Can We Still Rage?

“Nobody Rages Anymore” is a moniker that has long haunted the Old College on the Hill. This phrase suggests that there was a time before the Fall of the Dartmouth Man, an Edenic past where any and all men at the College could for a night go indulge in copious amounts of substances, wreak mayhem up and down Webster, and then end their night passed out on one of the many lawns around campus, and most importantly, wake up the next morning and receive no punishments or questions for their previous night’s debauchery. It suggests that the original sin of the Dartmouth Man is not any of the plethora of historical abuses constantly charged against the College, but that for some reason (maybe the youth are weak, maybe the admin are cruel, maybe the Traditions have failed), he is not able to go as hard as his predecessors once did.

This lamentation, this nostalgia for a time before the fall, is a constant rallying cry around campus. Being the staple phrase shouted out before a fraternity brother pursues an incredibly dumb decision, one has to wonder if what we are doing now is not raging, when in fact did anybody rage? Any Dartmouth male who is a member of a fraternity hears legendary tales passed down over the years of excessive debauchery and foolishness that are celebrated like ancient epics. Prevailing across this, there is a sentiment of discontent about the conditions of the present, measuring up against the supposed greatness of the past. This sentiment (which I personally think can have a quite noble character at some points and an incredibly reckless character at others) is especially felt in the aftermath of COVID.

This coming weekend will be the first Green Key since the start of the pandemic, and for 3/4ths of campus their first Green Key ever. The one class which has experienced Green Key previously, the ’22s, enjoyed it in the Spring of 2019, their freshmen spring, a time before any of them had rushed. This Green Key, there will be very few students on campus who have experienced a Green Key before while in a Greek House. Throughout COVID, there has constantly been a sense of missing out, a sense that we have been deprived of enjoying the full Dartmouth experience, and there has also been a sense, at least from me personally, of fear of losing Dartmouth’s traditions.

Now, this would not be The Review if I did not proclaim how the traditions of the College have constantly been under attack and that it’s up to us, the faithful students, to defend them. But COVID has been time interrupted for so many of us, and coming out of both COVID and the previous cold and harsh Dartmouth winter, students can sense both excitement and uncertainty in the air. COVID, displacing Dartmouth students across the country and depriving us of valuable time with elder classes, presented a tangible challenge to enjoying and taking up the burden of Dartmouth traditions, but this upcoming weekend is the first time that Dartmouth students can finally take back that mantle. Green Key has always been touted as the biggest of the big weekends, the true party weekend for the students. Concerts and parties galore, tales of ragin’ into the wee hours of the morning are aplenty, and this will be the first time that a large majority will actually be able to take up this opportunity. The biggest fear is do we remember how?

I would never doubt college students’ ability to party; however, present in that sacred phrase “Nobody Rages Anymore” is a suggestion of a right and wrong way to rage. For that in particular, it’s always looking backward, that we are unworthy of the legacy of our predecessors. In this, however, there is a suggestion of decorum of debauchery, a legacy of licentiousness to participate in a ritualistic manner. I have faith though that Dartmouth students will take up this burden as always, and I fully expect that this weekend on campus everybody will be raging while nobody rages anymore.