Mankind Fraying at the Edges by Patrick Runkle I noticed recently that Wendy's has added the Triple Cheeseburger to their permanent menu. Most people would not take this as a sign of impending social revolution, but social revolution is usually foremost on my mind, so it was only natural for me. The key question is: How much is too much? How large does the cheeseburger (and predatory capitalism) have to get before America eats itself into unsustainability? The answer to that question is somewhat unclear at the moment, but when Wendy's introduces the Quintuple Cheeseburger, give me a call and we'll riot in the streets. It's easy to write anarchist socialist critiques without really answering any of the questions that are so troublesome to everyone today, and so I think it's important, at the close of another profitable year for Swarthmore College, to bring some radical socialism to our suburban Philadelphia enclave. First of all, it's important to note that the rationale for the proposition of an impending social collapse is completely self-evident. By impending, we're talking maybe 500 years in the best scenario, maybe more. But the destruction of both the individual and the world around us that has been fostered by only 150 years of industry is unprecedented. Logic dictates that, unless there is some miracle, we will simply become immersed in our own shit and all the systems we know of will stop functioning because the benefits will no longer be available. As a good example, let's consider one of my favorite aspects of Swarthmore - the Chester connection. Chester is seen as a urban hell that we somehow have a responsibility to help, or fix, or something. Now, certainly, getting food and clothing to the poor is a worthwhile activity. But doing it without examining the true underlying causes of 'the Chester problem' is completely useless. Students go to Chester, give poor people some Bean with Bacon canned soup, and return to their suburban paradise. What people don't do is try to actually cast off some of the deeply-ingrained prejudices that are so hard to pin down. By deeply-ingrained prejudice, I don't mean things like Mommy locking the car doors while driving through a Black neighborhood and stuff like that. No, I'm talking about stuff like feeling that Black Vernacular English is somehow 'wrong,' or that people who use Greek and Latinate words are somehow more educated than everyone else. They're not more educated; they just know words. See, it's not people screaming "nigger" that keeps us apart; it's people driving Jeep Cherokees and not pumping their own gas. When students here find out that children are living in abject poverty less than 5 miles away from Swarthmore, a common reaction is, "How did this happen? How did we let it get to this point?" Well, friends, what these good people don't realize is that Swarthmore's very existence both directly and indirectly keeps Chester in its current state, just as Swarthmore keeps itself in its current state. As long as we exist, Chester will too. In fact, I would be surprised to be anywhere in America and find that people aren't living in poverty within walking distance of affluence. It's simply the way a society run by the few will choose to operate-it will protect the interests of the few while everyone else gets shafted. Of course, government is the enemy in most critiques like the one I'm writing now. I certainly agree that government isn't a good thing, and inflicts tremendous amounts of damage. But I think that most people function without government, because the government has abandoned them. It's old news that the governments of most countries exist to perpetuate the existing power and social structure of that country. What's new is that a good deal of Americans couldn't buy a Triple Cheeseburger from Wendy's if they wanted one. The system is failing ­ it won't fail tomorrow, but it will fail. Anyway, all of this is depressing, and offers little hope. But there is hope, and it lies within each one of us. Humans have a unique ability to overcome the dehumanization of government and corporations ­ they can be human. It's time for people everywhere to look at others as their only companions that they have in a fight to save the future. It's a cliche, but differences disappear.

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