In these first three articles, I attempted to establish a genesis, a foundation, for the articles I intend to write later. The first dealt with the cause of the misery at SUNY- Stony Brook, what I dubbed the Evil Power Source. The second dealt with the question of choice, on whether those who are associated with this place can choose to rise above the evil that taints it, as represented by the growth of the Tree of Woe, or follow the path of inevitability as represented by the Curse of Ward Melville. This last article deals with, what I believe, was one of the most blatant examples of the Power Source’s influence on the campus.

Once upon a time, there was a War, and this War went on underneath the noses of the students who kept their heads in the sand and their fists in the air. I touched upon how this War affected the life of a friend of mine in my last article. Some good came from this crucible. It brought out the fighting instinct in some people. It made people confident. Some bad came of it. Some chose to serve themselves. Some took advantage of the good nature of others. It was like any conflict that has arisen since man learned to organize into groups, pick up rocks, and bash in the heads of his fellow neighbors for a tract of land.

Ultimately, however, it fed the Evil Power Source. What amazes me is how easily we all fell into this pit, how easily we became fodder for this monstrosity. It was the proverbial pact with the Devil. Everyone got what they wanted but no one got what they needed.

I could write a series of fifty articles on the subject of the Polity Wars alone. In fact, many people that I know could write fifty articles about their points of view during different times of this conflict, whether in the early stages when the War was “cold” to its final conclusion with the arrests of the last of the fighters, as written about by Andrew Pernick in The Stony Brook Press this semester. That is a task for another time.

What I want to do here is give what I think is the underlying thread that ran through all of us, including myself, during this conflict. Causes, results, and all that bullshit doesn’t matter right now because they ignore one simple question.

Why?

One incident that I remember clearly shows what was at the heart of this conflict. It shows us why.
I was Recording Secretary of the Polity Senate during the Senate meeting of February 21, 2001. If, by some miracle, you were allowed unfettered access to this meeting’s record, you would see that my name does not appear as the person who wrote this particular set of minutes. I was paid $25.00 per meeting to do this task and I did this task to the best of my ability. I was also serving as the Secretary of the Commuter Student Association at the time, a major faction in trying to bring accountability to those in power in Polity. Some in the Polity Executive Council thought we were troublemakers or malcontents. They made it a commuter/resident issue even though in many cases, commuters and residents resided on both sides of the fence.

I don’t claim to be impartial. I still believe in my heart that what I did, what we all did, was for the good of the students. We sniffed out the alleged corruption and brought it into the light for all to see and judge for themselves.
During that meeting, an investigative committee in the Senate had presented evidence of alleged malfeasance committed by members of the Student Activity Board (I’m not going to bother finding out what these organizations call themselves now; as the famous philosopher Townsend once wrote, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”). In my opinion, the evidence existed to proceed with a hearing of Polity Judiciary but the opinion of one man at the time didn’t count for anything.

Writing about what happened next is tough. It’s tough because so many conflicting stories exist as to what happened, who emerged with the upper hand. All I remember was that there were many people coming into the gallery to watch this meeting in progress. There was probably 40 or 50 people, much more than the dozen or so that usually attend the absurdity that is the student government in action. Many of these people were angry at the fact that the impeachments were taking place. There had been rumors that this demonstration had been organized by the other side. All I remember was the crowd erupting into a chant of “No Justice! No Peace!” over and over and the chair of that meeting was not able to stifle them to reclaim order.

For the first time in what would become many times, I saw this conflict as pointless. I wouldn’t up and quit at this point due to the loyalty I had to my friends in CSA. But I also knew that what I had been fighting for, basically how over $2 million is spent from the student activity fee, was pointless. It wasn’t a game for some. It was almost as serious to some people as civil rights or American foreign policy. One such man was the Janitor, a man who used to wander about Stony Brook late at night. To him, the student activity fee was the Holy Grail to culling the weak to find those students who would fight whatever government insurgence this man believed was coming.
To me however, it was Us and Them, Black and Blue. I left that meeting and figured the right thing would happen and the meeting would end due to a breakdown in order. That didn’t happen. Instead, the Senate overturned its decision to impeach. I didn’t hear about that until the next day.

I remember how I was about to leave and head home. I’d crossed the street from the Union and looked back at the building where the meeting was taking place. I went back into the chaos and tried to convince as many people to leave as possible. They were my friends and this was senseless.

A few hours later, I had a talk with then-President of CSA and Senator Andrew Murray. Andrew and I share a friendship that came between two men who had something to prove because we’d both been screwed with. After many talks with him, I can honestly say his moral compass is much better calibrated than mine. One of the reasons that I went along with this plan was because I trusted him. But I did say to him, “I understand why you impeached them but I didn’t sign up for that.”

I remember Andrew saying, “You’re right.”

In the long run, I can’t even remember what the outcome of all this was. So why did we fight?

People want to feel as if they belong, first of all. I know this was the case with me at the time. When I had first entered Stony Brook, I wanted to feel as if I were part of something. And no one wants to feel as if they’re an outsider. CSA was my “gang.” I know many people felt this way on both sides. Stony Brook is a big place. There were certain groups that hide in basements as the Morlocks did. Others didn’t.

People also want to feel special. Unfortunately, some people don’t want to put forth the effort to actually master their power but to only appear powerful. We all had titles. During my time in student government, I had as many as four at one time.

Colors and territory. Power and no responsibility. No guidance, just pressure. It all added up.

Chaotic conflict, the type that only leads to greater conflict and no resolution, feeds the Evil Power Source. I can say that many of my friends wanted an end to this conflict. My surmise is that those on the other side wanted it as well. The War had just grown beyond us. I do know of one person who wanted a perpetual state of conflict, namely the Janitor. But why would anyone want this?

And we return to the beginning. The why is unanswerable by rational means so the nature of the evil on the campus must be supernatural. Or it may just be the irrationality of the situation gives rise to the irrationality of the explanation.