Why do Bristol students not give a shit?

You can see it in the eyes of the 4am Lizard Lounge loner. Feel it in the voice of Hugo and Hector between their 3^rd and 4^th joints of the day. Sense it in invisible clouds that hang over every dreary lecture hall audience.

Apathy – grey, soggy, and Bristol Uni’s number one commodity.

The stereotypical Bristol student does not give a shit. We coast through our three years of ‘education’ bouncing from nightclub to house party to late night Kebab shop.

While our parents’ generation protested in the streets, fought for what they believed in, and argued viciously over every political subject under the sun – we just don’t care.

Don’t believe me? Well as if it ain’t already painfully obvious to you from your time here, look at turnout in uni elections.

In this year’s NUS delegate elections, a measly 5.5% of the 21,905 strong student population at Bristol voted to choose who would represent them on a national level.

To put that into perspective, more than 5 times the number of students voted in our ‘Best Female Bum Competition 2016’.

Although the NUS may be a failing institution with all the significance of a mustard stain on your mother’s carpet, it would seem worthwhile for students to care about who speaks for them to the rest of the UK.

This indifference extends to student involvement in the world of big dog party politics too. I asked the leaders of Bristol Uni’s party-affiliated societies how many official members they had and their answers were startling:

Bristol Labour Students: 75

Bristol University Conservative Association: 25

Bristol Lib-Dem Students: 19

It’s a well-known fact that the student populations of today are overwhelmingly left wing. However, given that only 0.34% of Bristol’s students are actually members of the University’s Labour Society, perhaps it’s the case that the Tarquin who studies sociology and matches his Barbour jacket with a personalised Che Guevara cigarette lighter is all talk and no 60% income tax.

So why are Bristol students so limp and lethargic? What transformed us from the passionate peri peri protestors of our parents generation into the lemon and herb dullards obsessed with complaining about our £9000 fees today?

Perhaps the following are to blame:

The people who come to Bristol Uni come here to have fun

Let’s picture the stereotypical UOB student – Emily is a Surrey/London bred blonde girl who didn’t get into Oxbridge and had to settle for second best.

She knows that Bristol has a good night life reputation with Motion and Lakota being situated here and MDMA practically paving the streets.

With Oxbridge’s doors now firmly closed and hopes of getting on the Deutschebank training ladder seeming more distant than ever, her regrets at failing her interview are mixed with a strange sense of excitement at finally not having to try that hard anymore – you can only disappoint Daddy so many times before you stop caring.

The once inevitable prospect of 4 essays a week and listening to Stephen Fry wax lyrical in the Cambridge Union has been replaced with the promise of the ultimate hedonistic experience.

Emily researches what the halls are like on The Student Room and chooses to go to Badock.

When an exhausted student campaigner thrusts a flyer into her hand in Stoke Bishop, she goes back to her room and uses it to roll the roach for her traditional pre-dinner joint.

At Bristol, it’s not cool to care

Have you ever heard the phrase “isn’t that a bit keen” after someone has revealed that they engaged in some kind of serious or opinionated activity while at Bristol?

At UOB, the slacker is king. We prize the signet ring wearing, hipster clothed, and unashamedly wavy student DJ type whose apathy knows no bounds.

If you thought that the washed out, Grungey, ‘loser’ character disappeared after the 90s then you’re wrong. His life ethic is well and alive in South West England.

Ironically, though the cliques of school may be gone and the popularity food chain less obvious, a lot of people still foolishly care about what others think about them. It’s not so much a matter of “How you voting next month?” as “Do my garms look wavey like this?”

Student politics has become obsessed with identity politics

It goes without saying that progressive social issues are important and the plight of minorities within the student community are worthy of interest and discussion.

Nevertheless, American and British campuses have witnessed the rise of an unhealthy obsession with gender and identity politics that has relegated other issues to the side-lines.

Debates on economic policy and the role of government in society have been drowned out by arguments over cultural appropriation, whether we should rename buildings with uncomfortable connections to the past, or ban clapping and cheering because they are “exclusionary to deaf people.”

By focusing so adamantly on politics involving minorities, the majority has unfortunately become disinterested and in some cases, alienated.

One cannot expect people to have the same level of interest for things that are so disconnected from their everyday lives and experiences.

If you tell a heterosexual white male student that he doesn’t matter for long enough, he will stop engaging with student politics in general.