Living In Temporary Housing Is Apparently a Dystopian Hellscape Prison Term

Living In Temporary Housing Is Apparently a Dystopian Hellscape Prison Term

J Money
2018

Photo credit: Purdue Exponent

The other day, The Exponent tweeted pictures of the temporary housing some incoming students live in for a few weeks as they await permanent housing to open up. This has frequently been something they’ve had to do at Purdue and even more so in recent years. Basically, you live in sort of a camp-like setting where a bunch of you share an open space. You have your own bunks, desk, bureau, etc., but you don’t have your own walls or locking door. It’s a little rough but, let’s be honest, it’s not that big a deal. And remember, it’s temporary.

However, given the age we live in, that didn’t stop the drama train from pulling out and getting up to full pearl-clutching, foot-stompin’, righteous indignation speed very quickly, as you can see in that Buzzfeed story.

First off, here is the Exponent’s tweet:

Again, be honest here. That doesn’t look like third world living, does it? No, but it looks like “jail,” evidently:

Madame, have you been to jail? Because I’m pretty sure it doesn’t look like this. But hey, I could be wrong, I suppose. And if this is what jail looks like, maybe I should go for a while and get caught up on my reading.

Then we move on to this dapper Ohio U lad, who has this to say about the University that has frozen tuition for the seventh consecutive year:

He was quickly put in his place by people equipped with the ever-elusive “facts.” (Speaking of, I don’t understand how young people today don’t first do a simple google search before spouting off. I mean, you have the answers to absolutely everything at your fingertips and people still say colossally dumb or incorrect things incessantly. Thirty years ago, liars were able to operate with impunity because who had an encyclopedia handy to correct them?)

It’s also dangerous, apparently:

This is also emblematic of the age we live in. There’s zero evidence that there is anything “dangerous” about this, which as I said, is like a summer camp setup. But that doesn’t stop ol’ Pat Fitzgerald (I assume he's not the Northwestern coach) from acting like people are being held up for their chemistry books. If the evidence doesn’t exist to support your argument, just pretend it does!

And then we have Alex Russell – of the well-known, able-to-rough-it area of San Francisco, California – perhaps winning the award for Best Performance in a Dramatic Tweet:

Dystopian hellscape. Living in a large indoor space with 8-10 people is…..a dystopian hellscape.

Now, I hate to be the resident old man who talks about how things were…. “back in my day.” But I’m going to anyway.

I came to Purdue in August of 1994. I lived that year and the following two in Cary Quad, my friends. And let me regale you with stories of Cary Quad from back then. Have you ever seen footage of college dormitories in the 1960s? Yeah, it was like that. Not sort of like that – exactly like that. It hadn’t been markedly updated in decades. There was no air conditioning. Roughly 40 guys per floor shared a single bathroom with perhaps two or three urinals, two or three stalls and three or four showers. If you lived at the end of the hall, you got to walk maybe 50 (?) feet in whatever state of undress you were comfortable to get to the showers. Good times!

The room doors didn’t automatically close like hotel room doors do – if you left it ajar, it stayed open. And this was great! Friends came and went, conversations were often shouted across the hall…people connected! It was like prison! But in the movies!

See? Hubert knows!

Actual prison shit!

And Jake thinks it’s “pathetic” that….so many people are going to college, I guess?

The fact that people are acting “horrified” that a few students have to live in less than Hilton-like accommodations and are actually comparing it to prison, jail, dystopian hellscapes and who knows what else demonstrates just how desperate everyone is to be angry and offended about something.

It's college! These people are 18 years old! Do you remember being 18 years old? I don't know about you, but I probably could have slept on a park bench as long as there was a tree over me to keep the rain from waking me up. 

Life is rarely perfect and frequently things don’t work out the way you think they should. You adapt.

With the many examples of people around the world (including in this country and at the borders of this country) living in true hellscapes, that lack of perspective is what’s actually horrifying.

 

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