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- 1. ESaturday,August 29,2015 Therogue ontheelephant Late night comedians and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton must be praying that Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential race. Its more likely Trump will shame his way out of contention, but in the meantime he has taken the level of political discourse in the United States to an all-time low. Trump says he doesnt have time for political correctness. Thats an understatement. He seems to appeal to a segment of Americans who feel that mainstream politicians dont speak openly and frankly about their inner frustrations, biases and prejudices. When Trump says The American dream is dead, but Im going to make it bigger, better and stronger than ever, his supporters see a hugely successful businessman, a straight talker, and someone who will reassert the United States on the world stage. Whatever his appeal, the billionaire real estate mogul, who likes to fire guests on his TV show, has a commanding lead over the multitude of other rivals. Three months into the contest Trump has sucked the air out of the race with his con- troversial utterings. His bombas- tic style has captured the attention of the media and left little room for the other, more credible contenders such as former Florida governor Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to emerge. Trump has a long record of ques- tionable positions. He was part of the birther movement that ques- tioned President Barack Obamas birthplace, right down to the veracity of his birth certificate. (Only natural- born Americans are eligible to be president.) Further, a review of Trumps statements, interviews and Twitter feed reveals a range of disparaging comments about leading women journalists, actresses and singers. In his June speech announc- ing his run for the presidency, he came out against amnesty for illegal immigrants and made degrading remarks about Mexicans, saying that country was sending their worst to the United States. And his approval rating with Republican voters moved him into the lead. In his book, Trump: How to Get Rich, he wrote, For many years Ive said that if someone screws you, screw them back . . . When some- one hurts you, just go after them as viciously and violently as you can. This is the mantra that underlies Trumps approach to the race. His performance during the first all-candidates debate in August was a classic example of the Donald style. The rest of the contenders gave him a wide berth, hoping he would self-destruct. Instead, he eclipsed them all with his incendiary views on immigration, abortion and health care. DonaldTrumps run for the U.S. presidency not only harms the Republicans but also makes a mockery of one of the democratic worlds most important contests Diamond Yao Special to Postmedia Network Brace yourselves, a new school year is upon us, and with it, a strenuous climb up the steep slope of academic achievement. Soon enough, many of us students will find ourselves embattled in a swirling blizzard of lectures and assign- ments, with fatigue headaches and procrastination-induced panic attacks as our teacher-sherpas throw more intellectual baggage at us than we can handle. In a month or two, midterm season will leave us on our knees, silently pray- ing for mercy from the pagan gods of the R-Score. All too often, academic apocalypse ensues, an avalanche of bad exams burying our seeking hearts. Hear me out fellow students, I am here to bring good news. Conquering the imposing peaks of knowledge does not have to be that painful. Lets put aside our modern #obses- sions for a minute and take a long look back. Way, way back. Back to ancient Greece. I have always been fascinated by ancient Greek culture. The idea that it laid down a body of knowledge and ways of thinking for pretty much the rest of history is amazing. And in the process, the Greeks gave us something much more valuable that is often over- looked something that may exactly be what us ailing students need. Todays students could learn from ancient Greeks Paul Lachine illustration see Warren | Page E5 r.michael warren Lets examine Aristotle. Why did he write his Poetics, Rhetoric, Politics and a whole bunch of other works when it clearly didnt make him any money? Obviously, this is a humorously igno- rant question. Its something that would be met with the immediate reaction: how dare you even remotely consider the possibility that the respectable Aristotle was motivated by something as shallow and awfully materialistic as monetary gain? On the other hand, as all those Facebook exam memes testify, we stu- dents only dutifully absorb information because, at heart, we want to get high marks. This follows the assumption that somehow, someday, all these stellar grades will lead to a high- flying career. In the meantime, every- thing is boring, everything is hellish drudgery, everything is mind-numbing cramming. Welcome to higher education in the 21st century. Education wasnt always meant to be a necessary precursor to the job market. Throughout history, until roughly a cen- tury ago, kids who were rich enough to gain access to higher education did not do so to prepare for a rewarding career. Core subjects included Latin, Greek and Classics. They learned little that would have had much practical use; rather, the point was to gain interesting insights, transform themselves and change their world view. Knowledge was assimilated for its own sake, slowly, in the fashion of the Greek thinkers of long ago. Now, we read our textbooks because thats what were supposed to do. We might not even like the material or even remotely care about a class, but we do it anyway. No wonder so many among us feel stuck in a state of perpetual complaint against our workload. The ancients had the ability to be inspired and to act on that inspiration. We have lost it. It is high time to bring this kind of fascination back to our schoolwork and our lives in general. Lets stop reading an intimidating stack of articles on post-structuralist interpretations of pre-Victorian literature because we imperatively need to bring up that horrid mark our last essay com- pletely bombed: but lets do it because Foucault is awesome. Learn because you love to, not because you have to. In these times of widespread student grumbling, heroic levels of sleep depriva- tion and stress wrecked souls, a healthy dose of nerdiness may do us good and save us a lot of heartbreak. Its time to stop climbing, sit down and admire the surrounding landscape. Diamond Yao is a student at Marianopolis College in Montreal.She lives in Laval. This column first appeared in the Montreal Gazette. 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100