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TheNewJournal Features

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Vol. 19, No. 4 January 30, 1987

Shrugging OfT Convention

Bound by the faith that ours is a rational world, membtrs of tht ObJectivism Study Group tum to auJhor Ayn RaruJ>s philosophy for political truths and proof of the individual's prttminmce. By Martha Brant.

Where The War Is

During winter brtalc, 15 Yak students livtd with familits in Nicaragua as part of a 30 member tkkgation from the Ntw Havm/Lton Sister City Project. Ont of thtm, Tamar Lehrich, o.ffm thoughts and imagts of the tnp- of mtttings with Nicaraguan politicians and womm's groups, of building housts, and of overwming language banitrs.

Hard Corps Blues

Since 1961, hundrtds of Yalies have voluntttrtd to stroe in tht Third World with tht Peact Corps. Many have joined in search of adventure or hoping to make a difference in undertkveloped countrits. Most return realizing they accomplished v~ little-but that they also received an education about themselvts and the "real world• that they ntVtr would have iTTUJ.gined. By Tom Augst.

Not For Women Only In increasing numbers, men at Yak enter womm's studies coursts and pursue women's causes, challenging thtir own and others' itkas offeminism. By jennifer Fleissner.

Afterthought

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A Divine, Ordinary Life In htr first s!J«Ch at Yak, Helen Cutting Whit~ profiles the Abbot of St. JosqJh's-the monastery which was the subJect of Whitney's 1981 documenJory film .

The New .Journ al/january 30, 1987 3

Publisher M argarita Smith Editor-in-Chief M elissa Turner Business Manager Barrie Seidenberg Managing Editors Jay Carney T amar Le hrich Designer Beth Callaghan Production Manager Stu Weinzimer Photography Editor Carter Brooks Associate Business M anager Beth Cohen NaJional Sales M anager Peter Lefkowitz Associate Editors James Bennett• D aniel Waterman Susan Orenstein • Peter Z usi J en Sachs• Associate Production Manager D avid Brendel* • Circulation Manager D ebra Rosier S~ff ----------Tom Augst Pearl H u Bronwyn Barkan La ura Smith* J ohn Stella * Martha Brant G race W hite Jennifer Fleissne r Yin Wong Alison Gardy 'tl«ttd D«~ 9, 1986•

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Shrugging Off Convention Martha Brant

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Arthur Rubin (CC, '89) loves to talk about politics, but during his two years at Yale, the fast talking, aggressive sophomore has had a hard time finding people who will listen. "I find the political climate at Yale a little bit oppressive; people don't really listen to what I have to say," he said. "A lot of the conservatives d ismiss my views as being kind of wacko and the left can't stand me." This philosophy ¡ which Rubin claims has earned such enmity from both sides of the political s p ec t rum- objectivism.:_ was developed by author Ayn Rand in the 1940's and has enjoyed limited but consistent support ever since. Rand's death in 1982 and the subsequent reprinting of much of her work have sp arked a renewed interest in o bjectivism. I n D ecember,1985, R u b in and several other students for med the Objectivism Stu dy Group at Yale, dedicated to defending and p reserving R and's unique but con troversial philosophy.

There have been objectivists at Yale since the height of R and's popularity in the late 1950's. During that time studen ts created objectivism discussion clubs on many college campuses; other R andians circulated taped lectures and subscr ibed to objectivist publications.

Much of this activity exists at Yale tod ay. T he cur rent study group meets for dinner about every other week, p rimar ily to discuss the political applications of the philosophy. These d inner meetings usually include three

Ayn Rand, who gained international attention for h er c ontroversial philosophy.

"I swear-by my life and my love of it- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask or four avid objectivists, a few mainstream conservative stragglers, and another man to live occasionally some liberals eager for argument. The study group has also for mine."

invited editors of objectivist publications to give speeches and has tried to add an objectivist seminar to the curriculum, an idea which Director of Undergraduate Studies of Philosophy, R.I.G. Hughs, rejected, calling the philosophy "disreputable."

Rand presented objectivism in her two best- selling novels, The Fountainhead ( 1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), as well as in her other fiction and non-fiction essays. She arranged her philosophy into four strands: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and politics. Rand summarized the metaphysical strain in her statement, "existence exists." Objectivism is based on the assumption that humankind can understand the world through rational thought. Thus Rand's epistemology her theory of the nature of knowledge-centers on reason. The character John Galt in Atlas Shrugged best explains the objectivist ethic: "I swear- by my life and my love of it- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." Rand's political vision includes a limited government structure and pure laissez-faire capitalism.

Although this philosophical outline does not prescribe any specific political affiliation, most active objectivists at Yale are also members of the Party of

the Right (P OR). T he re have been objectivists in the POR since the founding of the party in the early 1950's. Although objectivists have always been a minority, they are very active in party leadership.

Both R ubin, just elected Secretary/Treasurer, and the previous party chairman, Todd Lencz (SM, '89), try to follow Rand's theories, explaining that objectivists do not fit the standard "conservative" label but feel comfortable in the P O R because it espouses no official doctrine and serves as a debating society. Objectivists accept some political philosophies from each end of the political spectrum. On the one hand, they agree with the left's fight for civil liberties and its denunciati.on of state- imposed morality, while also supporting the right's firm defense of property rights and capitalism. If forced to classify themselves politically, objectivists generally refer to themselves as right wing because of their overriding commitment to capitalism.

Students in the POR do not always welcome this support from the objectivist element. Within the party, good-natured disagreement exists.

John Brewer (SM, '87), the newly elected chairman of the PO R exclaimed, "I'm not a Randhead, not The New J ou rnal/january 30, 1987 5

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â&#x20AC;˘ me." His brown hair hanging well ~ below his shoulders, Brewer proudly pointed out that both he and Rubin have a pierced ear- it is the first time in the history of the party that two of its ~ leading members wear an earring.

"The POR is not an ideologically monolithic group," Brewer said, "but one of the problems with objectivists in general and in dealing with them is that theirs is a very dogmatic system although it claims to be completely rational ."

Objectivists like to take advantage of any opportunity to challenge traditional conservative views within the POR. Rubin for one has become frustrated with the complexities he finds in conservatism: "Conservatism 'cult of moral greyness'- everything is as a whole is a mass of Arthur Rubin grey, there is no right and wrong, contradictions- it's terrible." The new philosophy: "If everything is r~Jative. Sometimes an religious right, for example, appalls is not, it's a fascist. issue is pretty tough to judge and there him : "Religion is the key problem with it suppresses individual rights. are grey areas, but we believe that conservatism. Because of their Although objectivists VIew there is right and wrong, there is good religious beliefs, conservatives seem to communism as "evil," they feel that and evil, there is black and white." think that their morality is the right American foreign policy makers Associate Philosophy Professor John morality and they should legislate it to should formulate policies more Fischer and other philosophers us." Religious faith is contrary to sensitive to human rights violations challenge that clear division. "I think it Randian thought and the objectivists than to hypothetical communist ¡ is fair to say that most philosophers strongly oppose alliances between infiltration. reject this as an oversimplified view of religion and politics.

Despite the apparent similarities be- the world," Fischer said. Although not In fact, objectivists oppose tween some objectivist and standard a Randian expert, Fischer is very government intervention in the realm liberal views, Rubin claimed, "Most familiar with libertarianism, a branch of any moral issue. They abhor the liberal Yalies don't have much interest of conservatism with some similarities Reagan Administration's anti-abortion in the Objectivism Study Group. to objectivism. He does not dismiss position as well as much of its Third People don't know what it is but will objectivism outright as many World policy against communism. criticize it anyway. They say, 'Oh, philosophers do, but does debate its Rubin said that "the United States' Ayn Rand's a fascist.' For Christ's reasoning. In his peaceful office in SSS objective in foreign policy should be sake, if there is anything she is not, it's overlooking the Long Island Sound, the protection of human rights. I think a fascist." Robert Larsen (BK, '87) , Fischer explained , "Many philosophers it was wrong for the United States to former Liberal Party Chairman and believe that the only way in which support the Shah, Battista, and current Vice President of the Yale objectivism is plausible is to make Somoza (military dictators in Iran, College Democrats, speaks for one assumptions that are naive and Cuba, and Nicaragua) because we fail element of the politically active liberals unrealistic." to see the forest through the trees. The on campus. "We are diametrically Objectivists and mainstream primary concern we should have opposed to their beliefs. Objectivists philosophers differ fundamentally on should be the protection of human have one big solution which they hope issues concerning human nature and rights. If the United States supports a solves problems instead of dealing with on the political role of government. government just because it is anti- the problems. Liberals have a more Objectivists believe that social communist, but disregards human realistic outlook." Rubin disagreed, programs are immoral. They argue rights, then we seem to have missed arguing that objectivism does in fact that such programs reduce incentive the point." Although this idea seems provide the tools to find realistic and create a cycle of welfare similar to liberal beliefs, it is not rooted answers in a complex world. "The generations. "The government is not in the same philosophy. By objectivist biggest thing you'll come across, the babysitter of the people," said standards, communism is not a . especially at a place like Yale which is Rubin. Objectivists would like to legitimate governmental system since pretty liberal, is what Rand called the dismantle public policy programs such

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6 The New Journal/January 30, 1987

Berliner had started rereading the novel one night during exam period and by the next day was almost half way through the 1168 page book.

