You asked for it and now you’ve got it. Welcome to the new Craccum.
If like a whole bunch of spuds you didn’t ask for it, you failed to ask for anything else, so let the next twelve months be a lesson to you.
Democratically elected in a lawful mutiny, I have been given the privilege of steering this ship henceforth. Unlike modern shipping piracy this is not a desperate entrepreneurial exercise or a profit-seeking enterprise committed to the briny blue in order to evade bleak poverty and hard times, although these last two items are more than familiar to me. No, humans, this is a rescue mission. A rescue mission indeed and one of the highest order of importance.
The rescue mission doesn’t start and end with Craccum. Just like the magazine, it is up to us to salvage this university. It is ours after all, although it remains a relic of its former self and a pale afterthought of its gleaming possibility. Shall we try to fix it, perhaps? Oh heavens, while we’re there, why not aim for the emancipation of mankind? Why not? Aim low, avoid disappointment? Get out.
Where is the ship heading? What course is set? Well, that is for us to decide together. I intend to keep my promise of making this here rag an inclusive resource for all. I want Craccum to be a place for people to express themselves freely. My fellow revolutionaries know full well that we cannot design the alternative from the tools of the present. We must formulate new paradigms. We must do this together. This is a university magazine and many of us are unquestioning of the purpose of a university, let alone the possibilities of its press. There isn’t a straight answer to either of those issues. The university should act primarily as a site for the contestation of ideas and information. It should be a site dedicated to the stimulation of creative imaginations, fostering original thought and flows of information. The university should play a vital role in the formulation of social progression and act as a site where radical new ideas are fostered and disseminated. It doesn’t matter which faculty you’re in, be it Science, Business, Arts, Education or Law etc. Every faculty needs radical thinkers to make the novel breakthroughs that result in progress. If we follow the rules we will play the same game forever. What is must be constantly compared with what could be: a freer and happier mode of human existence. I’ll be dropping little theory-bombs like that one on you all year.
Most of us are still probably licking the wounds that were inflicted by spending Christmas with our families. I for one certainly am. There is no form of torture more arduous to me than having to spend a concentrated period of time in close proximity to my dearest relatives. Psychological damage caused by such events never seems to heal. It was my first family Christmas since 2007. And they are such a lovely bunch. I have a point here I assure you.
Although the horrors of the festive period still hang in the air like nuclear fallout, over time I will grow fond of the splendid memories forged. There’s nothing like a pair of rose-tinted retrospectacles. They filter out all the real lived experience and replace it with Kodak moments and distorted revelry. “Those were the days…” we’ll jest. At present I wonder how bad life could get in order to make these days seem like the golden nostalgic ideal in our minds? But no doubt, one day these days may very well be the days.
The point! The point is that comedy is tragedy plus time. I think Carol Burnett said that (pre-Woody Allen). What I have is a ship and what I need is a crew. If you feel like you would like to contribute, have no fear, even if your contributions are tragic, in time no doubt they will become comedic and you will at the very least laugh at the splendour you had on board the Craccum ship. That is the worst-case scenario. The alternative is the possibility that we may together produce a radical magazine that inspires real change. Grasping potentialities for freedom and happiness will make possible the negation of conditions that inhibit individuals’ development and realisation.
Come and get involved, this is your magazine. Be realistic, demand the impossible: for it is all of us who are the university. Let’s act like it.
Thomas Dykes
Craccum Editor 2012