advertising manufactures a demand for useless products. The economy is crumbling, and people aren’t making enough money, but nobody cares a whole lot about that. Bush jumps on stage, smiles and prances around like a drunken moron, lying through his teeth the entire time. It’s somehow uncouth to

question the president. Accountability has fallen prey to devolution. The Oval Office is newly equipped with carte blanche, otherwise known as the ability to do whatever the fuck you want. The war machine is a profitable beast. The defense industr y is one of the few sectors of the American economy that is booming. Most major American corporations collect considerable revenues from military contracts, and many also claim media ownership. These firms can conjure public opinion to legitimate live-action weapons testing. Our media culture removes context from news coverage, instigating a mob mentality, based on a fearful brand of patriotism and rampant xenophobia. The Bush administration manipulated public opinion by creating illusory networks of nefarious characters, all toting weapons of mass destruction, intent on punishing Americans because of our freedom and hedonistic indulgences. The media published these claims as fact, again proving that objectivity breeds superficiality. The shepherd will never tell the flock that she is lost, and by relying on official sources, the media allow the government to control every debate.

The Flip Side | May 2nd - May 15th, 2007

We never hear about the history of US intervention in the Middle East. We never hear that we’re chasing CIA apprentices. We never hear about the economic sanctions that sounded the death knell for the socially vulnerable. Nobody reports on the astronomical profits a select few American companies are enjoying while soldiers and civilians suffer alike, unnoticed in the streets. We want more consumers…We need more resources. The mantras of carnivorous corporate enterprises have become synonymous with mainstream news content. There are lots of complex things happening in the world… only we can understand the true nature

of these things…we’re doing what we can to restore peace and democracy…go buy yourself something nice, we’ll let you know when we decide what’s best. Issues are polarized. Everything is simplified to us vs. them, each side represented by some celebrity personality and confined to a thirty second sound bite. Sometimes the best solutions aren’t offered by the major parties. The real problem is that most of us don’t even notice what’s going on. We’re more intrigued by sitcom melodrama than the political decisions that will affect us personally and intimately. Reality is a production with a limited budget. Journalists aren’t paid to investigate.

They make just enough to function as the mouthpiece of anyone with a bigger slice of the pie. They grease the wheels and weasel their way into elitist clubs and secret backroom hedonism. We’re turning into a species of oblivious cybernetic organisms. We’re more concerned with our camera phones and iPods than we are with friends and family. Most people my age would sell their children into slavery to buy a Playstation 3. Complacency has gone pandemic. Anna Nicole Smith is a hotter news item than corruption at the highest levels of government. People are more concerned with tabloid fodder than their own lives.

Cosplay or No Play Kristoffer Martin

Undergraduate / Creative Writing Over this last weekend [April 21, 22, 23] I participated in the sixth annual No Brand Con, Anime Convention, which is hosted, in part by, the UWEC Anime Association. No Brand Con hosts several venders of anime goods, swords, costumes, and food. The most prized items ranging from huge Pocky stocks to Anime series and more, especially gaming paraphernalia. One vender, who goes by Sam, sells high-end cosplay costumes and even has her own website (www.beanime. com). Her on-demand store can be commissioned in the crafting of any costume. Chris, her right hand man, endeavors in the crafting of LARP standard weapons, which are used for the most note worthy Foam Wars. A series of tournaments where contestants (in costume or not) can test their skills of battle against one another in mock, and to a degree, safe play. At request, and by accidental stumbling, I ended up participating in the Cosplay Contest.

Dressed as Jack Sparrow, and after being bedazzled by too many camera flashes to care to remember, I stumbled onto (with

a bottle of rum) and then off, of stage, to the cries and jeers of the filled room. Though I didn’t win any of the awards, which most certainly went to better costumed, and far more practiced actors than I, I did enjoy the process. The Convention also hosts several guest speakers; which included voice actor Tiffany Grant (from such Anime as Evangelion, Golden Boy, Full Metal Alchemist, and Laughing Boy), Kyle Hebert (who did voices in Dragon Ball Z, Bleach, and Naruto) and Spike Spencer (Mar, Evangelion, and Nadesico). Other events included a Dance Dance Revolution Tournament in the Video Game Room, several different showings of anime series, art contests, fan panels, and the Gaming Room, which housed games like D&D, Apples to Apples, and so on. If you have a chance, next year, get out, dress up, and join the fun. And stay up to date with all the action on the No Brand Con website (nobrandcon. com) and join the forums.