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rereading the novel one night during exam period and by the next day was almost half way through the 1168 page book. For Berliner, objectivism has provided a very organized way to think and live. "What it comes down to," she said, "is you don't let other people trample on you. I think that really helps a lot. If you think that the world is a rational place and you can achieve your goals, it is a lot easier to deal with."

Berliner values the personal applications of objectivist thegry, but the philosophy is generally understood and criticized for its political, not its individual, implications. And objectivists don't mind the criticism, so long as it is well thought out. Several objectivists have said that they have had a difficult time finding openmindedness at Yale, an institution which they believe has a widespread liberal consensus and a prevailing dislike of conservatism. "There is too much knee-jerkism both on the left and the right, but especially on the left," Rubin said. "When everyone is liberal you kind of trip over yourself and say 'yeah we should divest, yeah we should spend more money on social programs, and no nukes, and let's go sit on the Trident subs'- who !lives a damn why, everyone else is doing it! But Yale is not a microcosm of the real world."

Rubin believes that most Yale students will be shocked to find that people in the non-academic world are less inclined to be liberal and that in the long ~:un, objectivism will provide a more practical outlook. Given the renewed interest in Rand and her works, perhaps objectivists will be able to find a more receptive audience outside of Yale.

Dana Berliner, (TD, '81) applies Rancfa fiction to her personal life: "What it c:omes down to is you don't let other people trample on you." as the welfare system, even if such a They believe in libertarian rights or project required several decades to 'negative' rights- that people not complete. "Ideally, private charity interfere with them," he said. As a should and I think would take care of resuit, many philosophers view objecthe people that are on welfare :¡now," tivists to be self-centered, not sensitive said Rubin. "Back when we had less to the realities of society. Fischer welfare, more people gave to private contends that objectivists generalize charity. Basically, I believe that man is about the human condition and fail to essentially good and that the world is a empathize with individual circumgood place." Fischer thinks that stances. "Objectivists tend to forget or objectivists have an overly optimistic deemphasize that people have special view of human nature and would needs and that people are either born argue that, "If we just left it up to into tremendous poverty or they have voluntary interaction it is probable natural handicaps and those people that not enough people would conwill inevitably not get very much out of tribute. In many cases people will a system which operates on Randian think it is fair that we have an overall assumptions," said Fischer. social policy that requires a certain For some objectivists, rational selfcontribution and therefore they're centeredness transcends political willing to contribute given that philosophy to help them in their everyone else does." personal lives. "There is a certain way According to Fischer, the optimism that I find objectivism very helpful as a of objectivism makes the philosophy woman because I really have to have unique as well as easy to criticize. "It an 'Okay, here I am, this is what I differs not just from socialist, marxist, want and this is how I'm going to get it' and liberal doctrine, but even moderattitude," said Dana Berliner (TD, ate and some conservative doctrine in '87), another member of the group. In that objectivists don't favor a minimal her room, a copy of Atlas Shrugged lay Martha Brant is a sophomore in Timothy level of 'positive' or welfare rights. open on the floor. Berliner had started Dwight and on the staff ofi'NJ.

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The New journal/january 30, 1987 7

8 The New J ournal/january 30, 1987

At the sh anty town in Leon wh ere members of th e delegation built latrines.

Where the War Is Tamar Lehrich When we arrived in Miami, we wanted to eat. We wanted to eat cheeseburgers. Even I, who usually avoid red meat, fantasized about a cheeseburger. We got off the plane, stumbled around bleary-eyed through the airport, and stared blankly into store windows. "There's just so much stuff here," I remember thinking.

When we finally found a cafeteriastyle restaurant, I didn't know what to choose. After two weeks, I had been conditioned to having only three options: chicken, fish, or the old standby . . . rice and beans. Now the food seemed so colorful, so real. We piled up our trays, grabbing whatever looked good. Cheeseburgers, fries, huge Cokes, yogurt, fruit, and Dove bars filled every inch of table space. I took a stack of napkins two inches thick.

I sat in that restaurant, the walls were some sort of orange, a couple of guys were playing pseudo-tropical music on synthesizers, and I began to laugh . I looked around-at the food, the plastic plants, the people sitting

alone in formica cubicles- and was In practical terms this meant th at struck by the absurdity of the scene. students from Yale, Wesleyan, a nd But the others continued to eat, just Southern Connecticut, a n d New staring at their plates and munching Haven area residents lived for either away. I looked at Caprice, she smiled two or four weeks in the small city and then started to giggle. Soon we of Leon. There were orig inally were all laughing, uncontrollably, two different delegations, one having tears streaming down our faces. And the purpose of "fact-finding" an d the just as suddenly, we stopped. other devoted to reconstructing the Museum of the Americas in Leon. Yet, It's been a week since that day, a week the two groups overlapped-some of since we left Nicaragua. We, 15 Yale the students spent time building and students, went on December 30 as part many of the carpen ters, architects, and of the New Haven/Leon Sister City construction peop l e attended Project, a group committed to meetings. strengthening "global understanding" The group as a whole was, unlike by establishing a connection with the Yale, truly "diverse." Few o f the Yalies people of Leon. The Project, a private had known each other before, and the organization run by Alan Wright,who construction crew was also a mixed graduated from Yale in December with bunch. A sampling: Dave Dixon, in a doctorate in philosophy, has involved his fifties, was a graduate of the Yale 2000 people, including 130 volunteers School of Architecture; Campbell and four full-time staff members. The Dalgleish went to th e Drama School 16th delegation in two years, this was and now teaches screen play writing at the first to include a group of NYU. A volunteer at the W halley university students. With 30 members, Avenue Prison P oet r y Center, it was also the largest to go to Leon Dalgleish wanted to establish a under the Sister City Project. connection between poets in th e New The New Journal/january 30, 1987 9

Haven prison and those in a prison located outside of Leon. Sandra Thomas is a professional photographer for a newspaper in Milford; Catherine Urbane worked on a film about Nicaraguan children intended for children in the US; John Bach is a painter who spent a total of three years in prison for protesting during Viet Nam; Dan Botkin makes hacky-sacs, and he made lots of them during the trip. And we played it everywhere- in airports, in the center of Leoneverywhere.

Leon, like New Haven, is both a university town and a harbor town.

With a population of 120,000, the city lies about 50 miles northwest of Managua on the Pacific Coast. The streets are narrow and mostly unpaved. The houses are flat-roofed, made of either concrete or wooden boards nailed together- shanties.

Graffiti, all of it political , covers the outer walls of houses, stores, and restaurants. Virtually every type of building has some sort of slogan, whether for the Liberal Independent party, the Marxist/Leninist party, the Social Christian party, or the Sandinistas (FSLN).

In Leon, for the first couple of weeks the construction crew concentrated on restoring the roof and the staircase in

the Museum and on bu ilding bookshelves for a childrens' library there. Cathy Cowles, a Wesleyan student, told me: "This is a project that has concrete results. We're working on something that's not necessarily a main priority of the people of Leon but a way of saying we believe in their future. That's what a museum is to me." When the Museum opens, one room will be devoted to art from New Haven.

Six construction people remained in Nicaragua until January 19th-the rest of us returned on the 13th- in order to build latrines for a shanty town in Leon called "Heroes and Martyrs of the Calvary." Although the Sandinista government has given each family in this 200 member community a free plot of land as part of Nicaragua's land reform program, the people there cannot afford to build more than two latrines and two water pumps. The community had some building materials but not enough labor, so the construction crew volunteered.

Meanwhile the other half of the group met with people and organizations in the Leon communi!y, all in an attempt to get a fuller political, social, and economic picture of the country, a picture not given in

Hasenfus being arreated: "More than a battalion of your blond invaderâ&#x20AC;˘ baa bitten the dutt of my kneeling mountaina."

10 The New Journal/january 30, 1987

the US press. We saw first-hand the effects of the US embargo, typified by a health clinic struggling to survive in Subtiava, an impoverished district of Leon. There were a handful of doctors responsible for an entire community, one broken microscope, a lack of supplies and space. I wondered if this was part of the "Nicaraguan juggernaut" that Reagan keeps talking about.

Some of our meetings revealed the strengths of the country and the achievements of the government. The members of AMNLAE, the independent nation a l women's organization, were especially inspiring. The group's slogan this year is "Nobody giv~s an inch, nobody yields," and we quickly saw how this has been translated into reality, into the creation of a strong, influential women's movement in Nicaragua.

