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Emerging Trends, Student Life

‘OK Boomer’ is a call to action

by Sophia White on

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‘OK Boomer,’ the digital world’s latest viral meme, has gained seemingly overnight attention from mainstream media outlets and spurred heated controversy between the young and old. Last week on Nov. 7, New Zealand Member of Parliament (MP) Chlöe Swarbrick dropped the phrase in response to heckling by an older MP. The catchphrase, initially popularized on the app TikTok, has become a more-or-less universal retort to shut down or make fun of older people whose views are considered out-of-touch among the younger generation.

The phrase was originally meant to target baby boomers, those born during an era of rapid population growth in Western Europe and North America between the mid-1940s and 1960s. While many baby boomers joined counterculture movements during their youth, younger people have since blamed them for many societal woes, from the high cost of college tuition to the failure to address climate change. Many Millenials and Gen Z-ers feel as though they were brought into the world by baby boomers and are now expected to clean up their mess, so to speak.

‘OK Boomer’ has become nothing short of a sensation, with a flood of tweets, TikToks, and Instagram posts to prove it. The catchphrase has interestingly even become a commodity, now appearing on t-shirts, phone cases, stickers, and reusable grocery bags. The trend is emblematic of Millenials’ and Gen Z-er’s rather unique ability to transform serious matters into both memes and marketing devices.

Despite its name, ‘OK Boomer’ has transcended its literal meaning and can now be used to address people of any age, as long as they exude boomer qualities. It is most frequently used as a retort to adults who seem dismissive of the younger generation’s concerns or who hold outdated views on gender roles, the job market, or immigration. On the other hand, younger people have notoriously been criticized by the older generation for being lazy, entitled, oversensitive, and obsessed with technology and avocado toast.

Skeptics of ‘OK Boomer’ seem rather puzzled about the potential implications of the term, as it is somewhat unclear as to whether ‘OK Boomer’ is just a meme or a call to action. Rather than shutting boomers down altogether, young people may be better suited to encourage them to hear us out on the problems we face today.

The growth of ‘OK Boomer’ in the public consciousness is indicative of both the new power of social media platforms to spread collective grievances and the enduring nature of generational divides in ideology.  Social media has become an extremely powerful tool, to the point that memes like ‘OK Boomer’ have set the media agenda and the narrative. In fact, many older people likely learned of ‘OK Boomer’ from the news. The emergence of the phrase through TikTok might be new and specific to today’s younger generation, but the generation gap has always existed. Boomers and Gen Z-ers have grown up in different eras and faced different obstacles throughout their lives, so they are bound to disagree and approach things from different perspectives. Rather than perpetuate this divide, it is important to learn how to breach the generation gap and collaborate on finding solutions to the issues we face today. As such, ‘OK Boomer’ should be taken as a call to action for both the young and old to address these problems together by drawing on their diverse perspectives. 

Young people seeking economic security while struggling to pay off their student loans are probably not looking to be lectured by those who shaped the policies that contributed to putting them into that situation. That said, it is important to not stereotype all ‘boomers’ as out-of-touch. ‘OK Boomer’ may have started out as a joke, but it now serves as an important reminder of the generation gap, as well as a call to action which implicates both young and old people.

Arts & Entertainment, Books

‘Find Me’ is stirring and lush

by Charlie Mascia on

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Andre Aciman’s new novel, Find Me, seems conscious of the burden of being a sequel to two works: It follows Aciman’s wildly popular Call Me by Your Name published in 2007, as well as Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 film adaptation. With the exception of choice passages and lines, Aciman resists allaying fans’ desire for a third immersion into the familiar dreamscape of the languorous, unhurried longing of two men during a summer without consequence.

The two protagonists remain the same. Elio, a melancholic and precocious adolescent has become, in the past decade, a classical pianist living in Paris. Oliver, the elegantly rugged philosophy student whom Elio fell in love with in the first novel is now a professor of the pre-Socratics in Manhattan. 

