This is how the left ends . . .

Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold . . . -W. B. Yeats In the early twentieth century, William Butler Yeats, poet, Irishman, wrote the above in his poem, The Second Coming, to describe the failing of systems – how governments, traditions and even cultures inevitably fall under their own dead weight.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre,
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold . . .
-W. B. Yeats

In the early twentieth century, William Butler Yeats, poet, Irishman, wrote the above in his poem, The Second Coming, to describe the failing of systems – how governments, traditions and even cultures inevitably fall under their own dead weight. Concordia saw the truth of those words on Tuesday.
Although final candidate lists were unavailable when this newspaper went to print, it looks like Unity will coast largely unopposed to re-election, and that for the first time in years, the “progressive” wing of this school’s radicals has given up on electoral politics.
This election serves as the epitaph to Concordia’s inheritance of radical protest. It is a moment that has been long in coming.
During the recent by-election when a slapped-together ‘progressive’ slate was trounced by a better organized, widely supported Unity affiliate, Concordia first saw clearly what had been increasingly apparent for years – that the university’s radicals were too busy picketing in the streets to make a difference at the ballot box. Now it seems that the perennial protestors are not only too busy to vote, they can’t even be bothered to run.
Five, perhaps ten years ago, Concordia attracted a different kind of student – dare I say, a different calibre of student. Fewer students today may picket for free tuition, but more are interested in graduating; fewer may riot, but more leave university educated.
Looking back now, at a decade in which students spent their free hours (and their class hours) smashing windows and sitting in jail, it’s hard to see how Concordians would benefit from a new rise of the left.
Today’s Concordia needs a government that can provide students with services and responsible leadership. And while the progressives should not be written off entirely – there is at least one opposition slate of councillors, many of high integrity – we can celebrate the decline of Concordia’s radical reputation, and look forward to a time when a Concordia degree will rival those of Canada’s top universities.
Not long ago, Concordia was a university thick with radicalism; where education took a backseat to the hobbyhorses of professional activists, and where a student’s right to their own opinion was valued less than their conformity to the ideology of the day.
The heydays of Concordia’s Left are now behind us. And those now trying to resuscitate its failing body should remember Yeats’ message: though all things die, not all die with dignity. One is reminded of Yeats’ contemporary, T.S. Elliot:

This is the way the Left ends
This is the way the Left ends
This is the way the Left ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

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