There are now sex education programs in most high schools and free, government-subsidized day care centers. Eighty percent of women work outside the home, entering the professions of law, medicine and education in full force, and sometimes dominating the field. And in the new constitution, AMNLAE has left its mark: divorced men are now required to pay child-support and alimony, and women are guaranteed equal rights.

Yet, one thing I began to notice about all of our meetings, whether they were with professors at the University of Leon or the women at AMNLAE, is the way we-as students from Yaleasked our questions from a limited perspective. We'd ask about the lesbian and gay movement in Nicaragua or about the illegality of abortion, and we'd receive non-answers or blank stares. It seemed we were tacitly implying that the more Nicaraguans are like us, the better. Caprice Young, (MC '88), put it aptly when she told me, "When you ask a farmer what democracy is and he says, 'It's protection for my cows from the Contras,' the problem of conveying abstract ideologies becomes clear." It took us a while, or me at least, to

WE KEEP

OUT

a working Leon's Museum Americas with a helper.

realize that our priorities weren't necessarily theirs. The women at AMNLAE told us several times that yes, they do want to break down stereotypes, but right now their main priority is supporting those fighting the Contras. Also, they still must contend with an age-old value system- many men won't even let their wives attend AMNLAE meetings, and some refuse to look after their kids if the wife does go.

We also met with members of the government: in Leon, the mayo~· and the regional coordinator of the local FSLN, and in Managua, a National Assembly representative and an editor of the newspaper El Nuevo Diario, a virtual mouthpiece of the Sandinistas (They've got FSLN banners and propaganda all over their offices).

We'd ask about the food shortages or about the philosophy of the Nicaraguan press and its relationship to the FSLN, and we'd receive responses which were either circular and contradictory or which completely brushed aside our questions as they launched into monologues on the accomplishments of the FSLN and the improvements the country has made since the Revolution (the overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1979).

Yet, in talking with the people of Leon that we met on the street and those that we stayed with, I feel I did get a sense of the political climate of the country. The idea that the Sandinista government doesn't have popular

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don't want to reduce the Lanzas family into several paragraphs on the pages of a Yale magazine, so I'll leave only a few images. First, about Juana: Every day when Lilian and I would return from touring or meetings, we'9 find our room completely cleaned- fresh sheets (they wash everything by hand), things straightened up. And all the clothes that I had left out of my bag would be freshly washed and ironed (They seem to iron everything in Nicaragua. Jack's "mother" even did his boxer shorts, the result of which support is unfounded. Even the people They have a fairly large house with was "like wearing cardboard"). I, we spoke with from small villages are electricity and running water, feeling guilty and amazed, would aware of the fact that the Contras although they have an outhouse. A plot thank Juana profusely, telling her that represent North American interests. of land at the side of their house was it was unnecessary, but she would just And even the people who don't occupied by roosters, chickens and smile and do the same thing the next completely support the government turkeys. The eldest daughter, Maria, day. don't support the Contras either. works for the Mayor, is divorced and And Gustavo:' ' After each meal at While local officials do parrot the party has a two-.year-old daughter. She had home, Lilian and I would talk with line, the people that I met were served in the Revolution and now has him, discussing politics, religion or independent thinkers. I was also struck committed herself to the FSLN and to education. He called us "his comrades" by how alive and present the AMNLAE, working, attending meet- and on the nights we didn't come home insurrection stiil is, though it occured ings, and doing community outreach for dinner, he ¡would wait until we eight years ago. Everyone seems to from 7 a.m. until 10 at night. One of returned, sometimes as late as 11 or remember the Revolution vividly and their sons, Bernardo, plays first base 12, just to sit with us as we drank fruit nurture the memory of it, and of for the Leon Leones (Lions). He and drink made by Juana. One night¡ at course the Sandinistas have capitalized his brothers go out just about every dinner I looked down at our plates and on those memories. night, while the two younger sisters saw that as Lilian and I ate chicken, he hang around the house. All the kids had only rice and beans.

What I learned most about in have had the opportunity to go to the I remember vividly the -day I helped Nicaragua- the images and University, though only one daughter, build a wall of a house in Subtiava. conversations that I will remember- I Patricia, has remained in school.

Jack Hedin, (MC '88), stayed didn't learn during our lunch meetings I still find it difficult to write or talk with a family who lived in what he or question and answer sessions. Since about the experience without feeling as describes as "a one-room shack I've been back, I've found that what though I'm diminishing it somehow. I fashioned of wood slabs." They had I've been talking about most and what Daycare in Nicaragua- fully government-subsidized and available to children of all I feel I know best- because I know so working mothers. little about Nicaraguan politics anyway- is the experience I had living with a family. In Leon, all the students lived with families, either in the district of Subtiava, where many of the homes had no electricity, indoor plumbing or sewage systems, or in the more middleclass area of Fundesi.

Lilian Autler, (SM '88), and I stayed with Gustavo and Juana Lanzas Montoya and their family in Subtiava, a district in Leon. Part of a mattressmaking cooperative, the Lanzas seemed financially comfortable in comparison to the rest of Subtiava.

12 The New JournaVJanuary 30, 1987

~hen

you ask a farmer what democracy is and he says, 'It's protection for my cows from the Contras,' the problem of conveying abstract ideologies becomes clear."

J only one electrical outlet and carried buckets of water from a neighbor's pump each day. A stronger structure made of concrete blocks and mortar was under construction, but the family could not afford the cost of the labor to complete it, so the delegation volunteered.

The first day of working on the house, things were completely unorganized. Antonio Lopez, the mason in charge of the construction, didn't know any English, and no one working that day from the delegation could speak more than a bit of broken Spanish. "Antonio was really going bananas at first. He had to demonstrate how to mix the cement, how to apply the mortar, and how to put up the measuring poles,, Jack said.

"We had a lot of people, and when everyone was finally working, it was really exciting. There was a huge group of kids from the neighborhood just observing us gringos."

Despite the language barrier, we eventually worked out a system of communication with Antonio. He'd say "Okay!" and we'd respond with "Alright!" I also taught him how to give a "high-five," which made him smile but which he didn't seem to understand. By the end of the morning another wall had been erected and we were singing and dumping water on each other. Antonio laughed at us.

When he toldjud Aley, a contractor in our group, that he wanted to come to the US and get a job on a construction brigade, none of us knew how to respond.

The addresses in Nicaragua say a lot about the character and quality of the country. My family's address is The New Journal/january 30, 1987 13

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(roughly translated): "Gustavo and we have a 9 o'clock meeting," Lilian Juana Lanzas Montoya, one block to and I would tell Juana, but she would the north, two blocks down, the last shake her head, motion to us to sit house, Subtiava, Leon, Nicaragua down and insist that we eat. "You'll get Libre." Other addresses are similar, there," she'd say. Soon we were all with the addition of "two blocks down joking about "Nica Time." from the Texaco station" or "one block The addresses also show the across from the main road." This intimacy of the community. Buildings illustrates the way that everything don't have numbers, and there are no operates in Nicaragua- slowly. The street signs. Instead each one is first phrases I learned when I arrived described in relation to all the were "tomorrow morning" and "no others- in order to find a house , you problem." I f you're supposed to be must have a sense of the whole somewhere at 10 a.m. and you show neighborhood, not just a number. On up around 11:30 or noon, that's fine , our first night in Subtiava, many of us because nobody's in a rush. It took us a went to the local evangelical church. while, being fresh out of tension-filled The pastor, Jaime Gutierrez, spoke as Yale, to get the hang of this. "We can't he often did of politics, of the toll the have breakfast this morning because war was taking on the Nicaraguan Gustavo Lanzas and his granddaughter: each morning he'd sit outside in his rocking ch air , read the B ible and 1 ,

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Instead each one is described in relation to all the others- in order to fmd a house, vou must have a ~ense of the whole neighborhood, not just a number. people. H e read from both the Old and the New Testaments. Though none of us were particularly religiou s, when J aime asked us to gather at the front of the room, we did so willingly.

H e was welcoming us to his community, sayi n g it was our community now. Then , one by one, each member of the church rose and embraced each student, each construction worker. Someone played the guitar and another began to sing.

Soon we all joined in.

That moment has become fixed in m y mind like a snapshot. Isn't it inconceivable that these people would willingly take into their homes the citizens of a country waging a war against them? That they would refuse even to take money to cover the cost of feedin g us? That they could immediately accept and understand that the US government is distinct from many of the people of the US? These were my thoughts in the restaurant of the Miami airport, thoughts of the Lanzas and J aime and the women at AMNLAE. I remembered the way that Gustavo, a devout evangelical, would sit outside in his rocking ch air every morning, read the bible and sing. He had two bibles which never left his side. On our last day there, he appeared in our -;oo~ and placed one in Lilian's hands and one in mine. Neither of us could say a word . . So, a week ago we were all laughing- at the ·absurdity of the orange walls and tiny cubicles in the restaurant. Laughing was a release, a recognition that we were glad to be home . Then, not wanting to separate ourselves from the experience, from the people of Leon, the laughter stopped as suddenly as it had begun .