The sequel does not get to either of them until the halfway mark. Elio’s father, Samuel, a secondary but warm and insightful character in the original, directs Aciman’s streaming prose for the first hundred pages. We enter his thoughts as he engages in a dance of seduction by wits with a younger woman. These two lovers are sometimes frustratingly, unbelievably articulate in their introspective powers.

In Samuel’s courtship, there is little of the hesitant tension of the first novel. Reading Aciman, the everyday becomes a feast of sensual motion—the handling of a fresh fish, a momentary graze of the arm, even kisses which clumsily miss their marks. Tenderness is an inevitability in spontaneous, everyday interactions. The fog of rapturous adolescent lust in Call Me by Your Name has aged into a meditation on love, language, and time. Find Me sacrifices such youthful romance for a slower, more controlled passion.

Elio and Oliver each get their own parts of the novel. Elio, meets an older lawyer, Michel, at a concert. They tumble into an awkward romance which oscillates between a country estate and a darkened bistro in a loop of careful conversation and extravagant passion. Oliver, hosting a party in his apartment on the Upper West Side, dreams of being in bed with two of his guests. He hardly knows either of them but both feel more passionate and perceptive than his wife. In reality, he is drawn to the shimmering suggestion of Elio in each of them. 

Call Me by Your Name is a memory, recalled in the past tense by Elio. Find Me has the rushing immediacy of the present unfolding, yet Aciman’s prose retains this hazy quality. Perhaps, because his style here is more spare and abstract, demonstrating a departure from the film’s and first novel’s textured richness, where the environments were as enchanting as the seduction itself. 

“We all have many lives, one tucked beneath or right alongside the other,” one character remarks. For Aciman’s speakers, these interior lives are those remembered and imagined, coexisting in the imagination to render the present a prism which creates meaning only because it reflects the past, or what could have been. In his conclusion, Aciman presents an escape from this retrospection, yet it comes about only through a contradictory reclamation of what is in the past—or, rather, who. 

“A paradox is never an answer, it’s just a fractured truth, a wisp of meaning without legs,” muses a character. Find Me is, with its speakers who seek novel love and find only the shadows of old romance, exactly this sort of delightfully incomplete paradox. 

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

Doja Cat’s ‘Hot Pink’ will keep you warm all winter

by Nicholas Raffoul on

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Only a year after her debut album Amala and viral Twitter sensation “MOOO!”, Doja Cat proves to audiences that she is no one hit-wonder with the release of Hot Pink, a sophomore album proving her audacity as an artist. While Amala signaled an effortless and playful entrance to the rap world, Hot Pink demonstrates that the 24-year-old rapper can consistently deliver deliberate and lush production. 

The album opens with steamy “Cyber Sex,” a bouncy beat that is reminsicent of the light and fruity energy of her Amala track “Game.” The track is accompanied by a gorgeous high-tech and futuristic video, showing off Doja Cat’s same lovable charm from “Go To Town,” but with creative high-production experimentation. The video is a sexy Black Mirror episode, featuring innovative metallic outfits and purposefully tacky visuals. 

Hot Pink matches the charismatic energy seen from Doja Cat in her previous hits, but the album overall feels far from repurposed. Doja Cat flexes a new range of creativity with a versatile set of tracks. She shows off her multifaceted talent with powerful and sexy “Bite,” “Say So,” and “Like That,” — all electric summery-hits that are more than welcome in these cold winter days. The second half of the album slows down, with “Addiction” and “Streets” offering Doja’s more sultry and hazy bedroom vocals. Where the album lacks a stylistic cohesion, Hot Pink satiates a range of moods that make for an all-round memorable set of tracks. 

Hot Pink ends with a remix of her iconic “Juicy,” a near-perfect track, spoiled only by the unfortunate Tyga feature. While Gucci Mane and Tyga are welcome additions to the album, Doja Cat’s solo tracks establish that her songwriting has more than enough substance on its own—a mix of genres, gorgeous vocals, and a captivating charisma that we first fell in love with last year. 

Science & Technology

44th SQEBC covers cognitive ecology and animal behaviour

by Julia Kossakowski on

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The 44th Société Québécoise pour l’Étude Biologique du Comportement (SQEBC) took place in the McIntyre Medical Building from Nov. 1–3, drawing speakers and attendees from around the world. This year, the theme of the conference was cognitive ecology, the study of cognitive phenomena in social and natural contexts. 

