THE c Volume
9 Number
UNIVERSITY
3
OF WATERLOO,
Chronic hunger, famine and malnutrition can no longer be described simply in terms that are pathological, clinical, or statistical. They must now be described in terms which, like war, carry some connotation o*f the human misery, the monstrous social injustice, and the ultimate danger to civilization which are involvedO Dr. H.L. Trueman “World Review”, Sept. 1964
The fact is that not more than one in a hundred of the people in underdeveloped countries will ever, in all his life, have what a North American -family would consider a good square meal. This forms the background against which to view world events, Royal Bank of Canada “Monthly Letter” June 1964
The prospect is nothing less than frightcning, Unless drastic measures are ta ken to increase food production in this region (the .far east) the precarious balance that now exists will break down and famines will begin to appear around 1980. There is alveadUv evidence in some areas 0.f this region of this unbalance actually taliing place. = c Annual Report 1965 UN. Population Commission
if the yearnings of these hundreds of millions of people for a better life are ignored, the future promises one explosive outbreak after another. Furthermore, if e.ffec tive adequate assistance helps these people achieve better lives, the world ma.y become a better and safer place to live than anyone has ever hoped. More than any other single factor, the response to this demand for more decent living conditions will determine the political and social complexion of the future. Paul G. Hoffman Bread Upon the Waters t. 0
e
e
,
Let no man think that the living standards of America can be permanently maintained at a measurably higher level than those of the other civilized countries. Either we shall lift theirs to ours or they) shall drag ours down to theirs. O.D. Young University of California
The truth, the central stupendous truth, about developed countries today is that they) can have-in all but the shortest run-the kind and scale of resources they decide to have. . .It is no longer resources that limit decisions. It is the decision that makes the resources. This is the fundamen ta1 revolutionary change-perhaps the most revolutionary mankind has ever known. U Thant
Waterloo,
Friday,
Ontario
The survival
of man
If the world’s population continues to expand at its present rate, in 650 years there will be one person standing on each square foot of land. Yes, we know it wouldn’t happen, but somewhere on the more believable side of this mathematical extension lies a reality which we are daily being forced to deal with. By 1990 there will probably be two people standing where one stands today, and all the awesome figures don’t belong to the future. Twenty-five percent of the people who have ever lived are alive today and it has been estimated that the amount of technical information available to them has been doubling every ten years since 1940. Yet these advantages are shared by very few of the earth’s inhabitants. The majority of the world’s population inhabit underdeveloped countries where they face the very real problem of continued living. Their greatest immediate need is food, the production of which is closely tied to their ability to produce capital goods and receive an education. Yet they lack the resources needed to start this developemental process. The economic resources do exist which would allow us to remove starvation and acute poverty from the earth, yet human beings living in the‘ underloved part of the world exist in conditions that the developed countries reserve for lower breeds of animals. Distribution of the wealth is the core of the food problem today. Not caring about the cries of anguish from the &ironically poor, an elite group has decided to wallow in affluence, satisfying the occasional pang of conscience with minute charitable donations The future holds only more problems, and not just in the technical areas of food and commodities production but also in the areas cf man’s relationship with himself and others. Even given that the basic problems will be solved, or that starvation will remove them, we will be faced, with a world situation in which our present moral code will be even more antiquated than it is today. The Hebrew-Christian orthodoxies of North Am erican society are doomed. No amount of up-dating can save them from eventually being discarded by the mass as irrelevant superstition. And into this breach what kind of moral code could possible step in? Man will obviously need a set of ethics based on a universally acceptable rationale. Society will be desperately in need of a value system that will be able to provide the individual with some personal meaning and identity in a community whose very size will tend to create anomie, a feeling of worthlessness and unimportance. There seem to be a few general rules that must be applied if any new order is to have a chance of formation. It must be more basically humanitarian than our society is today. It must intrinsically apply more worth to the individual as an individual. It must be based on common love of ones fellow man instead of fear of external gods and governments. This can be the only lasting way for civilized survival. . .society has its privileged classes-its Pharaohs and nobles and priests, or its slave-owners, or its feudal and powerful craft guilds, or its rich capitalists. These classes stand to lose by the required social transformation--for their power and wealth will be transfered to others-and they have in their hands the power to resist change. Samuel Lilley Men, Machines and History
May
24, 1968
Campus qubk;es Prof blames
mother
Feel like protesting? Blame it on your mother. In a speech to the McGill Associates Hugh MacLennan, novelist and McGill professor, said student unrest is essentially conflict between a motherdominated society and authorityfather-like students. seeking, “In matrist societies like ours, women are not put on a pedestal but they are given economic power and control of the upbringing of children,” he said. “The role of the male in a matrist society is to support women, and this entails subordinating his personal values in order to maintain affluence for his wife and children.