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In Defense of Revolutionary Socialism Ryan Milbrath

Undergraduate / Social Studies In today’s society the very mention of the word socialism sparks misconceptions and false definitions. Conservative and liberal politicians attack the United States welfare system as socialistic. They paint a clear picture that socialism represents a welfare state. Furthermore, a majority accepts the view of the Soviet Union under Stalin and People’s Republic of China under Mao as representing socialistic/ communist socialism. Neither of these views defines socialism because neither of these examples represents the criteria established by socialist theorists like Karl Marx or Frederick Engels. K arl Marx and Frederick Engels elaborate on the definition of socialism in the works The Communist Manifesto and Capital. Marx concludes in Capital that a class of business owners produces money from money, otherwise known as capital. Since society operates from production of commodities, whether those commodities include lipstick or housing, production becomes the source of wealth. Marx examined how a business owner who sells a commodity can make more money than it cost to produce the commodity; in short, make money from money. He goes on to explain that the commodity obtains a surplus value, a value that surpasses both the value of the resources and labor-power required to produce the product. Marx attributes the creation of the “surplus value” to both the capitalist’s manipulation of the market with overproduction and underproduction of a particular product and the extension of the workman’s day. The capitalist affects the price of a particular product by producing more of a product than society needs or under producing a product desired by the public. Thus, since the worker has already contracted out his or her labor for a flat rate determined by the capitalist, the capitalist can extend the working day to produce more of a product or restrict it to under produce a product which causes the product to develop a surplus value. Thus inequality results, because the surplus value generated on the market and capitalist support of the idea that the work of a worker is inferior to that of the business owner. Thus the solution Marx and Engels propose eliminates the surplus value by eliminating the overproduction and underproduction of products. By organizing workers into socially conscious unions and having society more democratically involved in controlling the production of socially necessary goods, the market will not be easily manipulated by overproduction and underproduction. Since production remains the root of a “wealthy” society, the greatest source of the power in society

is the worker that produces. Consequently, socialism is a political, economic, and social system that relies on the control of the production of a commodity in the hands of the worker that produces it. Everyone in a society would be considered a worker, organized to promote their rights and control how much of a product becomes produced. Using the definition expounded by Marx and Engels, the “welfare state” remains an inadequate and misused definition of socialism. Simply taking the high income of individuals in society and dispersing it to people in the population considered below the poverty line is not socialism. Redistribution of the wealth may register as socialism with society. However, until the workers control the production of their product and eliminate the surplus value created on the market by the capitalist class, the society does not fit the criteria of socialism. In a welfare state, the country still operates production in the capitalist mode and distributes the wealth to those who remain unproductive. A socialist society would reflect a society moving towards full employment, and increase in real wages. Thus, Sweden, England, and other “social democracies” are not socialist. The welfare state serves not the needs of a socialist society, but rather the capitalist society afraid of worker militancy at low wages and increasing costs of living. Not only do people misrepresent socialism as the welfare state, but also they misrepresent both socialism and communism by looking at the Soviet Union under Stalin and the People’s Republic under Mao. Socialism, a society which organizes its political and economic structure around production of societal needs is a step towards a communist society. A communist society, as Marx explains, consists of a classless society where all work remains equal in the eyes of society. Production levels have reached the point where everyone’s basic needs—housing, education, food, clothing—is provided for without the use of money, and luxury production democratically decided by localized production. In a communist society the state, or political, social, and economic minority that uses the police and military force to maintain their authority, will wither away. The Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China maintain a bureaucratic state structure that represses worker unions and rule by the worker. Thus, the Soviet Union and China do not fit the definition the socialism, let alone Communism. Marx’s theory outlined in Capital and the Communist Manifesto explains why

