Zombie Debt, a new movement on campus, held an informational meeting yesterday to raise awareness about the dangers of increasing student debt. The group distributed zombie-themed fliers, decrying what they call an educational system of "interminable debt." The fliers also shed light on the fact that tuition has risen four times faster than inflation since the 1970s. And to compound this crisis, the group purports that any attempts to speak out and campaign for reform have been met with "brute force" and riot police. It is an amalgam of iniquities, they argue, that has caused such mounting student debt. High unemployment, sovereign debt and rising resource prices have made it possible, they conclude, to criminalize poor students and people of color in a broken "system of global finance."
This page supports Zombie Debt's overarching cause and believes student debt to be a serious and pressing issue. But we disagree with the movement's plan of action, or lack thereof, and its unnecessary and threatening radicalization.
Zombie Debt's modus operandi is seemingly to draw a divide between the victims and the criminals. Students are sinking under an ever-growing pile of debt, they claim, because of corrupt loan officials and a greedy financial system. Even the police and military are in on the game. And the only reason they keep students alive is because "we owe them." Without their valuable dollar bills, students would be mowed down like those at Kent State. But with their valuable dollar bills, students are simply pepper-sprayed by "absurdly casual" riot cops.
This position does more harm to Zombie Debt than good. By radicalizing themselves — pitting "us" versus "them" — they are ridding themselves of any chance of civil discourse. By pointing to a vast conspiracy manufactured by the elite and privileged, they are alienating themselves from the moderate base that is America. By blindly shouting from their extreme ideological wing, they are, in effect, extinguishing any possibility of actually reforming the iniquities they condemn. Hyper-polarization and unswerving dogma may well become the nails in Zombie Debt's coffin.
But this isn't the only problem with the movement. In addition to being dangerously radicalized, it is also disappointingly useless. Many students are already aware of the unpaid loans that they will eventually have to face. It is fairly well understood that a college education — especially here at Hopkins with its $40,000 tuition — is not a cheap buy. But what most students are utterly unaware of is what to do and how to do it.
The only "solutions" that Zombie Debt provides are "occupy everything" and "refuse all debt." Both seem splendid — until one actually thinks about what they mean. Ought students stop going to college altogether? Ought students sit on campus all day until those "corrupt university officials" finally lower tuition? What exactly is "everything" and how will "occupying" it make student debts vanish?
In point of fact, students are "occupying" as we speak. They are occupying classrooms to receive a college education — an education that they hope will give them a head start in their chosen professional fields. How can they "refuse all debt" when the only options are to incur it or forgo an education?
For this board to look favorably upon the Zombie Debt movement, we need to see an actual plan for reform and a mitigation of extreme and largely baseless accusations.
