UC Santa Barbara Disorientation Guide

Introduction

Welcome to college, what will you do? This is a world of war and injustice, pain, hope, and struggle. The richest one percent of humanity controls as much wealth as the bottom 60 percent. There are more than two billion peasants living today. There are countless more whose lives are equally difficult, and they all live in the first world’s long shadow. A global ecological crisis is upon us. Centuries of exploitation have left large swaths of the earth barren and poisoned. A crisis of meaning has overtaken us. We are continually bombarded with messages promoting consumption, wealth, and individual gain as the highest achievements we can aspire toward.

So welcome to college. How did you get here? Ever wonder how many people dream of attending the university but can’t afford it? What will you do with your time and education here? Do you believe that money, appearance, entertainment, and shopping are the be-all-end-all? Or is there more to life? Is there a different meaning? Collectively, most of us came here not entirely of our own choosing. If the future were our own, what would we make of it? Can we change things for the better?

The (Dis)Orientation Guide suggests some possibilities. The future is written partly in the rubble of yesterday’s burned banks. It’s etched in the blazing passions of past hunger strikes, sit-ins and organized uprisings. Part introduction, invitation, and inspiration, this booklet is a resource to connect you with others in your search for meaning and understanding. The goal of the Guide is to challenge all assumptions and to catalyze radical thought about the university, society at large, and our individual lives.

Welcome to UCSB.
We can change the world if we,
work hard,
raise hell,
and love unabashedly,

The 2005 DisOrientation Guide Collective
[Darwin BondGraham, Heather Buchheim, Ronald Dumsfeld, Gabe Mann, Tanya Paperny, Will Parrish, Stephanie Smith, Vicki Zeitner]

Thanks to: De Acker, Harley Augustino, Michael Bean, Eileen Boris, Grace Chang, Michael Coffey, Barbie Deutsch, Sarah Fenstermaker, Dick Flacks, Geoff Green, Aaron Jones, Ellen Nagler, Kristine Pfannenstiel, Kyle Richards, Elizabeth Robinson, Lelia Rupp, Josephine Vu, Jon Williams, Howard Winant, the IV Food Co-Op, the IV Bike Boutique, all past and present UCSB activists, and all of the authors



All content within this guide is copyleft unless otherwise stated. All views, opinions, crass statements, aphorisms, pissed-off rants, pronunciations, and shouts are those of the author. See our web site for more in-depth articles, images, and features we couldn’t print here; sbdisorientation.org. If you want to help us produce next year’s guide or submit articles for the web site email us, sbdisorientation(at)riseup(diggitydot)net.