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Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power
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V.R. Offline
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Post: #1
Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

So today were the official elections for my school's SGA (Student Government Association) seats. These being: president, vice president, historian, treasurer and secretary.

My question: Why? What is the meaning of this?

Obviously I can tell it is a superficial illusion of power and it fuels this superiority complex and idea that you are somehow above the general student body because you are in a position that is considered one of more noted stature, also that you are contributing to the development of the school and its social structure.

It is a pointless activity that puts a false banner of self-worth on you and makes you appear more powerful than in actuality. After all, it feels good to think you're "helping the student voice be heard".

However, I can see why one would want the position. They seem to receive a good deal of privileges (as always, some more equal than others), receive support from their peers (mostly their campaign teams, yes they actually have those) and their ego is boosted significantly.

But let us look just how far people will go through this: So, first of all, the school was covered from head to toe in election posters. There was no wall left unplastered. You could not get away from them. Second, the teachers and the intercom messengers would constantly remind us to vote on "the big day". Third, the candidates and respective campaign teams would resort to various pathetic stunts and bribery to get support. Numerous times, they offered sweets to the whole cafeteria, would write "VOTE FOR X" on their uniforms, among other things. Today on lunch period, we were forced to watch election videos made by the three President-VP candidate duos. It's simply insane and asinine.

I believe the most likely explanation for this is to condition children into accepting the omnipresence of a Big Brother, a government, as something normal and implant it into their conscious as beneficial. No doubt this is the reason, as well as to fuel the false democracy machine as early as possible.

But seriously, why must there be some idiotic fucking "government" everywhere we go? You can't get away from it, no matter what. That's the point... I guess.

Oh, and this is a charter school, for fuck's sake. So, what about you guys? Got any stories, history to share on this?
09-15-2012 11:39 AM
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Ky Offline
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Post: #2
Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

No kidding, Sherlock.

Public Service Announcement: First world problems are still problems.
09-15-2012 12:20 PM
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V.R. Offline
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RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

I was simply venting on the futility of it all.

Damn BATs next week.
(This post was last modified: 09-15-2012 12:48 PM by V.R..)
09-15-2012 12:48 PM
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Ky Offline
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Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

^ Oh. In that case, no kidding! *as in the excited expression*

Student government is no less awful at my school. I've decided to vote for a guy in my government class that would probably be least suited to whatever responsibilities that entails. Maybe he'll actually speak for the students Razz

Public Service Announcement: First world problems are still problems.
09-15-2012 01:12 PM
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SomeRandomHuman Offline
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RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

My school does it the same but instead of videos they give speeches during lunch. But it is a good way to get free candy, someone gave me 3 pounds of it for voting for them.
09-15-2012 09:10 PM
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IamNoone Offline
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RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

I doubt it's for brainwashing purposes. I think it is more to get students involved in the school more. In my school, the president had some power, but over things like dances and stuff. He actually served a purpose.

The purpose of life is a life with a purpose
So I’d rather die for a cause than live a life that is worthless
I don’t need the circus or the day of national observance
I need you to think for you and stop being a servant
-Immortal Technique, The Martyr, The Martyr
09-16-2012 05:20 AM
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guts12 Offline
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RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

In our school, the teachers pretended to listen to the student council (not presidency). I don't think they did though. I have a long story on this, but I don't want to recite it just because it's relevant. If you want to hear it, post and I'll post it for you. I warn you, it's very long.
09-16-2012 09:37 AM
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V.R. Offline
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RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

(09-16-2012 09:37 AM)guts12 Wrote:  In our school, the teachers pretended to listen to the student council (not presidency). I don't think they did though. I have a long story on this, but I don't want to recite it just because it's relevant. If you want to hear it, post and I'll post it for you. I warn you, it's very long.

[post with no meaning but to prompt another post]
09-16-2012 10:57 AM
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guts12 Offline
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RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

Well, I guess. Im just sharing the fact he isn't alonr
09-17-2012 06:12 AM
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RammsteinFearFactory Offline
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Post: #10
Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

My school has a "School Council" where a bunch of people are nominated from several classes (you can't enter yourself) and are normally only voted in because they are either popular, or are from a big class. Normally everyone votes for the representative from their class just because they were from their class. All they did was walk around with a badge that says "MEMBER" on it, and meet in a class at lunch and debate suggestions put in a suggestion box thing by students. However, most of the time next to nothing changes, and the "council" pretty much only has control over lunch clubs and what the school spends its money on.

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09-17-2012 07:49 AM
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thewake Offline
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Post: #11
Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

I won Vice President of my senior class. It may have been a figure head position, but I did get to throw those bums out of office!

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09-18-2012 07:06 AM
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guts12 Offline
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Post: #12
RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

(09-17-2012 07:49 AM)RammsteinFearFactory Wrote:  My school has a "School Council" where a bunch of people are nominated from several classes (you can't enter yourself) and are normally only voted in because they are either popular, or are from a big class. Normally everyone votes for the representative from their class just because they were from their class. All they did was walk around with a badge that says "MEMBER" on it, and meet in a class at lunch and debate suggestions put in a suggestion box thing by students. However, most of the time next to nothing changes, and the "council" pretty much only has control over lunch clubs and what the school spends its money on.