New university
-
easy access to the health services complex and the church colleges.
IVotke
(Chevron
photo by Gary Robins)
of By-Election
Nominations for representatives to Student’s Council from the students gistered in the Faculties of Engineering and Mathematics (Spring term) the School of Environmental Studies open Thursday, May 23, and will on Thursday, May 30 at 5:00 p.m. The seats to be filled are as follows:
Engineering, Mathematics, Environmental
.
reand close
The election
will
be held
THURSDAY, JUNE 13 Nomination Center from
The Waterloo tennis club offers student r-fimZ\n--bZ--* IltxlIuel Yllys yL $35. Their firs it tournament is June and > 11. . . Phone entries .** .be10accepted P~111 by the intramural 0 lffice until June 5.
forms are available in the Federation office in the Campus Miss H. Petz and shall be returned to that office. by order of: The Judicial Committee, M. L. Feldstein, Chief Justice
students
killed themselves while attempted it. Another 166,000 threatened suicide. “There is little or no connection between LSD and suicide,” said Ross, citing a Southern California study. “When any hallucinogenic drug is involved, it often plays a relatively minor role. ” Ross’ report did not identify the number one killer of university-age students. What supposedly friendly institution takes young men, teaches them to kill, then does its damndest to kill them? Not the U.S. government? 10,000
offer subsidized
The intramural department announced it will subside students in the golf tournament at Rockway golf course June 17 and 18. There is a $1 refund for greenfee cards returned to the athletic department before Friday June 21.
on
“But when a matrist society reaches its apogee, the young man realizes he must be a slave the rest of his life and rebels.” Student unrest in the last few weeks has recognized no national boundaries. Disorders in U.S., France, Egypt, West _.Germany, Japan, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Poland, Tunsia, Belgium--even some traces in the Soviet Union--indicate the scope. Student power is credited with influencing such major events as liberalization of the Czechoslovakian government and the American policy shift in Vietnam, coupled with Johnson’s to seek re-election. refusal
fad: kill yourself
BOSTON (CUP)---If you die, the second likeliest reason will be yourself. A Harvard -University professor reported the university-age group has the hishest potential suicide risk rate within the American population. Dr. Mathew Ross of Harvard’s psychiatric department says suicide is also “the second-ranking cause of death in the college-age group.” Ross called suicide “a cry for help” and said leading questions about suicidal tendencies were necessary to reveal concealed intentions. .In 1966 over 1000 American
Intramurals
spring term - 3 seats spring term (co-op) 1 seat Studies - 1 seat
for riots
A recreational softball began this week.
league Entries
golf
include teams from St. Paul’s College, engineering grads, psychology, and phys-ed. Games are Monday’ and Wednesday on Bauer 1 field. Team positions are still open. Plans for flag football and soccer were cancelled due to lack of response. Intermural director Paul Condon reminded students that equipment for these sports and la. crosse as well is available at i the athletic department. The engineering f astball league is underway with 4-A mechanical taking an early lead.
Pass exams of else go to jail Ontario
MORROW CONFECTIONERY t03 University POST
Ave.
Phone
and
Dgke
742-1404
HAMILTON (CUP)--There’s one teenager in Hamilton who’s trying harder than most to pass his finals. The Grade 11 student was told by magistrate Walter Tuchtie to pass his exams or go to jail. The highschooler was remanded
..
Streets Kitchener
Ontario
W.
