Lately I’ve come to wonder if maybe Ayn Rand was right when she said that selfishness is a good thing. There are many people on this campus who have a problem with selfishness, but I don’t think there are very many people who have questioned why selfishness is a bad thing.  Since our own viewpoints can be ones that we have inherited from our environment … Continue reading The Virtue of Selfishness

Recently a rally was held outside of the Chapel for increased transparancy on campus organized by the Our Gustavus campaign. A conglomerate for many transparancy-related organizations, like the Greens’ Divest Gustavus initiative. They work together, but they are not the same in practice or ideology. After the rally, I heard many people criticizing it. citing such observations as: “they’re using petrolium products at a divestment … Continue reading Don’t Judge a Book…

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton signed legislation this month that will gradually boost the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 by 2016. Passed with only Democratic support in the state legislature, the new law shall mandate that Minnesota’s current minimum wage of $6.15 per hour, one of the lowest in the country, will rise by more than $3 over the next few years and stay tied to … Continue reading Two Cents on Minumum Wage

I came across the term “differently-abled” a few years ago, and thought it was just an eye-roll-inducing invention by the hyper politically correct. In the past year, however, I have come to see it in a positive, even necessary light. Most people in this country have heard of the ongoing debate about the appropriateness of cochlear implants in people who are deaf. Some say, for people … Continue reading The Diff-abled

Keenan Madson – On the Chinese Program On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter delivered his “Crisis of Confidence” speech where he addressed American’s fears that the future was not going to be as promising as the present. In echoing President Carter, I, too, am writing because the Gustavus Community is now suffering its own crisis of confidence. If Gustavus continues with a trajectory marred by … Continue reading Guest Submissions

The Incas were a brilliant and vast empire. They had control over substantial amounts of land, flourished without Western conventions, and remained this way for  long time. So it is no surprise that the United States, which fancies itself to be a great empire, wants to achieve this same greatness. After much speculation over the prospect of world domination, the U.S. has finally come to … Continue reading World Domination and Other Food Staples

Most of us are aware of several bias-related incidents and “hate crimes” that have occurred within the last several months. Although I don’t know all the facts, I know enough to say these incidents are examples of subjectivity and close-mindedness. There has been a flurry of responses to these cases, including responses by the GUSTAVIAN WEEKLY and by school administration. So the question is, how … Continue reading An Objective Objective