Organizers Simon Reader and Mélanie Guigueno, both professors in McGill’s Department of Biology, attended prior conferences, but this was their first time organizing SQEBC. 

“There were many rewarding aspects to the conference, namely the connections I built with the [four] invited speakers, who gave phenomenal plenaries on the theme of cognitive ecology,” Guigeno said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

Researchers from around the province presented over 60 talks, as well as workshops on spatial analysis and careers within the field.

Sarah Benson Amram, an assistant professor in the Department of Zoology & Physiology at the University of Wyoming, presented her research on behavioural flexibility in carnivores, specifically raccoons. Known for their intelligence, raccoons have the same ratio of neurons-to-brain size found in primates. Benson Amram and her team set up problem-solving trials to test patterns of intelligence in raccoons and concluded that the individuals that attempted more solutions to the problems were more successful, a pattern that may also ring true for other carnivores. 

“The same cognitive abilities that are enabling [raccoon populations’] success in urban areas are actually bringing the most adaptive individuals into greater conflict with people,” Benson Amram said.

Adaptive raccoons can thrive in city environments because of their problem-solving capacity. However, their ability to do so makes them a pest to humans. As urbanization and city sprawl increases in North America, people are encountering wild animals more often, making research on species like raccoons essential for urban planning and conflict resolution. 

Studies on animalian social patterns are not limited to mammals. David White, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University, discussed his research on the cognition and social patterns of the cowbird, a parasitic species that lays its eggs in other birds’ nests. Through a set of logical trials, White and his team observed that female cowbirds prefer nests with more host eggs. By tracking nest and resource visits of Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tagged cowbirds, White described that, in most contexts, the smartest cowbirds rely on personal information, rather than social.

“In each circumstance, a female goes in, figures out the value of personal and public information in that moment, and makes a decision on which one is more valuable,” White said.

Another plenary speaker at the conference was Lauren Brent, a faculty member at the University of Exeter and McGill graduate. Brent presented her research on the affiliations within a group of rhesus macaques, a species of Old World monkey that she studies on Cayo Santiago, an island off of Puerto Rico. Macaques spend 20 per cent of their time grooming each other, making them ideal social network study subjects.

“Individuals that have received more grooming have greater reproductive output,” Brent said. “Stress [caused by lack of social support] at the molecular level recapitulates many of the hallmarks of aging.” 

Macaques with fewer social connections thus showed a higher biological age—the age at which the body functions—relative to chronological age, which describes how old the calendar says an individual is. Evidently, it pays to be socially connected, a conclusion that many human studies have also reached. In this way, by delicately designing research methods, cognitive ecologists can uncover innate animal behaviour, which contributes to a greater understanding of both the environment and humans.

Overall, the conference provided an opportunity for researchers and students from different backgrounds to learn about diverse, yet interconnected, research. 

“The breadth of the work is what struck me: From conservation biology to behavioural neuroscience, from across Quebec and also international researchers,” Reader said.

New York Knicks
Basketball, Sports

Supporting a team that never fails to disappoint

by Adam Burton on

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It’s a fact of life for all sports fans: At some point, your team will be bad. Some fans’ teams will be worse than others’, and the most unlucky of us all are the fans of teams that have been terrible for our entire lives. Regardless of how much you have been teased and tossed aside by your team, you are expected to stick it out and wait for the bright future ahead—no matter how ludicrous and far-removed it may be.

The New York Knicks have been remarkably terrible for nearly three decades. Unfortunately for me and Knicks fans everywhere, there does not seem to be a bright future in sight.

We are trapped in an eternal cycle of excitement, hope, and eventual soul-crushing disappointment. It has happened over and over again: The 1992 Game 7 loss to Michael Jordan and the Bulls; the fleeting hope of Carmelo Anthony and Linsanity; the Kristaps Porzingis trade; and, most recently, the possibility of signing Kevin Durant and drafting Zion Williamson. Nobody holds on to unfounded optimism like Knicks fans, but every time we fail, we’re slightly more deflated and cynical. Despite all this, there is one thing a true Knicks fan would never entertain: Leaving.