OFFICE
Groceries
-
Sundries
Depot
for
by Tuchtie on a charge of stealing a motorcycle. The student has a 48.6% average and the magistrate felt the jail threat might boost his marks. No mention was made of how long the possible jailterm would be. Tuchtie criticized the youth’s mother for working when “there was no need. ”
BELMONi CLEANERS Phone
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experts
One ’ mathematician almost didn’t make it to the combinatorics conference which started Monday. Dr. Horst Sachs of East Germany had his passport and visa cleared only a few minutes before his plane left Moscow. Mathematicians from around the world are gathered in the Village for a ten day con-
during promptly
off-campus to:
terms. the Chevron,
Non-students: University
of
$4 annually. Waterloo,
Authorised Water/oo,
attend
talks
ference on combinatorics. Countries represented include Canada, Belgium, Italy, the U.S., Jamaica, India and Switzerland. A Swiss couple from Alberta arrived in a camping van and wanted to know if they could camp nearby. The only problem the Village was unable to solve was a request from a grad student for a piano.
QI Ontario.
second-
.
Trudeau
opens
New
campaign
policy
Prime minister Pierre Trudeau outlined a new economic policy to Kitchener business men at a dinner Tuesday night. . In a major policy speech he said the government has three options to follow and intends to keep’ all of them open. He said his policy is to seek “practical solutions” to economic problems rather .than be guided by any “overriding theory”. Trudeau said the government has three major alternatives : “We could preserve our tariff structure much as it is at present. We could engage in further broad trade liberalization as represented by the Kennedy round. And third, we could pursue special trading arrangements on an industry-by-industry basis typified by the automotive pact with U.S.” He said trade policy has been decided on pragmatic, practical considerations to suit the particular needs of Canadian conditions. He favored continuing this three-fold approach because “it permits us to deal with each situation on its merits. “(It) ensures that the. payoff for Canada is greater than the cost and that adequate provision is made for transitional measures to assist those requiring them in adjusting to new circumstances. ” Trudeau told the audience that “what we have been able to build in this country” has been directly related to the establishment and growth of industry. Government policy is designed to open up opportunity for industry he said, but it is just as necessary for individual firms to
as old
same
gear themselves
to meet difficulties within the present structure. When asked whether Canada can survive the tensions that are straining Confederation, Trudeau replied Canadians must face the fact that there are tensions : “the far West, rich in resources, feel alienated from the rest of Canada, and the Maritimes, a poor part of the country, may not always want to stay in Canada unless it can be brought into the mainstream of Canadian prosperity. There is also the French-English antagonism and rivalry between the federal and provincial governments. ”
Nevertheless, there is no reason to doubt that Canada will survive, he said. To a suggestion that he and Jacqueline Kennedy would make a perfect couple Trudeau charmed the women with his answer. He said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t want to offend Mrs. Kennedy in any way. She is a charming woman. But this question relates to an earlier one about foreign domination. “We are accepting foreign investments but where we have the best in the world--in ,womanpower-1 wouldn’t want to go outside of Canada. ”
lIIIIlIIIIIllIIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll~
BULLETIN
.
John Parmanter Robarts, Prime Minister of Ontario, receiving an honorary degree at the special mathematics convocation yesterday. Later he opened the new $7 million maththive building, closed earlier by the Aryan A.ffairs Commission.
More appointments
itV&i &i9ost /.’
’
,The massive administrative shakeup at W.aterloo Lutheran is almost over. WLU’s board of governors announced three appointments to top positions’ iri the last two weeks. The board electe& Frank Peters president of WLU or dne June 1. Peters year, effective has been academic vicepresident and acting arts and science dean for a year. The board appointed Dr. Basil Healey , associate business prdf , to replace Peters as academic vicepresident. Dr. Neale Tayler, chairman of the arts council on graduate studies, was named acting dean of arts and science. The shakeup began last year when Lutheran’s board of governors hired Booz, Allen and Hamilton consultants of Chicago to study the administration’s organization. In June former president Dr. Bill Villaume and arts and science dean Lloyd Schaus resigned. Over the year several more top administrators resigned. Dr. Peters takes over from acting president Dr. Henry Endress, who replaced Villaume. Harry Greb, president of Lutheran’s board of governors said Peters was uniquely qualified for the job.
at
WUC
.settled
Chevron Staff . Thursday 4 pm--a demonstration planned to coincide with Prime Minister Robarts visit to the university failed tomattire today. Pamphlets were circulated this morning in all the central gathering areas urging students to meet later and picket the Ontario government leader. Robarts was on campus to receive an honorary degree at the special Mathematics Convocation. The pamphlets urged students to express their dissatisfaction with the governments handling of student housing and loans.