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Hard Corps Blues Tom Augst Since she was eight, Cathanne Steadman ('86) has wanted to join the Peace Corps. She remembers hearing adults speak of it in glowing terms: "It seemed like such a neat thing to do."

Now much older, Steadman sits on a bench in the Pierson College courtyard two days before Yale commencement exercises . She pulls her light brown hair off of her shoulders, clasps and unclasps her hands, and looks around occasionally, awaiting her parents' arrival. How does she feel about graduating? "I'm terrified," she says, shrugging her shoulders. A few days after Steadman leaves Yale, she will train at the Peace Corps center in Philadelphia, and in a few weeks, she will be teaching English in Zaire.

Though she says she is scared, her gaze is steady as she explains her reason fo r 16 The New J oumal/janua...,. 30. 1987

volunteering two years of her life to live in the Third World. Having grown up with the Quaker tradition of public service and pacifism, Steadman feels a m o ral obligation to "do something good for someone." She believes the United States should have a national service requirement. At the same time, Steadman has a practical reason for volunteering in the Peace Corps.

Unlike many of her classmates, she knows she doesn't want to go to business or law school. The Peace Corps will test her interest in teaching as a career. Laughing, she says, "This is a highly professional step I'm taking."

Catharine Steadman was one of 27 Yale seniors and graduates to receive offers from the Peace Corps in 1986.

Though every year we hear of the rush of corporate-minded seniors to Wall Street, or of hundreds of seniors submitting resumes to investment banking programs, the Peace Corps, not M organ Stanley, has consistently been the largest employer of Yale graduates. "There is an abiding interest here in public service," Susan Hauser, dean of Career Services, insisted. In fact, in the 25 year history of the Corps, Yale has been the largest supplier of volunteers, sending o ver five hundred graduates to serve in the Third World. Why do Yalies volunteer for the P eace C o rps?

Phillip Stevens ('62) had what he called the "standard attitude" towards his two years in Nigeria with the Peace Corps. He understood vaguely that he was going over to do good, but the

\lege

"There is a radical humanism in this place that teaches the individual that in using the extraordinary resources of this institution to develop his own potential, he learns how to use himself in the service of the larger human community."

-former Yale President, Kingman Brewster to combine their with a sense of . Johnson did not particularly public te his claim of said he even b e a lot of the Corps, but of the other eyed", as he puts volunteers were were realistic "I'm a sailor, that one should ship and keep

accepted.

Walter Johnson ('64) served in Uganda from 1964-66 more out of a spirit for adventure than anything else.

The Corps appealed to him as a new idea; an exotic opportunity. At the same time, he felt some obligation towards his coun try, though not as stron gly as Steadman: "I don't know where I got that feeling. Perhaps it was more common at the time than it is now." Certainly the popularity of President Kennedy and the publicity surrounding the Corps gave wide circulation to values of patriotism, service and sacrifice- if the details of who was being served abroad, and how, remained more amorphous. The Peace Corps provided an excellent

for y selfup with s. To students a closed, elite community like Yale, the Peace Corps offered the chance to practice their idealism in the "real world". In the summer after graduation, Nick Allis ('64) joined many of his classmates trying to register black voters in Mississippi.

AJJis had come from a Christian "dogooder" background, a n d the civil rights movement fulfilled his need to serve others as well as his need to engage in some kind of action. "There were some real political issues being discussed and then acted upon, with some risk to the participants," Allis recalled. In retrospect, Allis believes that his sense of isolation from these issues at Yale provided a positive sort of frustration , an incentive to become involved in social issues. "I did feel Yale was enclosed, and wasn't directly

a part of these things. But then , that's what college is for, isn't it? To give you a ch ance to learn and think." Allis' experience with civil rights activism led to his decision to join the Peace Corps.

Compared to his experiences in Mississippi, the Peace Corps was a disappointment. Teaching in a secondary school in Nigeria, Allis felt none of the heady excitement he had known in Mississippi. "Teaching is teaching, even if it's in rural west Africa. It d idn't have the intensity of being on the front line of a struggle." If Allis and the many other idealistic volunteers who first joined the Peace Corps were "wide eyed", they soon found that neither the Third World nor th e Peace Corps had any room for great causes of social change.

As part of the first generation o f Peace Corps volunteers, these three men reflected the naivete that characterized the early years o f the Peace Corps itself. The first volun teers were typically recent college gr aduates who had studied liberal arts, and were figuring out what to do with their lives.

T hough Congress h ad considered similar ideas in the late 1950s, the idea of the Peace Corps became popular only after Kennedy raised it in his campaign for the Presidency. The early enthusiasm for the Peace Corps, strongest among students, was closely tied to K e nnedy's image: his idealism and youth encouraged a spirit of patriotism, service, and sacrifice, and promised adventure to pioneers of the President's "New Frontier."

If volunteers were more a mbivalent The New JournaVJanuary 30, 1987 17

"O n your willingness not merely to serve on e or two years in the Service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether we as a free society can compete."

- ] o hn F. K enne d y abou t their actual service than their own ideals or personal needs, their views reflected the values of the Peace Corps itself. The Corps emphasized its benefits for the United States as much as its benefit for the countries it was serving. The Peace Corps Act of 1961 o u tlined three goals that have remained the Corps' governing ideals.

By sending American "volunteers for peace" to Africa, Latin America, and A sia, the Corps would aid developing countries with trained manpower, create a better understanding of the United States in those countries, and increase Americans' understanding of fore i g n c u ltures. Rather than perpetuate the image of the Ugly American, going abroad with little concern for native language or culture, imposing his own plans for change with cigar in hand, the Peace Corps would help Third World development on an individual level, encouraging native communities to help themselves. The Peace Corps does not decide where projects are conducted,

or which volunteers will participate; therefore considered the most suitable countries submit requests for to represent the United States and the volunteers and then choose from most capable of effecting change. among those that the Peace Corps Once in the Third World, Peace Corps volunteers faced tremendous nominates .

A concern for the United States' hnage cultural differences. Part of the abroad dominated the goals of the problem was that volunteers had Peace Corps. The priority of that difficulty adapting to their concern in shaping the early Corps was communities and being accepted as confirmed by a selection policy that equals. In Uganda, Walter Johnson sought out educated Americans more saw one of his students from secondary than Americans who had concrete school push a woman off a bus; the skills to offer developing countries. student believed that he was privileged "The Peace Corps in the early days had because the white man was teaching the feeling that it was Kennedy's him. Johnson realized that education progeny. It was more an elitist appeal was not giving his students a greater to people with liberal arts backgrounds sense of responsibility for their society. to get their hands dirty," Stephen I nstead, they would return from school Bingham ('64) observed. "It was vacations boasting about how they had considered important that liberal arts avoided work. Twenty years later, majors would bring a set of values that Johnson think's little of the impact he others would not." When Allis, had as a teacher in Africa. But at the Stephens, and Johnson were selected time he remained at a distance from to teach in schools in Africa, none of his community, undoubtedly making them had had teaching experience; but his task all the harder. In his little free they were all Yale graduates, bright time, he kept to himself, reading crates and motivated liberal arts majors, and of books provided to him through the Peace Corps. He also played on a Kennedy a t Yale in 1962: H ia image inapired m uch of th e early enth uaiaam rugby team with players from Britain, for the P eace Corpa. and toured Africa to play against ~ j native teams. :J Even when volunteers actively sought integration into the i r communities, they found themselves unable to help because they lacked the ~ necessary skills and cultural insight. ~ Bingham served in an experimental j Corps program in community ÂŁ development in Sierra Leone from c 1965-1967. There with his wife as an ~ "outside agent of change", Bingham was to live in the commumty to encourage initiative in the native population for finding new solutions to >- their problems of daily life. The project ! epitomized the Peace Corps' approach 8 to development; volunteers were passively involved, and yet were meant to have a positive influence, provoking change without directing it. Bingham became quickly disillusioned with the program and the Corps, finding that he could offer little to the community that helped the community develop itself. "They accepted ideas that we suggested not as inquiring minds but 18 The New .JournaVJanuary 30. 1987

because we were white people, and white people were bound to succeed," he explained . For Bingham, the Peace Corps, which brought general intentions and few real skills to a culture where colonialism and the Cath olic Church had destroyed black peop les' self-esteem for generations, could only be counterproductive.