the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China developed into authoritarian dictatorships. Marx, in the Communist Manifesto, argued the first step towards communism, a socialist revolution, would occur in the most highly industrial countries. Russia and China had industry and a small manufacturing base in their economy, but primarily relied upon agrarian farming. Following Marx’s theory, Lenin called for the development of capitalist industries which the government would closely monitor till their production levels would enable the Soviet Union to build a strong manufacturing basis. However, eventually Stalin, hoping to build these military forces and secure power himself, launched the five year plans. Repeated military intervention in Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China also enhanced the powers of the state. Fearing western powers destroying the new revolutionary state, leaders gave up their rights to strong men like Stalin and Mao. In turn, these leaders suppressed labor unions and workers at home and used their military to enhance their borders and power. These states never reached high production level to instill communism and suppressed the very worker who Marx wanted to organize society. The surplus value generated in these states remained less than capitalist states, but became used for the benefit of the rising bureaucracy rather than the worker. Stalinism and Maoism represent, in this aspect, bastardizations of Marxist-Socialism. Revolutionary socialism remains largely misunderstood by both the public and intellectual community. It encourages workers to engage in militant behavior like striking, thereby removing their most precious commodity from the exploitative market. Revolutionary socialism realizes that the international capitalist environment will ultimately self-destruct if the workers become agitated and organized. A socialist state cannot exist in an international capitalist system, and will fail, like the Soviet Union, in creating a democratic and equitable society. The welfare state refuses to break with domestic and international capitalism, so it can never achieve socialism. Likewise bureaucratic authoritarianism can never bring about a socialist state. Socialism works by establishing a majority control over the production of a product. Socialism as Leon Trotsky said in the History of the Russian Revolution, “needs democracy, like the body needs air.” By reading the arguments and theoretical works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky one can develop a clearer view of socialism and realize that a socialist state has never truly existed yet.

The Flip Side | May 2nd - May 15th, 2007

Calendar of Activities & Events Running & Ongoing Events

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2

10:30 AM-Noon - Charles Baxter: The Erotic in Literature – Davies Theatre Visiting writer Baxter will talk about the study of love and relationships he did in writing his novel The Feast of Love 4:30-5:30 PM – Peace Rally – Corner of Garfield & State Streets. Signs provided! 2-3 PM – What’s the Future Hold for Harry Potter? Panel Discussion – Ojibwe Room Come and share your ideas about the upcoming Harry Potter book. 7-9 PM – First Annual UWEC International Poetry Reading – Tamarack Room Featuring poems in 30 different languages by mostly native speakers. 7:30 PM – The Singing Statesmen and Jazz IV Ensemble Concert – Gantner Concert Hall, Haas 8 PM – UAC Cabin Jazz at Night – The Cabin. FREE

THURSDAY, MAY 3

1-2 PM – What Dystopia Are You Living In? Interactive Panel – Eagle Room, Davies Features brief presentations on dystopias followed by a discussion of dystopia in fiction - Eagle Room 2-3 PM – Wired Fictions – Computer Lab (L1033) Professor Juett will introduce the topic of narrative gaming and experiment with wired fictional play 3-4:30 PM – Creative Works: Nonfiction, Poetry and Fiction - open reading – The Cabin 4 PM – Chancellor’s Roundtable – Alumni Room, Davies The Chancellor’s Roundtable gives students the chance to ask the Chancellor’s cabinet questions. 6 & 8:30 PM – Campus Film: Infernal Affairs – Davies Theatre. Tickets available at the Service Center and at the door. 6-8 PM – 50th Annual Juried Student Art Show – Foster Gallery, Haas 7 PM – Live Band: Down Lo – Higherground. $6 7:30 PM – Jazz I Ensemble Concert – Gantner Concert Hall, Haas 7:30 PM – University Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing – Kjer Theatre 8 PM – UAC Cabin Featured Artist: JoAnna James – The Cabin

FRIDAY, MAY 4

4-5 PM – Earth Science Seminar Series Spring 2007 – Room 281, Phillips “Big Ice--Our Understanding of the Style and History of Glaciation in the Midwest” presented by Carrie Jennings, Minnesota Geological Survey. 6 & 8:30 PM – Campus Film: Infernal Affairs – Davies Theatre Tickets available at the Service Center and at the door. 7:30 PM – University Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing – Kjer Theatre 7:30 PM – The Singing Statesmen and Jazz IV Ensemble Concert – Gantner Concert Hall, Haas 8 PM – UAC Cabin Featured Artist: JoAnna James – The Cabin 9pm - English Festival Benefit Concert - Live Music at The House of Rock – $5 donation - 21+ 10 PM – Club Mercury Dance Party – Higherground

SATURDAY, MAY 5

10 AM-3 PM – Astronomy Day – Phillips Featuring displays, handouts, and presentations. 6 & 8:30 PM – Campus Film: I – Davies Theatre Tickets available at the Service Center and at the door. 7:30 PM – University Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing – Kjer Theatre 8 PM – UAC Cabin Featured Artist: JoAnna James with Fran King – The Cabin 10 PM – Live Band: Room For Gray – Higherground. $3

SUNDAY, MAY 6

1 PM – The S.T.I.F.F.E. Awards Screening – Davies Theatre UAC Films invites you to screen the entries from the 8th annual STudent Independent Film FEstival. Check out the great talent, creativity and film techniques of students right here on campus. FREE 2 PM – Concert Choral Union – Zorn Arena 5 PM – Symphony Band Concert – Gantner Concert Hall, Haas 6 & 8:30 PM – Campus Film: Infernal Affair – Davies Theatre Tickets available at the Service Center and at the door.