“He is an alumnus of the university and has made a fine contribution to its academic prollllllllllllllHllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllli gram.” Peters% a popul’ar person ‘with with staff and students at the university. They praise him as a fine says Dow prez teacher and a “great person.” DETROIT (CX PI)--“As long, The board had asked Peters to as our democratically elected be .permanent president but he (sic) government sends those refused. draftees out there to die, we’re “Dr. Peters has made it clear going to support them. ” that he would only serve a oneThree guesses as to the world term,” said Greb. Year renowned philosopher who utterDr. Peters, a Mennonite, is the ed this phrase. first non-Lutheran to serve as That’s right, Dow Chemical WLU’s president. Lutheran’s conpresident H.D. Doan. stitution is being amended to He was addressing the annual provide for his term. The clause meeting of Dow stockholders, opstipulating that the president posing a proposal to stop Dow’s must be Lutheran is a throwof napalm. back to the days when WLU was - manufacture Although a formal vote was a Lutheran theological seminnot allowed because the item ary. wasn’t on the proxy statement, Greb praised Endress for his Doan did agree to an advisory services in the past year. vote. “He jumped into the breach About 300 protestors, 11 of when leadership was needed and, whom spoke, attended the meetin a year of great ferment and ing. change, displayed noted ability A show of hands among the in guiding faculty, staff and stustock-holders showed an overdents.” whelming majority opposed to the Endress will return to his- job anti-napalm motion. They went as Lutheran’s university resouralong with Doan’s logic. ces vicepresident. Greb said he An attempt to get an antiwas urgently required in the napalm man elected to the board light of the university’s need for of directors also failed. expansion.
Up
napulm
of glassy-eyed
iS
females,
physics
by Eleanor
(Chevron photo by Pete Wilkinson)
loses progwm
Peavey
Chevron staff
Eight survivors of applied physics 2B came back this summer to find their stream is being abolished. They must either switch to regular by taking three academic terms in a row or switching to stream B of coop and start an eight-month work term in September. Dr. Don Brodie, a senior physics professor, indicated the eight months working was preferable to the students financially. But he said the physics department will aid those who choose to stay in for 12 months by offering them employment such as marking.
.
tion to find summer employment next year. “But they will not be co-op students,” he reiterated. “They will lose three work terms. To graduate as a co-op student you have to have six work terms.” Most The applied physics students seem resigned to their fate. “We’re unhappy about it, naturally, but we knew it would happen sooner or later. The physics department is doing its best for us; it’s just not feasible to operate a program for eight people,” said one student.
Brodie said coordination was doing its best to place the students who choose to stay in coop. Lists are now being posted of companies which will take an extra student. Professor Philip Eastman said that those who switch to regular will be helped by co-ordina-
New
counselling
head
Another minister will be heading up the university’s counselling service. If he accepts the university’s offer, and he already has verbally, William Dick, a nonpracticing United Church minister will take up his new position when Dr. Charles Preston, the present head, leaves for Newfoundland later this summer. Preston who was a minister, will take a similiar position at
also
a minister
,the provlnclal university there. Dick, who has five degrees, received his doctorate in counselling psychology from the University of Ottawa last year. From 1950 to 1966 he worked as a pastor in Toronto. He was particularly involved in youth and childrens’ education. Dick’s boss, Provost Bill Scott expressed pleasure with the appointment. Dick turned down offers from Guelph and York to come here. Friday,
May 24, 7968 /9:3)
23
n
3
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it
your
0 u)n
arrangement
::::: ii:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:,:.: :::::::::::::.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.’...’:.’.’.‘.‘.‘.‘. ..:. ~:~ :.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: :.:::.:.:::.:.>:.:.:.:::::::::::::::::;::. and/or your lyrics.,) Bobby Gimby, one of Canada’s foremost composers has written a new tune titled “Have a Happy Moment.” He invites YO ur group to write your own arrangement or lyrics, tape it; and send it to him Q’O -Tea Council of Canada, 42 Charles Street East, Toronto. It’s that simple. First prize to the winning group is $2,000 plus a chance to be Canada’s representaii .T‘.::: tive next August in the Rock Music World Championship held in the United States. Contest deadline is May 31. Regional .. winners from all parts of Canada will be invited to Toronto (on the basis of the tape you submit) for the final play-off. -Each regional winning group is flown to l’or ‘onto, ’ transportation ’ and hotel accom-
4
24 The CHEVRON
modation paid for, plus $200 spending money. To enter, simply tape your version of “Have a Happy Moment.” Send your name along with your address and the names of players in your group. If you require further information or extra copies of the *music just drop a note to Bobby Gimby, C/O Tea C ouncil of Canada 42 Charles Street East, Toronto. now-entries may be limited. Open to non-professional groups only.