S in ce its more naive beginnings, the Cor ps has attempted to improve its efficacy by emphasizing the need for practical skills and background in public service in its recruitment. When David Foltz ('77) went to Rwanda to teach advanced English conversation to university students, he already had three years of teaching experience in Europe, experience which he believes made him an attractive candidate for the Corps. Catharine Steadman, thou gh she had been only a distant adm irer of Dwight Hall community service, had gone to a high school where such service was required; in addition, she too had a year of teaching experience during her Junior year abroad. Now using the slogan. "The Tou ghest job You'll Ever Love", the Peace Corps offers programs in forestry, agriculture, health, business and seven other fields in addition to teach ing and English language programs. At the same time, the Peace Corps has become highly selective and competitive. A vague interest in doing good and in having an adventure are no longer enough; while most college graduates are slated for teaching programs, the Peace Corps also seeks people with technical skills. Allis, J ohnson and Stevens joined the Peace Corps with relative ease. But in 1986, of 13,000 who applied to the Peace Corps, 3,000 were accepted. Although Yale received 27 of those offers, even a Yale graduate like Steadman can no lon ger simply waltz into the Corps.

The process requires a 14-page application, eight recommendations, and a lengthy interview. As a result of this competitiveness, volunteers are now more qualified- if one can ever be qualified for the experience they will face. Through a two to three month training program, the Peace Corps

Ste p h en B ingh am '64: T w o years o f " welfa r e colonialism " in Sie rra uone.

now attempts to prepare volunteers more thoroughly. During this training, the volunteers take courses in the language, politics, history, and culture of a region, and may also have on-thejob or technical training to familiarize them with their specific jobs and help them "brush up" on their skills.

As the Peace Corps has become more skill-oriented, volunteers have realized that they can use it to acquire valuable training and experience.

After becoming interested tn anthropology at Yale, Allen Tuner ('70) had gone to Mexico to study Mayan hieroglyphics . That exposure increased his desire to have a crosscultural learning experience at the grass-roots level. He eventually applied to the Peace Corps for very practical reasons: he wanted to travel, and could not find a non-professional job that would allow him to save enough money to do it on his own. The Peace Corps would not only support him in another country. it would train him in some practical skiJls that he sought in either health or agriculture.

Assigned to the Dominican Republic, he was slated for a rice irrigation

project, but had h imself transferred to another project working with poor upland farmers that better suited his interests. Tuner's pragmatism led him to join despite the fact that he didn't even agree with the Peace Corps as an institution; he had to justify participating in it to both himself and to his friends. "I was being a little selfrighteous-'weU, I'll do this because the government will train me with skills, and I'll put up with being associated with the U.S. government for a bit."

For some professions, the Peace Corps has become a kind of standard learning experience- in effect, a graduate school of hard-knocks learning. "I had no illusions that I would change anything," Foltz explained. "My main motiva~ion to go was not a desire to perform public service but to get a very different teaching experience." Ironically, the Peace Corps is now looked upon by employers in some career fields as another credential on a resume -like a B.A. from Yale. For example, having served in the Peace Corps provides a special advantage to anyone wanting to enter the foreign service. Agencies and The New Journal/january 30, 1987 19

In the sixties Somalia was famous for sending volunteers home in stra it jackets.

companies often view the Peace Corps as llaving an advantage over graduate school because of the hands-on experience it provides.

T hough tod ay's volunteers are better prepared than their predecessors, overcoming cultural differences has remained the essential problem to their effectiveness in the Third World. Can a n yone ever truly assimilate into a culture other than his or her own?

Consider ing that Peace Corps volunteers have only two years of service, the odds are against it.

H owever educated, volunteers still bring to the T hird World the percep tions a nd assumptions of their own experience. Whitney Sanders (AR CH '86) who served in Sierra Leone from 1981-1983, found that, "People still get off the plane and say, 'Gee, these people a re black."' Some volu nteers remain fairly cynical about the influence of educated whites in the impoverished Third World. "Yalies o rgani2.e best in the community they are a part of," Bingham said. "They're not going to be too successful in East H aven." Even farther from Yale than East H aven, Foltz was considered a magician in Rwanda when he lit a gas stove, and throughout his time felt u ncomfortable with the excessive defere nce and stares he received from Rwandans. For volunteers who come expecting to be accepted as equals, such an experience is highly isolating and disillusioning.

Not all volunteers feel the same David Devlin Foltz. Clan of '77.

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20 T h e New JournaVJanuary 30. 1987

frustration , because ultimately their experience 1n a Third World community depends on the specific situation they ar e thrown into and their ability to overcome cultural barriers. The white man is not universally seen as a magician. Many volunteers encounter violence by those who view them as convenient symbols ofU .S. imperialism. People threw rocks at Sanders: "There's an awful lot of spite out there . . . you're publicly ridiculed and chastised." Not until he had left the foreigners' compound (closed in by a chain link fence) and moved into the village, letting his neighbors know that he lived and ate just like them, did Sanders begin to find acceptance. When he returned home, he left behind some of the closest friends he'd ever had. Nick Allis also had difficulties that lasted for a full year, feeling continuously depressed and lonely. But once he could speak the language and interact, everything changed: "My second year, having gotten adjusted, was great. I was able to relax with the people and share their experience."

Even when volunteers achieved some kind of easiness with their communities, they remained pessimistic about their real contribution.

Writing home from Ethiopia where he was employed in the imperial ministry as a health specialist, Zyg Broel-Plater (LAW, '68) tried to evaluate what he'd accomplished. "I suddenly realized that all of my work might have been less

than one burp of an elephant."

Cultural barriers are but one hurdle; others include the lack of technology and the a m bivalence towards change in the Third World, and the bureaucracy both of the countries that volunteers serve and of the Peace Corps itself. Many volunteers felt that their efforts were futile. As Plater puts it, "Building a well that crap won't flow into is too much to expect, way too much to expect."

Whatever their jobs, all returned volunteers agree that they got more out of the Peace Corps than they gave, and that they all had an extraordinary adven ture. "It was an amazing revelation that when you climb into another culture with people different from Americans, you grow," said Tuner. "An entire new universe is born." ReturneCi volunteers have great d ifficulty describing the ways in which they had come up against the limits of their understanding of the world, or had their naivete shattered. For those who had traveled little, for those who simply hadn't known that most of the world lives "that way", Tuner's sense of shock was familiar: "In my wildest, wildest imagination, I could never have thought up a place like that."

Volunteers remember particular details: Fleas, dysentery, grass huts without furniture or running water. In Sierra Leone, natives call rodents of assorted types "beef", and treat them accordingly. Never mind illiteracy and starvation, one volunteer says, it's d isease: cases of malaria twice as bad as any of the worst epidemics

ci

reported, and tapeworms which live in your own intestine until the Peace ~ Corps medical specialist arrives. You i study the statistics, such as $200-300 5 average yearly incomes, or 50 percent 8 mortality rates before the age of five , but you cannot truly visualize the Third World. The three hour videotape that the Peace Corps shows during recruitment, or the warnings and scenarios that you receive in !!

training, cannot prepare you for this; after three days, maybe after you have stepped over your ftrst dead body, then

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For Zyg Plater, Ethiopia was a museum society, Haile Selassie had ruled by a kind of divine right since 1908. "Having gone to fine schools with highfalutin' ideals, volunteers would go to villages where the main issue is if the chief guy is going to kill someone.- anrl if he does, he will do it to impress you." Plater compared going to Ethiopia with stepping into 16th-century Europe.

Not everyone can handle the shock of going into such a foreign culture and being left to make do as they can. In the sixties Somalia was notorious for sending volunteers home in straight jackets. Plater met a fellow volunteer in a desolate part of Ethiopia and asked directions from him; though the man had probably not seen another white person in months, he only responded with "yes." "He was fried," Plater said.

•He'd gotten involved, realized he was not going to change the world, and that his presence was ambiguous." The most common reaction to culture shock is that volunteers go home. Of Whitney Sanders' Peace Corps .d ass that went abroad in June of 1981-', 40 percent returned to the United States at some point before the end of their two years. In any given year, the Peace Corps generally ends up sending 30 percent of the volunteers home early.

Living in the Third World blemished the United States' image in many volunteers' eyes. Sanders recalled passing a hut in Sierra Leone where the only light came from a television set showing "Charlie's Angels"-an image of the United States that, for an American, seemed grotesque in a place where no one ever had enough food to eat. Living in villages without running water or electricity sensitized volunteers to the States' enormous waste of the world's resources. In Sierra Leone, Bingham saw the "quiet dignity" of rural people who have learned the cycle of their lives: "It's a humbling experience for those of us who live in the microwave society." Foltz experienced a similar disillusionment with American con-

sumption and complacency. One of the first things he did upon returning to the States was attend a HarvardYale football game. "Sitting in the stands, I thought, 'I haven't seen so many white people in two years'. . . everyone seemed so irrelevant, but then so was I, and I · had been in Rwanda."