The team’s owner James Dolan represents everything that Knicks fans hate: He appears to have no knowledge of basketball, and his horribly timed hands-on management style have earned him the title of worst owner in sports according to some commentators. His oppressively tepid music, fedora-wearing habits, and increasingly fragile ego have also made him the Darth Vader of basketball.

Celebrity chef and Knicks superfan Eddie Huang echoed the sentiments of many Knicks fans when he spoke up on Hot Ones.

“Shoutout to the Knicks,” Huang said. “I love the Knicks, they give me these tickets, I get to go eat in the suite, but honestly, I have thought about killing James Dolan. They have very sharp steak knives, and I’m like, ‘Look, for the Knicks […], we might have to do this.’”

Huang was obviously joking, but grizzly steak-knife assasination plots highlight the limited options available to Knicks fans who wish to depose the cruel dictator James Dolan and restore the Knicks to their pre-1970s glory.

After years of suffering, I have realized something: I love to hate the Knicks. The team has not won a championship since 1973, yet remains the most valuable basketball franchise by $300 million. The most memorable moment the Knicks have had in two decades was Linsanity—a two week winning streak, led by Jeremy Lin, in an otherwise forgettable 2011-12 season. New York fans spend so much money on merchandise and tickets that the franchise value rose $170 million in the span of one week. We love to lose our minds over nothing, and I will be there every time, no matter how disappointed I know I will be. 

I do not expect my team to ever be good, and I am fine with that. Being the worst team for so long has given Knicks fans a shared experience, something to stand for, and practice in self deprecation. It’s the most prolific culture of ineptitude in sports today. Chanting “Sell the team!” and heckling JD & the Straight Shot—James Dolan’s unremarkable band that screams “We only exist because I inherited my dad’s money”—on the night of the 2017 draft are the only victories we need, as long as we are together, united by our frustrations. I would rather be last and proud, waiting for the number one overall draft pick that will never come, than be stuck as a mediocre potential eighth seed without a shared community.

Commentary, Opinion

Lecture halls are still unsafe for racialized students

by Favour Daka on

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On Oct. 23, an English professor at the University of Western Ontario used the n-word while describing terms that were historically used to refer to certain classes of slaves. The nonchalant use of a word with such violent historical and current implications was justifiably met with outrage by Black students in the lecture hall who felt deeply humiliated and angered. In addition to this offense, the professor claimed that he used the n-word was to “get a reaction” from students. This is a dangerous statement because it plays into a historical narrative that has disregarded the position and sensitivity of Black people. Further, it serves as a prime example of the ways in which academic spaces continue to exist as racialized spaces, where historical realities can manifest in damaging ways. 

Academia often prides itself on being neutral and unprejudiced, an environment where anyone, from any background, can engage in the dissemination and acquisition of knowledge. This neutrality often serves to actively ignore the ways in which racialized people are misunderstood and misrepresented within this supposedly all-inclusive intellectualism. In bringing the need for representation to the forefront, the Black Students’ Network of McGill (BSN) has proposed a Black Students’ Bill of Rights as a way of advocating for the rights of Black students. This would act as an essential step forward towards broader institutional recognition of the ways in which the black experience at McGill is marginalized. 

 The Black Students’ Bill of Rights highlights the barriers that Black students face at McGill, including a lack of representation within the teaching and professional staff, microaggressions, physical and online harassment, racial profiling and various forms of verbal discrimination. This bill also aims to suggest ways in which McGill can better accommodate the equal existence of Black students by first recognizing the distinct experiences and needs of Black students on an institutional level.

“In bringing the need for representation to the forefront, the Black Students’ Network of McGill (BSN) has proposed a Black Students’ Bill of Rights as a way of advocating for the rights of Black students.”