Reg-&ter
-
(1
‘L
fY,,.%%d7
A militant right may be answer to activist left A militant right may be the answer to developing opposition to the activist left, said the University of Alberta’s president. Speaking at Waterloo Lutheran University’s convocation Monday, Dr. Walter Johns struck out at “minority groups who wish to force their views and demands on the reluctant majority.” “The activist on my own campus among the faculty and students represent, I believe, no more than one half of one percent of the total, but their effect is all out of proportion to their size,” ,he said. “Those who are criticizing everything in the society in which they live and work are extremely vociferous, while the great majority never feel obligated to make themselves heard, and wish only to get on with their job.” ’ JohGs called on the 600 graduates to use their liberal arts education to view real problems with objectivity and sanity. He balanced social, economic and political problems against the fact that “never in the world’s history have the standards of living of people of the western world been higher. ‘ ‘Self -styled reformers complain about the shocking standards of education and living conditions’ the cruelty of American
EngSoc
The people’s prez picketed Stanfield, Robarts and Co. in Winnepeg Tuesday night while the people were planning their own protest back home. Bpiler (second from right) is out west -CP Wirephoto at the CUS seminar. We sure hope that sign wasn’t as blank as it looks..
CWS reiects WINNIPEG board
of officers
(CUP)
--The
of the Canadian
Union of Students Sunday rejected a draft statement on Canada and Vietnam. The statement, written by CUS president Hugh Armstrong, condemned American imperialism in Vietnam and Canada. Board members criticized the lack of supporting evidence in the resolution before defeating it by a 5-3 vote. Shaun Sullivan, British Columbia board representative, said the statement was “full of charged words and jargon.” “If we take this to its logical conclusion, we must stop all trade with the United States,” he said. The proposed resolution expressed concern over American imperialism and emphasized its relationship in Vietnam and Canada. In Canada, it involved cultural and economic penetration now shown in business and foreign policy. demanded : The resolution . an end to Canadian complicity and sale of war goods. . immediate cessation of American bombing and withdrawal of troops. . a free election in South vietnam, held as soon as possible, with participation of the National Liberation Front. Brian Hutchison, CUS associate secretary, said, “The statement does not establish its case, although I think the case can be established. ” He suggested the statement be reworked so it contains supporting evidence and
anti-US. then be presented to the CUS congress in September. The board, in defeating the draft statement, also turned down the recommendation it be rewritten for the congress. CUS overextension and lack of direction was discussed periodically during the meeting and was the main subject at a Sunday debate on the legislative powers of the board. NO suggestions came from the debate but board members agreed the problem should be discussed during the CUS seminar, which started at the University of Manitoba Sunday. Members of the board and the CUS secretariat agreed there was a mutual suspicion of each other, rising from problems caused by the wide divergence of CUS
Seminar
delegates
WINNIPEG (Chevron staff )-A throng of placard-waving, chanting students greeted Conservative leader Robert Stanfield as he began his election campaign in Winnipeg Tuesday. Stanfield spoke to a mass rally in Winnipeg, where the Tories traditionally open their election campaigns. With him were all three Conservative premiers, including Parmenter Roberts of Ontario. 100 students, most of them delegates to this week’s Canadian Union of Students seminar, marched in front of the Winnipeg auditorium before the rally. They carried placards and distributed leaflets asking Stanfield to ex-
stand programs. Board members often complained of inaction in program work while secretariat workers continually replied they lacked time. “We often find ourselves in the position where the important gives way to the urgent,” said Hutchison. Barry McPeake, Ontario board representative, said the peripheral programs wasted secretariat and board time. The same question arose earlier during debate on CUS membership in the Federation internationale des sports universitaire and the CUS Interregional scholarship exchange program. The board recommended discontinuing ISEP and will attempt to find an “honorable way out” of FISU.
