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Harvard Grad Students Faced ‘Existential’ Crisis of Sadness, Despair After Election
Graduate students at Harvard University said Donald Trump's presidential victory pushed them into an "existential" crisis of sadness and despair.
The "deep feeling" of misery led students to start a "resistance school," which kicked off at Harvard, Wednesday evening. Timothy McCarthy, a lecturer at the Kennedy School, taught the first course.
The first lecture covered all the favorite topics of the campus left, including anticolonialism, white privilege, intersectionality, and "allyship." McCarthy described Trump as a "devil" and said America was founded on the "callous slaughter of indigenous people," and the subjugation of every minority group from "queer folks" to the disabled
Jasmine said the emotional night of Hillary Clinton's election loss led her and other graduate students to start the free online course.
"And like so many of you we turned to each other for direction," she said. "We began to meet weekly, in what really felt like therapy, and as we talked more it became very clear that we were mourning something much bigger than the presidency. We were mourning the upheaval against our core progressive values, an upheaval that started far before this past election."
She said the group is "not new to politics," and the "school" is full of organizers, campaign staffers, journalists, and activists. Twenty thousand people viewed the course online, she said.
"Now this country is going to be transformed, but it will not be transformed by an act of God, but by you and me," she said. "In that spirit our goal here at the resistance school is to help turn the embers of discouragement and despair into blazing fires of courageous words and courageous actions."
The "practical training" began with a nearly hour-long lecture from McCarthy, a self-described "middle-aged queer professor."
McCarthy refused to refer to Trump by name and began by attacking the president as a "racist," "sexist," and "greedy."
"The origin of the resistance school lies in the election on November 8 of 2016 of the 45th president of the United States," McCarthy began. "Henceforth in my talk at least referred to by his clearly preferred gender pronouns he, him, his, or simply, 45."
The three key points for the lecture were: "We need to claim our history," "We need to communicate our values," and "We need to change our world."
McCarthy said the tips would help fight against Trump and the "devils of our nation."
"I want to discuss with you three aspects of what I think is the work before us so that we may help move from a mode of resistance, which is a necessary response to the worst devils of our nation, to a renaissance of what President Abraham Lincoln once referred to as the better angels of our nature," he said. "We need to grow and swell the rank and file of the angels in America, precisely because the devils are hard at work. Believe me."
Harvard Grad Students Faced ‘Existential’ Crisis of Sadness, Despair After Election
Graduate students at Harvard University said Donald Trump's presidential victory pushed them into an "existential" crisis of sadness and despair.
The "deep feeling" of misery led students to start a "resistance school," which kicked off at Harvard, Wednesday evening. Timothy McCarthy, a lecturer at the Kennedy School, taught the first course.
The first lecture covered all the favorite topics of the campus left, including anticolonialism, white privilege, intersectionality, and "allyship." McCarthy described Trump as a "devil" and said America was founded on the "callous slaughter of indigenous people," and the subjugation of every minority group from "queer folks" to the disabled
Jasmine said the emotional night of Hillary Clinton's election loss led her and other graduate students to start the free online course.
"And like so many of you we turned to each other for direction," she said. "We began to meet weekly, in what really felt like therapy, and as we talked more it became very clear that we were mourning something much bigger than the presidency. We were mourning the upheaval against our core progressive values, an upheaval that started far before this past election."
She said the group is "not new to politics," and the "school" is full of organizers, campaign staffers, journalists, and activists. Twenty thousand people viewed the course online, she said.
"Now this country is going to be transformed, but it will not be transformed by an act of God, but by you and me," she said. "In that spirit our goal here at the resistance school is to help turn the embers of discouragement and despair into blazing fires of courageous words and courageous actions."
The "practical training" began with a nearly hour-long lecture from McCarthy, a self-described "middle-aged queer professor."
McCarthy refused to refer to Trump by name and began by attacking the president as a "racist," "sexist," and "greedy."
"The origin of the resistance school lies in the election on November 8 of 2016 of the 45th president of the United States," McCarthy began. "Henceforth in my talk at least referred to by his clearly preferred gender pronouns he, him, his, or simply, 45."
The three key points for the lecture were: "We need to claim our history," "We need to communicate our values," and "We need to change our world."
McCarthy said the tips would help fight against Trump and the "devils of our nation."
"I want to discuss with you three aspects of what I think is the work before us so that we may help move from a mode of resistance, which is a necessary response to the worst devils of our nation, to a renaissance of what President Abraham Lincoln once referred to as the better angels of our nature," he said. "We need to grow and swell the rank and file of the angels in America, precisely because the devils are hard at work. Believe me."
Harvard Grad Students Faced ‘Existential’ Crisis of Sadness, Despair After Election