Though a goal of the Peace Corps was to "improve" the image of the United States abroad, it often has the inverse effect, revealing to volunteers the reality of the U ..S.'s good intentions and interest in international development. Bingham believes that the Peace Corps is a logical extension of our foreign policy, which, rather tttan allowing Third World countries their own path of development, encourages a dependence on the international market and on cash crops, of which the United States may be a prime consumer. "Self-sufficient farming is disappearing in Africa," he explained. "People are now starving where 50 years ago they supported themselves." Similarly, Zyg Plater saw the Peace Corps as a tool for a kind of welfare colonialism that was practiced most under the Nixon administration.

"If those countries had economic power, the US would snuff it out." A volunteer serving with Plater in Ethiopia discovered that the country possessed ideal climate and soil for growing oranges in the off-season, when oranges in Israel or the Arab countries are not yet ripe. The American Embassy prevented any development of the idea, because coffee is Ethiopia's major export crop and the US its major buyer. "So long as it had one crop, it was going to be beholden to the US," Platter continued. "Oranges would bring Ethiopia into a diversified market, and that was politically disequilibrating."

Impressions of their time abroad remains with volunteers, in ways that are often impossible to describe. "The things I was learning then are the most important things I ever learned," Tuner said. "But I can't really say what they are. Professionally they are

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22 The New JournaVJanuary 30, 1987

worthless, now that I have a career that I'd never dreamed I'd be doing." Tuner had vowed never to go back to school, but his Peace COrps experience encouraged him to pursue graduate work in agriculture. Every time Stephen Bingham reads about the Third World, he thinks about the village in which he lived. "The Peace Corps has been a critical element in my maintaining a commitment to social change," Bingham said. "There's an ongoing hum in the back of my mind that ther.e are people starving out there."

After their return, many volunteers were influenced in their choice of professional careers by their experience in Peace Corps. Nick Allis now practices as a public interest lawyer in the field of consumer safety. Whitney Sanders. went to Yale School of Architecture -after he returned to pursue an interest in urban housing: "I learned about making do with what you're given, through channels that are not often used, and again·st pressures that you don't normally feel . . . making do with materials that are less · costly, and coming up with new ways to interpret common problems in building methods." Sanders had dreams about Sierra Leone just after his return, and still, not a day goes by when he does not think about it. Zyg Plater felt he learned something about himself that has nothing to do with his law school or college degrees. "The Peace Corps teaches you what you can do as a human being," he said. Each little victory he had in Ethiopia, however insignificant and however unnoticed by anyone else, gave him the exhilaration of transcending three centuries all by himself.

Graduates who joined the Peace Corps seemed to agree that Yale had in some way influenced them to go, although they had d ifficulty describing exactly how. "There were things at Yale that allowed me to see the Peace Corps as an option, things at Yale that allowed me to make the Peace Corps a valuable experience," explained Tuner. Some volunteers speak of

Zygmunt Broel-Plater, Yale Law School, C lass of '68. •'

having learned self-reliance. Perhaps the rigors of Yale encourage evaluation of one's potential. Perhaps Yale does a good job of reminding students that they don't live in only one world, and that their lives don't have to be twodimensional. Certainly the diversity of student experience of which Yale presidents have spoken so highly continues to be a part of our education.

"Yale teaches you to be versatile and multifaceted," Johnson said. "I got that from my own experience of going from my jock friends on the hockey team to the El~zabethan club to discuss Dante's Inferno." Diversity at Yale is a far cry from the cultural differences volunteers encounter while walking miles of dirt road in the Third World, thinking of their home town. But Yale might teach the need to confront diversity and make it a part of one's life in order to continue learning.

Perhaps exper i encing Yale's diversity c hallenges students to continue experimenting with their lives once they walk through its gates for the last time. The Peace Corps is one means through which graduates go on learning about themsel_ves and their world. When Zyg Plater was at Yale Law School before entering the Corps, he came across many students he characterizes as "sodden preppies

going on to become mindless rich men." But he also found people similar to those he would later meet in the Corps- people with "unconventional things going on inside them," some of whom still cared about making a difference. The experiences of Yale and the Peace Corps are inseparable for Plater, because from both he learned the importance of doing something special. Because Plater went into the Peace Corps, he saw his possibilities open instead of close . "I might have gone to Wall Street if I hadn't done the Peace Corps," Plater said. Now a professor at Boston College Law School, he likes to tell his students three things that he believes capture what he learned from both Yale and the Peace Corps : "You're here to make a life as well as a living, and if you're lucky, a difference ."

Catharine Steadman's parents have arrived as the late afternoon sun streams into Pierson College, and they stand listening to her speak. She knows more of what to expect than did the first generation of Peace Corps volunteers. She explains that she does not hope to accomplish Great Things because the Peace Corps has warned her that she probably will not. A friend who served in the Corps recently wrote Steadman: "You realize how you're changing much faster than you see how they're changing." Though she is aware of these things, Steadman knows as little as other graduates have known upon leaving school. A last question as Steadman walks through the gate to Park Street: How does she feel? She smiles. "Pm sort of in shock. We leave the fifth of July."

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Professor Micaela di L eonar do: Last semester over 40 men took her Women's Studies class.

The scene opens with two men sitting in easy chairs, knitting. A Joan Armatrading record plays softly in the background. All is calm, until the argument begins.

It starts ofT innocently enough, one man announcing that it was he who decided to name their cats "Sappho" and "Julia Kristeva," while the other complains that he had favored "Suzanne Vega." "Well, I took the cat to Washington for the March for Women's Lives," huffs the first.

And the war is on. "I only read poetry by women," one of the men declares.

"I only read lesbian poetry," the other man snaps.

"I only read black lesbian poetry."

"I am a black lesbian poet!"

The subject turns to Women's Studies classes. Who has taken more?

"I haven't taken a course with a man yet," one of the men announces proudly. The other one snorts. "I really understand women," he says. "I'm gay.

I share the same marginalized position in the patriarchal power structure.

We're both oppressed." He accuses the other man of being competitive and unsympathetic. How to resolve this issue? The scene ends with both men rolling on the floor, one experiencing menstrual cramps and the other labor pains, while both yell, "I want to be a woman!"

24 The New Journal/january 30. 1987

Not For Women Only Jennifer Fleissner Last October, at the coffeehouse sponsored by Aurora, Yale's feminist magazine, Mark Gevisser, (SY '87) and Phil Auerswald, (PC '87) called their performance "the sensitive man sketch." They parodied character-types that most of the audience could easily recognize. At Yale, the "sensitive man" takes. his own interest in women's issues too seriously, comes to believe, as in the skit, that sensitivity towards women's problems is an adequate substitute for actual experience.

Feminists have always debated over the role men can or should play in the women's movement, and exaggerated stereotypes like the "sensitive man" often overshadow the finer points of that debate. At Yale, the issue remains a chaJlenging one, particularly in light of the fact that the male enrollment in Women's Studies 295a, the major's introductory course, rose roughly 700 percent this year. Last semester over 40 men took the course, which also doubled in size to 165 people. While the total male enrollment probably does not constitute a campus-wide trend towards feminism, the percentage increase is large enough to warrant a closer look at what was behind it and what it may suggest.

Micaela di Leonardo, assistant professor of anthropology, has taught the introductory women's studies course since last year, and she's happy about the sudden surge m mal<"

enrollment. Eager to talk about it, she suggested a possible explanation for the new numbers. "A lot of male students knew about me because of [my involvement in] the divestment campaign," she said. "These were people who were already concerned about larger issues of social inequity.

They knew gender was related to these issues and wanted to get the facts." Di Leonardo has encouraged students to see this relation through talks sh e has given at PROP, the pre-freshman orientation program for m inority students. She recalled how, after one of her speeches, a black student came up to her and asked her point-blank why he should be a feminist. "I had him imagine for a minute that I was in his position," she explained. "As a b lack man, I might say, 'I know there is a connection between these two great historical evils. I don't want to be feared on the street. I want my girl children to grow up and be able to realize their potential. I want to be an equal partner."' Drawing t h ese parallels between sexual and racial discrimination was an important part of di Leonardo's appr¡oach to teaching the introductory class during her firsl year.

A sophomore taking the introducwry course, Chris Kelley, (TD '89), also believes that the relationship between oppressed groups has contributed to the popularity of the class. "The gay movement and the

"They'd say things like, 'Are you gay?

Are you a reformed rapist? What's the deal?'" second wave of the feminist movement sort of correspond," he said. "There's a very different nature in the relationship betw'een women and gay men ." He explained that gay men can have a better perspective on women than straight men, one that is closer to the way in which women perceive themselves.

J ackie Dirks, a teaching assistant for di Leonardo's course, suggested that the growth of Yale's divestment campaign and the greater visibility of its gay community in recent years has created a more open atmosphere, encouraging a questioning of conventional values. "Whereas last year's course enrollment was evenly divided among all four classes, this year it's overwhelmingly made up of seniors," D irks said. "I'd say they've been here three years and things have happened that disturbed them, that made them realize Yale is a sexist place. T hey think, 'If it can be this bad here, it must be really terr ible other places."'