picket
brrers
Engineering undergrads made big gains at an association of professional engineers of Ontario conference in Toronto last week. A seven-man delegation from Waterloo’s two engineering societies attended. Third and fourth year engineers will now automatically be registered with the APEO. Previously all undergrads payed a two dollar membership fee. First and second year students still have to pay the fee but must be recommended for membership by their own society. A professional development subcommittee of APE0 will study problems related to student membership. Waterloo has two of the four student members on the committee. . Patrick Watson will speak on broadcasting at Engineering Nite at the grub shack May 30. Math is invited to compete in the usual Boat Races this year. EngSoc will announce the results of the mascot referendum. Only 15% of the engineers voted. Tickets for Eng Nite are on sale in the Engineering Foyer. Nominations for the Engsoc l
soldiers in Vietnam, brutality of the police, and decadence in society generally. “With either a complete disregard for truth, or a shocking ignorance of history, they describe today’s society as suffering from evils never before paralleled in the long recorded testament of man,” he complained. Johns agreed the universities are in serious need of reform. He attacked faculty who try to impress others by expertise in narrow fields. “They have developed a combination of myopia and tunnel-vision. “They have made research into an academic religion. I cannot help feeling that when our professors lose touch with their students they become not only lesser men, but lesser scientists and scholars,” he said. The Alberta president said that within limits he shares the views of students who are demanding open university government and student participation in it. “I am very happy to say that we have found it very helpful to have two faculty members on our board of governors and three students on our academic council. I car,not help feeling that the students’ needs and wishes are too often neglected in our universities. ” l
t
executive elections open June 17. The election is July 3. . Enginews appears just before Engineering Nite. Eng Sot needs help with articles and sketches. . Engineering weekend is June 21-23. A ‘Thigh-High’ dance Friday’ a car rally and semi-formal Saturday and a beach party Sunday are planned.
Pa trick Watson
Stanfield
plain his position on issues of concern to students. The students proposed that the voting age be lowered to 18, that more money be made available to post-secondary institutions and that the Carter report on taxation be implemented. Inside the meeting, the students heckled the speakers. Robarts was booed by demonstrators, who chanted “We want medicare. ” When the students attempted to march around the hall, they were stopped in the aisles by the party faithful. Police broke up the disturbance. CUS president Hugh Armstrong was thrown out of the building but no charges were laid.
