Saturday, March 1, 2008

Coffin and Keys...

Okay, so the mystery continues. For those of you who have read my blog, I posted an entry a while ago titled What I Haven't Found. So I checked my comments tonight and found a comment from someone:

"It saddens me to know you all think so lowly of Coffin & Keys. The members of Coffin & Keys do more for this university than you realize. Yes, all they (we) do when they come together is socialize, but you must look at what they do outside of the organization. All great change that happens on campus spurs mainly from the catalyst of XK [which is just the Greek representation (Chi Kappa) of C&K, don't blatantly assume 10 dues at Nevada are the last dying arm of the KKK idiot]. Their members influence many aspects of life at Nevada. Since you want to know so much about them maybe you should just talk to them. Their email is paulquinlan@coffinandkeys.com, I'm sure they'd love to talk to you.

Grigory probably shouldn't email them though, they think he is a tool.

Have a good one."

First off, this is poorly written. It wavers in and out of points without fully explaining itself. But all that aside, it's pretty weak.

This is supposedly a member of XK, who often refers to the society as a they, which is strange.

They also have a pleasant tone for parts of it and call me an idiot in the next breath. If this is a member of Coffin and Keys, I'd be a bit more professional. But that is just my opinion. And in response to the allegations that I'm an idiot: This is a blog. This is where I throw my ideas out there. I've never said I actually believed that XK is the "last dying arm of the KKK". So go take your insults somewhere else, like your shoddy newsletter.

I believe in the power of XK very much. They could be, and probably are, a very influential and helpful force in student life. But from what I've seen of this group, they lack the maturity to think before they speak.

As for the last part "maybe you should just talk to them". What? Maybe I was unclear, but what I said want to know is "what they are and how they operate". So, seeing as XK doesn't reveal the things they do to better the university, or how they accomplish these amazing feats, my asking would amount to a 'no comment'.

Oh, and as for insulting Grigory: He's done more for this university without any thanks than almost anyone I know.

2 comments:

Le Reveur said...

Look up the Jacobin Clubs of the French Revolution. They started out as nothing more than discussion societies and amounted to one of the strongest influences of the French Revolution next to Napoleon: while still remaining nothing more than discussion societies. That's in their defense.

In offense: their letter was extremely poorly written. I'm sorry, but no matter what you think of somebody, you don't call them an idiot until you have nearlyl undeniable proof. Personal attacks in attempts at defense are ignorant and counterproductive.

In defense: you don't know how much they are willing to reveal about themselves, but it might take some sort of proof of confidentiality or contract. It isn't nice to assume what somebody is and isn't willing to divulge when they offer to divulge some information, and it might mean that the information you *were* going to recieve is now severely limited. The way you phrased that amounts to something near a personal attack itself.

In offense: there are two big ways to run a secret society. One is to make something that doesn't exist, doesn't do anything, doesn't have any members, etc. The other is to make one that people know exists and know what it does, but the members remain entirely anonymous. The latter is harder to do, but has its advantages, and this is what KX has turned itself into. Therefore, if you are a secret society operating within the public eye, you have the obligation to yourself to behave appropriately and present oneself professionally and benevolently, else bring ill repute or impopularity. This results finally in some sort of private/media investigation into the happenings and actions of the organization, and if they are miniscule or malevolent the members themselves are eventually exposed, rendering the society impotent.

If you want to be a "secret society," do things a bit more clandestine and, for your own sakes, worth mention and worthwhile. Else, just disband or proclaim yourself a secret club.

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