MONDAY, MAY 7 11 AM-1 PM – SpringFest 2007: QuinnElizabeth – Campus Mall 7:30 PM – Piotr Szewczyk, violinist – Phillips Recital Hall, Haas. FREE

TUESDAY, MAY 8 11 AM-1 PM – SpringFest 2007: Irie Sol – Campus Mall 7-8 PM – Planetarium Show: “Adventures Along the Spectrum” – Phillips Planetarium Explore the properties of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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TUESDAY, MAY 8

7 PM – Higherground Hardcore II – Higherground. Featuring Pulling Teeth, Dios Mio and Pandamonium. $5 7:30 PM – University Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing – Kjer Theatre 8 PM – UAC Cabin Jazz at Night – The Cabin

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9

11 AM-1 PM – SpringFest 2007: To Slay Zombie Newton – Campus Mall 4:30-5:30 PM – Peace Rally – Corner of Garfield & State Streets. Signs provided! 7:30 PM – University Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing – Kjer Theatre 8 PM – UAC Cabin Jazz at Night – The Cabin

THURSDAY, MAY 10

11 AM-1 PM – SpringFest 2007: Chester Bay – Campus Mall 6-8 PM – 50th Annual Juried Student Art Show – Foster Gallery, Haas 6 & 8:30 PM – Campus Film: Half Nelson – Davies Theatre Tickets available at the Services Center and at the door. 7:30 PM – University Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing – Kjer Theatre 8 PM – NOTA Open Poetry & Prose Reading – The Cabin 8-10 PM – A Cappella Group: Impromptu – Higherground

FRIDAY, MAY 11

11 AM-1 PM – SpringFest 2007: Survive The Drive – Campus Mall 2-7 PM – Putnum Lovestock ’07: “Peace, Love and Darfur” – Putnam yard A campus-wide charity event for Doctors Without Borders, a group dealing with the Darfur genocide since 1979. There will be a free tie-dye booth, a massage booth, pie your RA, dunk your professor, henna, and a kissing booth! Great food, friends, music.

FRIDAY, MAY 11

6 & 8:30 PM – Campus Film: Half Nelson – Davies Theatre Tickets available at the Services Center and at the door. 7:30 PM – University Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing – Kjer Theatre 7:30 PM – UAC Concerts Presents: The Gufs – An Acoustic Duo – Council Fire Room, Davies. Tickets available at the Service Center and at the door. 8 PM – UAC Cabin Local Talent: Dacia Miller – The Cabin. FREE 8 PM-2 AM – Rock-A-Thon Fundraiser – Higherground Featured bands: Toastmaster Generals, To Slay Zombie Newton, Soul Clutch, A Farewell To Silence, The Stomps. $6

SATURDAY, MAY 12

6 & 8:30 PM – Half Nelson – Davies Theatre Tickets available at the Service Center and at the door. 7:30 PM – University Theatre: Much Ado About Nothing – Kjer Theatre 8 PM – UAC Cabin Local Stage – The Cabin. FREE 9 PM – Live Group: Girls Night Out – Higherground A popular UW-Eau Claire Women’s A Cappella Group.

SUNDAY, MAY 13

6 & 8:30 PM – Campus Film: Half Nelson – Davies Theatre Tickets available at the Services Center and at the door.

MONDAY, MAY 14 - 18 FINALS WEEK BIKE TO WORK WEEK

SATURDAY, MAY 19

9:30 AM – Commencement Ceremony: College of Arts & Sciences and Graduate Studies – Zorn Arena 2 PM – Commencement Ceremony: College of Business, College of Education and Human Sciences, College of Nursing and Health Sciences – Zorn Arena

The Flip Side | May 2nd - May 15th, 2007

The Flipside hopes your summer vacation goes all the way up to eleven.

Photo: Laurie Johnson