W hile becoming more politically aware after three years at Yale may lead some men to explore women's stud ies, the number of men enrolled is still low. "Oh, it's a fear of ridicule," di Leonardo said tersely, when asked why more men are not involved. One of her studen ts, Adam Kaplan, (TC '88), remembered the reactions of¡ some male friends when they learned he was taking the class: "They'd say things like, 'Are you gay? Are you a reformed rapist? What's the deal?"' Larry Bencivenga, (ES '87), who took â&#x20AC;˘Feminism and Philosophy" last year, explained, "We're not yet at the level where men even think Women's Studies courses are relevant to them."

The strong reputation of professors like Nancy Cott (History), Patricia Joplin (English), and di Leonardo, who are affiliated with the Women's Studies Department, is an added factor in the Department's growing popularity. Still, all but five Women's Studies courses are cross-listed in other departments, primarily because Women's Studies gets so little funding from the University that they have to share the expenses of paying professors and T As with other older and bettersupported departments.

Some male studen ts in the class expressed that they've been able to apply what they've learned to their daily lives and to their relationships with women. "For a couple of years I thought of myself as a feminist without any sense of what that meant," said Steve Kantrowitz, (ES '87). "Since taking the course I have a clearer idea.

It's made me think more concretely about things like sharing child care, two part-time careers . . . . I think most of the guys from the class were thinking some of the same things."

Male reactions to the broad introductory course were mixed, however, with some not qui t e

understanding di Leonardo's approach, sometimes feeling singled out. The professor explained that she finds it valuable to single out male students in certain instances. "We were having a week on Violence vs.

Women, and I made sure to address the men in the class," she said. "I wanted it not to be a threatening issue, but 'Let's talk about what you can do as supportive men.'" In section, these problems were addressed more directly. Kantrowitz described how the four men in his section, including himself, often felt self-conscious and wary about possibly interrupting other students or monopolizing class participation. Dirks admitted that the professor and assistants had divided the sections of 295a with an eye to "the historical tendency of men to dominate discussion."

Some students gave examples of instances when gender distinctions in class were helpful. George Grohwin (TD, '87) recalled a discussion in his section about women and the sciences, in which the female students were arguing that women had to be sexless creatures to be taken seriously in the scientific arena. He pointed out that

Since takin g the I ntroduction to Women's St u dies, S teve K a n trowi tz (ES '8 7) has a "clearer idea" of hia own femini1m .

The New Journal/january 30, 1987 25

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men involved in science are also often perceived as "nerdy" types. "There are things that men can't really discuss because they have to do with being a woman-a woman's experience," said K elley. "So we just had to sit back and listen But that's good, it's enlightening."

Di Leonardo envisions her class as o ne that can produce enlightened attitudes, and she is careful to emphasize the philosophy behind her approach. A male student once accused her, she recalled, of teaching the introductory class "from a feminist bias." "It's important to historicize," she explained later. "(This student] read a book on feminist education, and later came back and spoke to me again.

H e said, 'You've really changed my m ind, and I can say now that fm a feminist, w ith relaxation."' Di Leonardo does not see this year's male interest in her course as a fluke, but claims that "it's only going to get better."

The surge in male academic involvement in women's issues has encouraged men to commit themselves to projects through the Yale Women's Center. T im Wt,:i~ht (S M '88)

and Jay Seko r a (ES '89), for example, are male staff members of Aurora, the feminist magazine. Wright explained that "there's a real psychological barrier about going to the Women's Center, a feeling that 'Men just don't do that.' Or some people think, 'It's the ultimate P .n . thing to do, and so I won't do it.'" Yet, Wright is an example of one who has transcended that barrier. One male who has been active in femi n ist politics, Michael Weingrad, (TC '90), believes that academic involvement provides a less threatening introduction to feminism. "There's a need for both kinds of involvement," he said. "(T he introductory course] raises awareness also."

Weingrad's involvement in the Coalition for an Educated Choice (CEC) began when several friends took him to the pro-choice rally in Washington t>.C. last March. "I was just blown away," he said. "It made things very clear to me. But people have to understand- it's hard for guys because you're in the middle of a rally, and you realize that it really isn't yours." Nevertheless, Weingrad said he was surprised more m e n are not

M a rk G evisser (SY '8 7): "There are certainly things me n can d o, but always with the perspective that they're men."

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"There's a real psychological barrier against going to the Women's Center, a feeling that 'Men just don't do that.'" involved politically in women's issues.

"If R oe v. Wade is overturned, it will affect guys very strongly, in terms of the lives of their girlfriends, their daughters," he said. "So many people in this community are concerned with racial oppression abroad, but there's still no ERA in the United States."

Last year's Rape Awareness Project (RAP) led several male students to form a discussion group. RAP's weeklong series of educational program s included taping a red "X" on each spot around the campus where a rape had taken place. "Rape Awareness Week really got a lot of men thinking in ways that they hadn't before," said Gevisser.

In fact, several students organized a "For Men Only" discussion g.roup .

About 60 people showed up. "Originally scheduled to be one hour, the discussion lasted for over two. "Initially a lot of men expressed resentment ," said Bencivenga. "They felt attacked."

By the end of the meeting, however, many different sentiments had been expressed, and most participants considered the gathering a success.

I n light of this enthusiasm, R o b Spencer , a first-year medical student, suggested the formation of a permanent discussion group which would meet periodically to discuss male views on feminist issues. This plan went into effect last spring. Table tents advertised the new organization as the "Men's Caucus" and explained that a different issue, from pornography to traditional family roles, would be discu ssed each week. Regu l ar attendance sifted down to about ten to twelve men.

Views about the Caucus' ultimate goals differed. Some preferred the loose structure of a discussion group. arguing the necessity of informality.

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28 The

ew Journal/januarv 30. 1987

"We approach it from different angles, but it's always the same.

What does it mean to be a man, how are we indoctrinated?"

"The point of it wasn't to figure out what's 'right,' just to clarify what we felt individually ," said Jonathan Reff (TC '88). "The idea wasn't to change anybody . . . The issue was the whole question of masculinity in society. The role of women has chan ged, but I don't think the notion of masculinity really has. That's always the issue for the group. We approach it from different angles, but it's the same thing. W hat does it mean to be a man , how are we indoctrinated?"

Ben civenga, howeve r , was frustrated by what he saw as the Caucus' passivity. "My problem with it was that I felt all they wanted to do was just sit around and talk," he said . In retrospect he feels less angry about the lack of political commitment, explaining that some of the members o f the Caucus were involved with the divestment campaign and that everyone involved was forced to make choices. "In the end," he said , "it's important just to get men and women working together on these issues."

Although the creators o f the Men's Caucus did not anticipate that women would want to take part in their discussions, the group later decided to welcome interested women. Some women, including R enee Schwalberg (ES '87) and Pam Thompson (MC '87), co-editor of Aurora, did attend.

Thompson remembered one of her v isits to the Caucus: "I made a face about something, and this guy just turned and said, 'Look! You're looking at me! You're judging me!' It turned out to be nothing . . . But it's really scary - the insecurity, the hostility, and the fear involved in it."

Schwalberg also recalled having difficultv at first with the unusual

male ataff members of Aurora, Yale'a feminiat magazine.

format of the Caucus. "I went to one meeting and gave a little talk about femi nist theory," she explained. "But afterwards tHere was a very strong reactio n against talking politics. Most of the men in the room were straight· -I think all but one- and it turned into a discussion of . . . who makes the first move and why." She laughed.

"The next meeting was on the family , and that was better. It wasn't just talking about girlfriends-- it was talking about mothers, sisters When the discussions were directed, they were more productive." She, however, still maintains Bencivenga's earlier stance. "I do wish it had been more activist. There are things these men could be doing."

Their interest piqued by positive groups like the Men's Caucus, some men have even committed themselves to helping victims of sexual assault.

Bencivenga, for instance, works for both the New Haven and Yale rape crisis centers. The former is a large organization which offers training p rograms each semester; the Iauer currently boasts three members, despite extensive publicity. Some of the-more active members of last vear's Men's Caucus, which did not re'sume its meeting last September, are no'~ attempting to revive the organization .

Mark Gevisser still chuckles when he thinks about his antics on stage at the coffeehouse, but he will also talk about

TheNewJournal it a minute later in a serious tone. He addresses one of the potentially negative aspects of having men involve themselves in Women's Studies. "What happens is that people appropriate other people's problems, which isn't good," he explains. "I mean, I think it's much better to have men knitting than running around with guns or something. But it's important to poke fun to see that we still have an incredibly long way to go. We shouldn't be complacent. It annoys me when men - including myself, because that skit was definitely partly a selfparody- get complacent. I said once to someone, 'Well, as a feminist . . .' and then I thought, 'Wait a minute, who are you to say you're a feminist?"' He pauses for a moment, then clarifies: "I think men can be their own kind of feminist. But I think it's a really bad kind of sexism to think men can have the same feminist cause as women.