 Following the incident at Western, it is clear that the conception of academic spaces as sterile and welcoming to all is far from an all-encompassing reality. This incident serves to remind us of why a Black Students’ Bill of Rights is needed, especially one that specifically considers the daily challenges Black students face while navigating an academic space such as McGill. It is also important in outlining the appropriate steps McGill can take to better cater to the needs of Black students both presently and in the future.

 In making sure that this Black Students’ Bill of Rights is as comprehensive as possible, BSN called for a town hall on Oct. 22. It focused on discussing the barriers that Black students face at McGill, as well as using an online consultation form to collect feedback from Black students regarding their experiences in general. BSN proposes that this Bill of Rights will create an institutional structure which will allow Black students to better advocate for their needs on campus and it will also aim to hold the McGill administration accountable to its commitments to Black students.  

 Since McGill’s founder, James McGill, was a slave owner, the very history of McGill’s inception is tied to anti-Black racism. For example, until 2017 McGill did not officially celebrate Black History Month, despite the month being recognized by the House of Commons in 1995. Considering the university was established in 1821, that marks 196 years of institutional disregard for Black students and Black history, again reinforcing the need for a Black Students’ Bill of Rights.

“Since McGill’s founder, James McGill, was a slave owner, the very history of McGill’s inception is tied to anti-Black racism.”

 Academia, and more specifically McGill, has a role in ensuring that feelings of marginalization and ostracization are reduced for all its students, especially those of racialized backgrounds. The Black Students’ Bill of Rights serves as an important step towards creating an academic space that is truly inclusive and accommodating of the challenges Black and racialized students face. However, this should not be seen as a singular and temporary push for Black students rights under the guise of inclusivity, but rather as a demand for continuous institutional introspection over how to commit to the welfare of marginalized students.

Off the Board, Opinion

The hidden hurdles of a wallflower

by Helen Wu on

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The social interactions of everyday life exhaust me. Oftentimes, I would rather observe commotion unfold before me than engage in it. Due to our reserved nature, introverts like myself are frequently asked if we are okay when, in reality, we are happily minding our own business. Although the people asking these questions generally mean well, they make me wonder whether my natural disposition is somehow unfit for my environment.

Western society has always expected that women be approachable, chatty, and outgoing in social situations. However, I have learned that it is fine not to pretend to have any of those traits just to gain the validation of my peers. At social gatherings, I find myself hiding in the host’s bedroom, leaving early, or staying in one corner of the room, with no desire to network or strike up a shallow conversation. This is not to say I am unkind or hostile; I am just not interested in talking about superficialities like the snow, how classes are going, or which Netflix shows we are watching. After lengthy periods of socializing, I need some downtime, either spent alone or with one or two close friends.

In a world run by extroverts, I often feel that my capabilities are overshadowed by my peers’ forwardness in the classroom, on teams, or during group work. Those who earn leadership positions are usually outspoken, as they gain the trust of others more easily. Extroverts are more recognized because of their affable nature, while introverts struggle to break out of their personal space and are consequently perceived as cold. 

It is more difficult for me to prove my skillset in a group, however, I have realized that the affirmation of my capabilities is not necessary for me to make an impact. While it has always been frustrating to watch leadership positions be given to those able to make an impression, I now find my place in settings that prioritize the quality of one’s ideas. As a student conducting research in a life-science laboratory, I found a place that does not stress the importance of extroversion. Scientific research does not have to be done out loud, therefore, allowing reserved voices to investigate revolutionary ideas in peace. Although extroverts often have an advantage, even in science, I feel more powerful presenting data than when sharing my opinions on politics. In the end, what changes the world is not how people present themselves but rather the actions they take and the relationships they build. 

“This is not to say I am unkind or hostile; I am just not interested in talking about superficialities like the snow, how classes are going, or which Netflix shows we are watching. After lengthy periods of socializing, I need some downtime, either spent alone or with one or two close friends.”

Although I have a low tolerance for frivolous interactions, I do value genuine relationships and care about those around me. I prefer forming new friendships in less clamorous settings, where I can focus on learning about a person’s more important experiences. While speaking out in a group seems effortless for extroverts, it takes a lot of energy from me, and when I do, I find my voice drowned out by those around me. Both introverts and extroverts hold ideas that are worthwhile and it is beneficial for everyone to make space for their ideas to come through.