Math has been invited to the engineering night boat races. Now the frightened plumbers are feverishly practicing. Frid;i y, Ah y 24, 7968 (9:3)
25
5
The following article may be the most important one the Chevron prints this year, a year in which we have pledged ourselves to examine the forces that effect our lives, Although the author has at times used sociological terms not readily understood by all of US we have left the article untouched, not wishing to interfere with his presentation and believing the meaning to be clear. by Jim Russell Special to the Chevron
The observer today need not be very acute to have noticed, or at least felt, the lack of freedom in our society. If he has spent many years in our educational system he has realized that society educates to place human beings in institutions and structures. And he has found out, probably through self-analysis, that individuals, in order to survive, are willing to accept the identities and roles provided and are thus encouraged to passively accept the dominance of the status quo. Internally our observer will feel somewhat uneasy with the situation he is in. He may find himself unhappy with his work, he may start to feel particularly useless and unimportant, he will at times find himself bound in social laws he did not make and cannot justify. Yet in all this he will find himself powerless to change his condition, and often it is internal restraints that stop him from trying, a condition that adds to his feeling of turmoil. Often he may be unaware of these real problems and may explain away their symptoms by blaming them on troubled relationships at home or at work; he will not search deeper. If we continue in this way we are heading for disaster. It is therefore vitally important to understand how our general cultural attitudes have been formed, for it is only through such an understanding that we can hope to deal with identity problems, and the culturalpsychological roots that inhibit opposition based on real alternatives. “Erik Erikson has observed that “systems of child-training.. .represent unconscious attempts at creating ‘out of human raw material that configuration of attitudes which is (or once was) the optimum under the tribe’s particular natural conditions and economichistoric necessities.” Let us consider some factors in the formation of the world view of the Sioux (Dakota) as described by Erikson in Childhood and Society. Today, the Indians described are dependent on the white man and the white man’s culture. They resist integration and change as much as they are able, but resistance does not alter the nature of the imposed dependency relationship established by the white man. Erikson describes specific aspects of the childrearing proces.s .which are ,( unconsciously) designed to produce certain attitudes toward: the community, relationship to other tribes, means of survival (hunting), attitudes and behaviour patterns between men, and reinforce sex-role differences. women which “We are not saying here that their treatment in babyhood causes a group of adults to have certain traits--as if you turned a few knobs in your childtraining system and you fabricated this or that kind of tribal or national character...We are speaking of goals and values and of the energy put at their disposal by child-training systems. Such values continue to persist because the cultural ethos continues to consider them “natural” and (does, not admit of alternatives. They persist because they have become an essential part of an process .,
ends with
his initiation as a brave. The “formal” process of education is connected with the tribe’s economic needs: play becomes a way of training the f u t u r e hunter. Attitudes during this period are encouraged by sarcasm or praise. Attitudes formed in the socialization process give the individual an identity in relation to the “economic-historic necessities of the tribe”. But it is a tribe, a community; and the individual’s activity is integrated within that community. We can expect certain key differences to emerge in the socialization process of a society with little sense of community. The last hundred years has seen the development of universal education in this society. On a “macro” level, does this support the economic-historic necessities of a western industrialized society? “Until the twentieth century no society could afford more than a handful of educated people; for throughout the ages to be educated meant to be unproductive. It is obvious that, with an advanced technology, the exact opposite is now true. Because of the nature of the education required in the economy (technical), and, because of the mass nature of education, schools are created. The two primary influences on the individual in the socialization process are the family and the school. For various reasons, the family is declining as the primary influence. In North America, the family is separated from economic and social ties to society. Social ties are informal: there is no community of which the family is naturally a part. Thus available role models for the child will vary according to the number of social contacts that the parents have. But, even where these contacts are great, they are seldom consistent or continuous enough to operate as general role.alternatives. The economic ties between family and society are not at all clear to the child until well on his life, and sometimes not until adolescence. The lack of apparent connections between the family and society would tend to reinforce privatist attitudes of noncommitment and non-involvement in later life because the child’s adult role models are not seen as an integral part of a community. -This leads to the separation of work and home life, of meaningful personal relationships from eight hours of alienated labour. The idea that this separation should occur is accepted in the other major influence, the school. The school, also, is not a part of community but is separated from the child’s play activities. The learning process is basically the acceptance of more than one role, roles that are separated, as family is from society. ’ As soon as the child can speak, and has a basic vocabulary and is able to co-ordinate his movements reasonably well, he is sent to school. The emphasis in the last few years, has been to get the child to school as early as possible. This, combined with nursery schools for pre-school children, means that the area left for attitude formation in the home becomes increasingly smaller. It is at the stage now where the child’s earliest memories date from the time he began school, certainly not much before. This is particuarly important in dealing with minor-ities bothnative and immigrant as they are assimilated through the school. The conclusion of the socialization process is marked by a degree (not initiation into a community). The school does the dual job of assimilation and job-training (and creates the attitudes to encourage the acceptance of those jobs).
