Letter From The Editor Issue 10

So here we are a few days after the Mayweather - Pacquaio fight that was touted as the fight of the century and yet yielded the bore of the decade. We live in a society that demands spectacle in larger doses to keep itself from being bored. What should be astounding isn't that the fight turned out to be such a disappointment in terms of bone-crunching boxing, but that so many people were willing to pay $100 to see it. To see what all the fuss was about I watched the fight for free on YouTube on Monday morning here in the Newsroom. In this week's issue we feature several pieces that touch on some of the spectacles obsessing us. Multimedia Editor Claudius West takes a look at the boxing circus that gripped the TV-hypnotized world's attention.

In this age of spectacle the show can become drenched in blood very quickly. While everyone was still debating the fight, in Texas a "Draw Muhammad" contest organized by lunatic paranoiac Pamela Geller was interrupted by two gunmen who were shot down by police. In this week's issue Oskar Zinneman dissects the toxic attitudes of Islamophobia which is a bizarre phenomenon infecting many parts of Europe and areas of the United States.

In times of instability, it is easy to pick out specific groups and raise hysterical accusations. This was common during the rise of fascism in Europe when anti-semitic fantasies were promoted by movements looking for easy excuses to very serious problems. As with the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris, the response to the incident in Texas is more spectacle as Geller calls for more "Draw Muhammad" events while denouncing Islam as some kind of inherently murderous thing. This line of thinking only breeds more ignorance and ignorance is dangerous in unstable times. Zinneman does well in exposing the irrationality behind blind hatred for Muslims, and indeed, any group.

I offer in this issue an interview with Adam Hem, the local artist who has graced a section of the Science building with a new mural depicting a young figure standing in a serene sea before being assaulted by a major storm.

We should all be so lucky as to work doing something we love. I've been fortunate enough to have edited this campus newspaper for two semesters, and

A lesson from Hem and artists like him for students is the necessity to take the time to work in what we love to do. In the society of spectacle, where showing off and attention seem to be part of the great denominator of worth, we should appreciate the opportunities that let us pursue our real interests. The things that really matter in this cold age are the little ones, and part of that means having real freedom.