I don't think they have command over the school funds. It all goes on bills and biscuits. It's a school after all.
09-18-2012 09:41 AM
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guts12 Offline
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RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

(09-17-2012 07:49 AM)RammsteinFearFactory Wrote:  My school has a "School Council" where a bunch of people are nominated from several classes (you can't enter yourself) and are normally only voted in because they are either popular, or are from a big class. Normally everyone votes for the representative from their class just because they were from their class. All they did was walk around with a badge that says "MEMBER" on it, and meet in a class at lunch and debate suggestions put in a suggestion box thing by students. However, most of the time next to nothing changes, and the "council" pretty much only has control over lunch clubs and what the school spends its money on.

I don't think they have command over the school funds. It all goes on bills and biscuits. It's a school after all.
09-18-2012 09:42 AM
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waspline Offline
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Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

Yeah, we have a "student council" where I go to school
Biggest piece of bullshit I have ever seen. Just a puppet government.
09-19-2012 09:45 AM
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Heil_Kaiba8921 Offline
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Post: #15
RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

ok, so today i was given a piece of paper to vote for my preferred two people for homecoming, there were only a few choices and i had to choose one guy and one girl, i crossed out the guys and girls i had to choose from and wrote down a girl that wasn't on there...didn't want to vote for myself because i don't care about it so i ended up not having another guy or girl on their.

We are watching videos that our "candidates" made for student council and basically it's just made for a reason to get out of class and have fun...i'm typing this while they play the videos for them by the way just so i don't have to pretend to be watching it...one of the promises one couple has made was that there would be different donuts at our senior donut days(which is next thursday and basically we get out of 1st hour for free dounts and i don't know why they do it, but apparently it means they care about us i guess)

another promise was that we would have an extra 2 weeks to do our senior blocks(used to be that they put a thing on the ground in the parking lot, but too many people would get their own paint and do donuts and burnouts with the new fresh paint they put down and just completely mess it up)...yea

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09-19-2012 10:50 PM
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McGee! Offline
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RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

Have to wait to the end of the year fo student council voting. It's always the same people anyway, too much politics for too little governance.

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Point is you can't censor reality.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) Wrote:In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students in school as well as out of school are "persons" under our Constitution."
Rebelnerd Wrote:Human rights are being violated by US law enforcement. This is what the media is here for, you're supposed to be the watchdogs! You're supposed to stand up for the downtrodden, not belittle them as though all their problems amount to nothing more than some angry glares toward parents and sabotaging their computers.
I've seen so much shit done to youth and for some reason, this has made me angrier than I've felt in years. Abuse and oppression happens all over the world. It's a terrible reality of modern society, but we've all accepted that it happens and we're doing what we can to fight it and build a better world.
But this...this mindless, condescending disrespect toward people who have no legal voice with which to defend themselves, this reduction of parents' betrayal into a cheap crack about kids being computer-savvy...it's like watching a surgeon joke about life insurance while his patient bleeds to death on the operating table. The media's job is to protect society from oppression and they've drawn a clear line between the people worth protecting and the people that don't matter. How can they people sleep at night?

You're a journalist. DO. YOUR. FUCKING. JOB.

(04-28-2010 08:17 AM)Liquid Wrote:  Laws never seem to help people fight School. Laws only matter if the students are braking them...

(12-03-2011 07:40 AM)SoulRiser Wrote:  Solution to all these problems: don't fuck people you can't negotiate with in a civilized manner.
(02-09-2012 02:14 PM)Absentinsomniac Wrote:  The only solution is democratic self-paced education where students can excel in what they are good at and work on what their not if necessary, AT THEIR OWN DAMN PACE IN THEIR OWN DAMN WAY.



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09-20-2012 05:47 AM
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OasisxPoisonxProdigy Offline
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Post: #17
Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

This is pretty funny one actually. Or at least I find it hilarious.
So at my schol we have ASB (Associated student body), and according to the constitution we have this thing called Student council that consists of leaders in clubs, teams and extracurricular activities. But it doesn't exist, because the leadership teacher thinks that it's impossible for all of us to meet without having a stupid leadership class that's nearly impossible to fit in your schedule because school have more important classes that you NEED to take. There's this thing called house of reps that won't work because our leadership teacher thinks that people should ditch one of our periods to go; however usually there are APs during that period so not every rep can go.
So in the end the only people who are making the decisions are the ASB officiers that are in leadership and get voted in because people can't just write them in and shit. So the ASB does nothing because it's being controlled by the leadership teacher by telling the ASB officiers what to do. No wonder why we get so shitty music and shit. We don't have real ideas that people are going to try to run by ASB, because we have no clue on how anything is run at school anymore.
09-20-2012 11:29 PM
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The man Offline
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Post: #18
Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

Yep.

their pee should hv been shot out like a ki blast breaking the rocks

oh and also No one has any rights. We're free, rights create invisible restrictions. But we live in a society where the majority accepts rights to be true.
05-13-2017 10:17 AM
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Post: #19
Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

My school used to have this bullshit leadership program at my school where the popular classes whored themselves in school colors to give off the illusion of community.

Of course they didn't do jack shit.

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05-14-2017 06:14 AM
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The man Offline
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RE: Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

(09-15-2012 12:20 PM)Ky Wrote:  No kidding, Sherlock.

their pee should hv been shot out like a ki blast breaking the rocks

oh and also No one has any rights. We're free, rights create invisible restrictions. But we live in a society where the majority accepts rights to be true.
05-15-2017 08:14 AM
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James Comey Away
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Post: #21
Student Government/Worthless Illusion of Power

DoA had to censor himself there.

RIP GWEDIN
RIP URITIYOGI
RIP NIGHT
RIP VONUNOV
RIP WES/THEWAKE
RIP USERNAME

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Stop jerking off to porn and whining and do something about it

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05-15-2017 08:16 AM
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