Political writer Loeb previews new book

Author: Austen Levihn-Coon

Paul Loeb, author of "The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear," winner of the Nautilus Award for the best social change book, is speaking this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. in Mead Chapel. Loeb has spent over 30 years working on citizen empowerment and responsibility. His talk will focus on citizen involvement, how individuals get involved in social issues, what prevents involvement and how people keep at it for the long haul. He will also touch on what the presidential election holds for civic engagement in this country and what the global-warming movement demonstrates. In a preview interview, Loeb revealed some of his thoughts on the current state of affairs in student involvement and how to create a culture of civic responsibility.

The Middlebury Campus: How do you see the current climate of student involvement and civic engagement in this country?

Loeb: Well, it's complicated and there are a bunch of ways to look at it. One is that there are a number of people that are enormously involved. Obviously, with Step It Up coming out of Middlebury, if it weren't for Middlebury there wouldn't have been the 1,700 rallies all over the country. There's also the Obama campaign, for instance. There are a number of younger voters coming out, and not all of them are students.

Of all the generations that are oriented in changing the direction of this country from the way Bush has taken it, 18 - 29 year olds are leading the way. I find this very helpful, because something that is historically true is that people who get involved early on tend to stay involved. So for me that is very exciting for the short term, but also very exciting for the long term.

But at the same time, on the typical campus there are still a lot of people who feel like it's all too overwhelming and aren't going to get involved because it's just going to break their hearts. Then there are also a lot of people who say, 'Well, I'm not going to sully myself with it, I'm going to hold myself above it.'


MC: Now do you just see that as cynicism or is it a difference in personal goals?

Loeb: I think cynicism pervades our culture, so even a school that is pretty active is still going to have some resistance. There is a phrase that I use in some of my writing, and it's called the perfect standard. Basically it's the notion that in order to take a stand on something you need to know every fact, figure and 17th decimal place - that you need to be as eloquent as Martin Luther King and as saintly as Gandhi. It gets applied by people on the inside who say 'I don't know enough about this.' But then it equally cuts in as some snootiness towards the people that act. I mean, they are global-warming activists, but they are driving a car, so they obviously must be hypocritical. As opposed to what the activists are doing, which is saying 'We live in a muddy world, and we deal with that the best we can and not everything aligns.' Part of being engaged is that you have to let go of that standard.


MC: How do you see schools and especially colleges and universities playing into promoting citizen involvement? Should the students create this culture of involvement or should the administration and the faculty and staff have some role in it?

Loeb: Well, I think obviously if it comes from both it's stronger. If I look at the most active college in Seattle, it's not the University of Washington and it's not Seattle University - it's Seattle Central Community College. And the reason is that the faculty is really engaged, and they are really involved in all kinds of political causes, and students see that and they take it as a model.

I remember years ago a Dartmouth student who said, 'Armchair liberal faculty create armchair liberal students.' A much more powerful model is the teacher who says, 'This is hard, I don't have all the answers, I'm not certain that our efforts will matter, but I also think that there is a chance that they will, so I'm going to try to do this and I hope that you will too.'


MC: What would you say to the skeptical professor or administrator who says they need to keep their distance to remain unbiased?

Loeb: I would say that you want to make this an inclusive community - that's critical at both the institutional level and the classroom level. You don't want to be saying 'If you believe with me you're going to get an A, if you disagree you're going to fail.' What you can do is fully expect that not everybody is going to agree with you, and encourage the people that disagree with you, and that itself is going to be a really good lesson.

A friend of mine who teaches and happens to be very politically liberal, quite outspoken and teaches freshman English. The head of the campus' Young Republicans was telling me, 'Well there are probably 100 issues that Glen and I disagree on, but Glen has redeemed my faith in humanity - he's my favorite professor.' So what happened? Basically Glen had encouraged the student, reached out in friendship, and they disagreed, but that's okay.


Loeb has been brought to Middlebury College by The Alliance for Civic Engagement, People of Addison County together and the United Way of Addison County. The event is co-sponsored by The Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, Wonnacott Commons and the Center for Campus Activities and Leadership.