Students have no excuse for not involving themselves in activism

Where has Jeff Wolf '02 been? In the last two years Princeton has seen a virtual renaissance in accessible and smart political activism: the Workers' Rights effort, anti-Sweatshop activism, critiques of corporate globalization, a prison reform working group, renewed discourse on race, an active anti-hunger movement and the ever-enduring good works of the SVC.

Somehow philosopher Wolf has been meandering in the illusion that a) Princeton is an inactive campus and b) that political problems are either intractable, out of one's hands or too taxing on one's fun-loving schedule.

While Wolf wallows in Winston Churchill-isms, injustice and suffering persist. That a well-bred Princeton student even has the luxury to cultivate a detached and smug political cynicism evinces an undeserved privilege and a tragic miseducation. To be a moral person does not mean simply to refrain from hurting others, but to actively try to change situations in the world, reduce suffering and apply one's privileged position and resourcefulness to the so-correctable problems "of man." No better time to do this exists than these idealistic college years.

To dress one's unconscionable political indifference in the shmatas of dead philosophers adds insult to injury. What are they teaching in this philosophy department? Where are the ethics? Where is the outrage? Perhaps philosophers like Wolf should make some time to get their hands dirty with the business of concrete action — or at the very least get their hands dirty reading a newspaper. Elliot Ratzman GS