Naturally, I am a listener and a thinker rather than a speaker. However, my silence does not mean that I have no opinions. Although I speak up when I have something important to say, I prefer to reflect before speaking. Frankly, the conspicuous voices of extroverts that dominate the room deter introverts from expressing themselves. Although I am introverted, I do want to share my thoughts, be acknowledged for my work and have insight to bring to the table. People should be more cognizant of the ideas being left behind when louder voices eclipse those that may be more reserved. Words are powerful, but silence does not correlate with inadequacy.

 

Editorial, Opinion

Sharing Milton-Parc

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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Moving away from home, university students experience their first taste of personal freedom. However, having the power to do what they want does not excuse students being disrespectful to others. A drunken fight on Oct. 4 between two students in the Milton-Parc area resulted in $500 in damages to a family’s only car. This incident brought McGill students under fire once again for showing a lack of consideration for their neighbours and shared spaces. Students and organizations at McGill must hold themselves accountable when living and partying in the Milton-Parc neighbourhood and maintain a higher standard of respect for their neighbours.

Milton-Parc has been a student neighbourhood for several decades. Since the 1960s, students have become a significant portion of the area’s residents, leading to corporate gentrification, which sparked increasingly unaffordable rent costs and the replacement of historic homes with fraternity houses and condos. This influx of McGill students shifted the atmosphere of the neighborhood, some residents would say for the worse. Complaints by non-students highlight the sense of entitlement and disrespect by students and organizations toward their neighbours. Residents’ grievances have ranged from students being disruptive into the early morning hours, to excessive littering, and inconsiderate acts like urinating on residents’ property.

Party culture in the area seems to be the root of many disruptions. With several fraternities calling the neighbourhood home, drinking events are an ever-present reality. Moreover, faculty-and student-run events like Frosh, Hype Week, Faculty Olympics and apartment crawls, which often take place in or around the Milton-Parc area, lead to hordes of drunken students wandering the streets, which can result in accidental or reckless damage to others’ property. Party culture also contributes to excessive amounts of littered bottles, cans, and cigarette butts on sidewalks and lawns.

“Students and organizations at McGill must hold themselves accountable when living and partying in the Milton-Parc neighbourhood and maintain a higher standard of respect for their neighbours.”

Event organizers have taken steps to address the issues that arise from drinking events. For example, faculties dispatch Street Teams during Frosh week to manage intoxicated students as they pass through the neighbourhood. The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) also tries to control apartment crawls by requiring hosts to have  liquor licenses and complete server training. However, rather than mitigating disruptions to the community, this restriction merely limits the number of clubs willing to go through the process required to host a crawl by SSMU’s rules.

It is incumbent on student organizations to hold themselves accountable during parties. If a club has a history of damaging private or public property, failing to make changes to their rules or practices is negligent. Some ways student organizations could be more courteous to Milton-Parc residents are by putting more effort into planning crowd control procedures and having stricter consequences if partygoers fail to respect neighbours at drinking events.

It also falls on student organizations to find ways to encourage proper waste-disposal, or at the very least have thorough cleanups after events. A portion of entry or participation fees for larger events like hype week should be reserved for fixing damages and ensuring public spaces are tidied after events.

SSMU should also take steps to address the issue. Incorporating tips on how to be respectful of neighbours and others’ property into server training would give hosts the skills to have more respectful parties. Moreover, SSMU must be stricter when holding clubs accountable. If certain clubs or faculties repeatedly cause serious damage and disruption, SSMU should levy consequences, including revoking alcohol privileges.

Students who do not take part in organized drinking events can still find ways to be better neighbours. In the past, some McGill courses in the Quebec Studies department make students volunteer in Montreal. These types of community engagement projects help students connect with their neighbours and be better citizens.

Simple things like joining a clean-up, finding out when garbage day is to avoid unnecessary trash on the sidewalks, or just saying ‘hi’ to a neighbour can make students better community members. On moving day, students should make use of services like Trash2Treasure to get rid of unwanted furniture in a sustainable way. When hosting a party, students can use online networks like Nextdoor.ca or leave a note in next-door mailboxes to let neighbours know their plans and invite them to share their feedback. Simple acts go a long way in making others feel respected and heard in their communities.