There are certainly things men can do, bu t always with the perspective that they're men. The skit was poking fun at losing that perspective." · While di Leonardo encourages male students to take her class, she does recognize that some of them may' feel unwelcome in a Women's Studies course. But how does one go about making a male student feel at home in a W omen's Studies class? "I hear that in section the T A's still ask for the 'male point of view,"' said Schwalberg.

•It won't work that way.'' One student suggested that whenever men choose to deal with these issues, they must always confront their maleness, perhaps much more so than they are otherwise forced to in a traditional scho lastic environment. Speaking about his experiences with Introductory Women's Studies, Adam Kaplan remembered a passage from Virginia Woolfs A Room of One's Own: "She says something about how women are locked out, but perhaps it is worth noting that men are locked in."

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The N ew JournaVJanuary 30, 1987 29

Afterthought/Helen Cutting Whitney

A Divine, Ordinary Life Helen Cutting Whitney, mam"ed to Yale President Ben no C. Schmidt Jr., ts a documentary film director for ABC. In 1981 she made a film, The Monastery, about the lives of Trappist monks living in Spencer, Massachusetts. Last fall, the Abbot of this monastery, Father Tom Keating, spoke at the Yale Divinity School, and Whitney introduced him. The following is a copy of her speech, the first public address she made at Yale.

I would like to offer a more personal than theological introduction to Father Tom Keating. Our friendship began in somewhat unusual circumstances, and survived-some might say-a trial by fire . . . the making of a film for ABC in 1982 about St. Joseph's Abbey.

Father Tom had been the Abbot of the Trappist monastery for over 25 years.

Getting permission from him to make this film and then living through it with him was an extraordinarily intense, frequently disruptive, but finally unforgettable experience. Unforgettable in the best sense of the word for me ... perhaps in both best and worst senses for him. "After such knowledge," to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, "can only come forgiveness."

I h ad wanted to make a film about this subject for a long while. Religious questions have always been of interest to me, the network was ready for the first time to air such a program, and the time felt right. The early 80's seemed to be a period- even more than the 60's-of restless, even chaotic spiritual yearnings; yet paradoxically, and this was part of the challenge, I a lso felt it was a time when spiritual commitment was difficult, when the belief that there was another reality, and one of ultimate significance for man, was disappearing.

I came to St. Joseph's Abbey for a variety of reasons. I knew that the backgrounds of the men there were extraordinarily diverse-a diversity unequalled in most other monasteries -so that the fabric of American life would be interwoven in their lives and spiritual concerns. More importantly~ 30 The New JournaUJanuary 30, 1987

I knew that the monastery- under the guidance of Abbot Tom Keating- had opened itself to modernity by turning eastwards in an attempt to discover an interior spirituality. SpirilUal growth and the desire for transformation, found at the heart of Eastern religions, seem to be lacking in the more organized religions of Christianity and Judaism. Many of the former Christians I knew and interviewed felt that Christianity had lost the method and the meaning of contemplative prayer, and because of this was no longer able to penetrate their lives. What was happening at St. Joseph's suggested to me that what was lost in Christianity- at least to some people -could be found again.

He taught me that it is the challenge of our time to find God or路 the ultimate reality hidden in the most unexpected places.

I remember arriving at St. Joseph's on a bleak November morning, gazing at the slate grey sky and the stones of the monastery. Nervous and apprehensive, I felt I was entering an unknown world. Abbot Tom greeted me, put me immediately at ease, and we spent 路 much of the day talking.

It was my first exposure to his legendary courtesy. Courtesy born out of his ability and his desire to imagine in the fullest and most nuanced way the other person's situation, a tact best described by Rebecca West as "the manners of the soul."

It was alc;o my first experience of another one of Father Tom's legendary qualities- tough-mindedness. I, the experienced interviewer, was clearly out-interviewed. I went through the most subtle but thorough and rigorous examination of my reasons not only for making the film but an examination of

my very soul. Looking back on all the documentaries I have produced, and all the various permissions I have secured, no process was more arduous than this one. I ran through a gauntlet that involved not only interviews and screenings of my films, but a meeting -supervised by the Abbot- with the entire monastery to answer their questions. The meeting was pas路 sionate, rowdy and surprisingly unmonastic, and I remembered being exhausted by the debate but delighted by the expressions of wit and eloquence in the community.

Father Tom's concerns about the fi lm were appropriate and revealing.

He did not want to be part of a film that was a behind-the-walls look, however complimentary, of an exotic world; a network hour of esoterica filled with' ' pretty pictures and marvelous music. He believed that the monastery does have meaning for modern man, and that our film might help suggest some of those meanings.

He didn't want to play it safe, to preach to the converted. If he was going to agree to this film, then he wanted to reach the uncommitted, the seekers, the disaffected. He sought to touch people who would never consider joining a monastery, or even making a retreat, and yet who would feel a nostalgia for something it repre路 sents-fidelity, loyalty, sacrifice. He even wanted to reach the "me" generation, for whom enclosure, chastity, even commitment, is a scandal. Why not, he asked, try to challenge the congenital narcissism of their culture where the search for the true self has absurdly taken on some of the markings of a religious quest?

To agree to the film and to allow a woman to do it said a great deal about the spirit of openness and risk-taking of Father Tom and his monastery. To follow through with the commitment as completely as he did was a mark of both his confidence and even his courage. I remember being struck b)' both these qualities in our first tough discussion about the issue of editorial control and also about the questions of motivation that I would be raising.

I

Our friendship began in somewhat unusual circumstances, and survived - some might say - a trial b y fire.

Most

religious vocations- and ones as well- are subject to psychoanalytic interpretations. And there is both tension and mutuality between religious and psychoanalytic interpretations. Spiritual and psychological wholeness are not necessarily parallel paths; frequently they are divergent ones, even in conflict. These were questions- among many others that I would be pursuing. I received encouragement and support from Abbot Thomas to follow them wherever they led , with the hope, of course, that I would respect the essential mystery of each man's vocation.

I made it clear to Father Tom- in the unnecessary way journalists put ~ecular

their cards on the table- that I would not sanitize the film by presenting him or his monks as pious, perfect, or serene, with unruffied faith or perfect charity- because I didn't believe it. I will never forget his merry laugh as he said to me, "Neither do I !" He understood instinctively that people would be moved by the film , and open the ir hearts and minds to it, only in response to honesty, to willingness to risk vu lnerability, doubts, fears , pain, joy- all the emotions that make

monkc;, like the rest of us, human.

It was a risk, and there were repercussions. While the general response was favorable , there was, nonetheless, a small , influ ential minoritv of conservati,¡e Catholics who not ont'y disapproved of the idea of such a film. but were disturbed, even scandalized by the sight of monks

Father Tom believes, God is lost to us because the structures are gone. But the God who is evervwhere and is present in e , ¡ery facet of secular society can be known. And it is only through the contemplative dimension, which Father Tom describes as a value system based on the experience of one's own deep self and interior silence, that one can perceive this refined level of reality in which God is present. I n contrast to the present climate of Catholicism, or at least to the recen t expressions of it coming from Rome, with emphasis so heavily on institutional structures and institutional truths, Father Tom's insights are not only valuable, but courageous as well.

Father Tom also taught me to think about the ordinariness- and therefore the accessibility- of the monastic journey. When I started out on this film , Joseph Campell said: "What you will learn will be that the monastic journey is the specialists' journey. T he monks are the heroes of the spiritual life in that they let us know what is out there beyond the horizon . . . and perhaps how to channel some of it into our life." While I agree with much that Campell said, Father T om enabled me to see, on the contrary, both the uniqueness and the ordinari ness of monastic life. He helped me to understand how his story- and the displaying such human emotions. The stories of all the monks- were finally film was denounced from the pulpit of the human journey itself, our oldest St. Patrick's by the Cardinal of New and deepest journey. To know the human heart, the nature of good and York at that time. I heard about these criticisms only indirectly, rumors from evil, and to search, above all other the Catholic grapevine, the occasional considerations, for the face of God. The last words Father Tom said to irate letter, but never from Father Tom. He must have had an earful. -me as he wa.tched the ABC crew But, he never burdened me with his packing up our equipment, all of us troubles. Again, that superlative tact of subdued, already homesick for the his, and his loyalty to a commitment monastery we would soon leave, was that there was a monastic dimension in shone through.

Father Tom was the true intellectual all of us, and that he hoped that I center of the entire experience, pulling would come close to understanding together the scattered insights of all the that idea ... and come a little closer to monks into a cohesive whole. He that dimension ir. myself. taught me that it is the challenge of our time to find God or the ultimate reality hidden in the most unexpected places.

If we identify God with church-going or institutions, then in that sense, as

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The New journaVJanuary 30, 1987 31

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