McGill students will continue to cohabitate with others in Milton-Parc. As part of the broader Montreal community, SSMU and McGill’s student organizations have a responsibility to control and mitigate the damages caused to the Milton-Parc community during McGill drinking events. Moreover, beyond McGill-organized events, student tenants should make an effort to engage with their community and be better Milton-Parc neighbours.

For those who are interested in donating, the GoFundMe to help cover the car damages sustained by the Milton-Parc family is still active.

Creative

Know Your Athlete: Isaiah Cree

by Alex Hinton and Zoe Lubetkin on

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Our staff producers visited U0 Lacrosse player Isaiah Cree on the field and talked about growing up on the Akwesasne reservation in New York, Lacrosse’s cultural importance, and his Lacrosse-life balance.

Video by Alex Hinton and Zoe Lubetkin.

McGill, News

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer gives lecture on Gorbachev

by Pascal Hogue on

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Pulitzer Prize-winning author and renowned political science professor at Amherst College Bill Taubman gave a lecture on the life of Soviet Union (USSR) leader Mikhail Gorbachev to a packed audience of McGill students and professors on Nov. 1. Drawing from his 2017 biography, Taubman presented the head of state as an idealistic, but flawed leader and suggested that his personal character was instrumental in explaining the successes and failures of the Soviet Union in its final years.

Taubman’s lecture, “The Rise and Fall of Mikhail Gorbachev—And Some Lessons for the Putin Era” was organized by the Research Group on Transitions and Global Modernities in collaboration with the Russian Studies Department at McGill.

In his introductory remarks, Taubman acknowledged that Gorbachev has had a contentious legacy, lauded abroad for his instrumental role in ending the Cold War, but fiercely criticized at home for his role in the economic collapse and dissolution of the USSR. For these reasons, Taubman said Gorbachev was a ‘tragic hero.’

“He was a hero because he laid the basis for democracy [in the USSR], conducted the first free […] elections to create the first functioning parliament, [and] ended the Cold War more than anybody else, [reducing] the threat of a nuclear holocaust,” Taubman said. “Why tragic? […] He wanted to save the Soviet Union and its new democratic form, but it collapsed, and in the process the economy crumbled, creating a […] disaster for many Soviet people.”

During his lecture, Taubman tied Gorbachev’s personal character to the successes and failures of the Soviet Union. Taubman contrasted Gorbachev’s idealistic reforms to the USSR’s staunchly inflexible governing body, the Politburo, and to a nation wary of change. He suggested that the Soviet leader’s hubris might have been the main cause of his undoing.

“How could he have thought that a country that had never known democracy for centuries could be democratized in a few short years?” Taubman said. “He was optimistic, extraordinarily so, probably excessively so. He was confident—too much so it appears in retrospect.”

For Henry Atkins, a Master’s student in political science, Taubman’s focus on Gorbachev as a person was nuanced and differed from most contemporary approaches to history, which prioritize long-term trends over the actions of important individuals.

“[It was] certainly a more sympathetic view of Gorbachev than I’m used to as a political science student,” Atkins said. “[He gave] a very agential view of history, the idea that what the person in charge does matters, [which is] not something I’m used to in [mainstream] political science models.”

However, for Sheena Li, an undergraduate student in pharmacology, the lecturer’s greater focus on character rather than on context made the topic accessible and informative.

“Since [it was] a lot about [Gorbachev’s] personality, [it was] easy for someone who doesn’t really know about [his] background to understand,” Li said.

In his concluding remarks, Taubman noted the rise of authoritarianism in Russia in recent years and his diminishing hopes for a democratic Russia. Having interviewed Gorbachev eight times for his biography, Taubman said that the former leader has had moments of optimism for his country, but that most of the time, Gorbachev has been more realistic.

“It may take the whole 21st century for Russia to find its way to democracy,” Gorbachev once told Taubman.

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