“Johnny is stupid and laughed at if he doesn’t know the answer.” We can see how crucial, in the formation of attitudes, the school has become. What happens at this period is, largely, an “unconscious attempt” for here it is the attitude of- the paid worker, the teacher, who plays a large role in attitude formation. What sorts of things from attitudes in the early stages? Play is, initially, the most important. Games are mostly com-petitive or involve a team effort competing against an opposing team. How different is this from the “family” of a large corporation or the newscaster, relaying the news his team collected, first? Later, a competitive spirit’ is instilled in class projects, tests, answering. questions in class (and Johnny is stupid and laughed as if he doesn’t know the answer). - Possessiveness is instilled by other methods--e.g. “my” desk. A general attitude of reservation and lack of spontaneity emerges from a situation where one has to raise a hand before speaking (even to go to the washroom). Certain types of “accepted” dress and rigid, methodical procedures curb the imagination and encourage the acceptance of similar modes of behaviour in later life, in the ‘work world. Organization, on a hierarchial basis, led by an authoritarian leader, is seldom matched outside of the classroom. Classrooms organized on a row basis (the norm for most schools) discourage social contact and communication--the individual is systematically isolated. We have hypothesized these various ways of attitu-
dinal development without having discussed content-l is actually taught. In the first few years, the contenl terms of attitude formation) is not nearly as impor as the methods and techniques used in the classro Techniques are designed to repress and stifle; educa is too important to society (or rather with its pre: system of domination) to allow for individual gro and development. The purpose of education is to velop accepting citizens trained to fulfil1 the functj in society, not necessary for society’s continuance, 1 necessary for the maintenance of the present organ w tion of domination and repression. And this is where method becomes vitally imp ant. The way the classroom is organized is the kej understanding much of our inability to think in tei of opposition to the system. The degree of organizal and control exercised over children in the scl stifles creativity--it produces the technocrat, the “chc ful robot”. Individuals may lead a privatist existence with acknowledging the established order as being cent to their lives. These are attitudes which are reinfor in the family--they allow the individual to develop existence and identity apart from his work ident. But all this achieves is making thelife of the individ tolerable in an otherwise intolerable, socic A measure of freedom in self-organization of cant rarely comes before university. For the vast majorj this is too late to bring about significant changes personality development, and general attitudes. I those who do not attend university, their whole edu tional experience is one of repression and highly ganized modes of behaviour. . Significant content changes, within the education framewcrk described above, would not produce a grc difference in personality. It could produce a differs world view, as the Soviet countries do, but it will I create a liberated individual; it would be an exchan of the means of repression. The liberated individual c only emerge from a socialization process that is diffi ent in the kinds of human relationships he has expe enced, and in the type of organization experience If we examine changes in education across t centuries, what has really changed? Is there really significant increase in those who desire an educatio Despite a fantastic increase in the number of peoI educated, most of these regard education as jc training. And that is the primary function of t university today. The rationalization of the educatior process corresponds to the rationalization (bureaucra zation) of the work world. In the frame of reference this society, the well-educated individual is the one w. will fill an unquestioning role as technocrat, speciali or designer in one of the corporate or public servi bureaucracies.
‘The
individual
is trained
to
think as -an isolated individual without a “community” concept.” To sum up: the individual’s conceptualizati process is placed in an organizational framework; is trained to fit into a hierarchy, and his private war and needs are organized to accept. He is trained think and react as an isolated individual without ‘ ‘community” concept but as part of a huge, gre society; he is not trained to think in “dialectic terms (he does not see beyond his society) but, in COI partmentalized ways. The nature of the situation does, of course, ma! one blind. and it is seldom that the individual approac es self-objectification of his socialization process a~ con-current identity needs. Rarely, if ever, are v able to see how personal troubles are connected wi public issues. The behaviouralist starts his analysis with tl ‘ ‘organized ego” as C. Wright Mills has -said “tl person as such. ..is predominantly a creature of inte personal situations.. .this integration of person wi others...the roles that persons play--is the key to tl understanding of the concept: the person is compost of the combination of roles that he enacts.” This done on the following basis : “the idea of immutab biological elements recedes and is no longer a proble engaging all our energies. We did not solve the pro lem; we outgrew it.” The behaviouralist chooses to examine the preset structure of self and society. Behaviouralism does nc imply any particular orientation; the values of stuc will depend on the orientation brought to it by tl individual social scientist. The pragmatism and empir cal nature of behaviouralism appeals to the Americ; social scientist. Unfortunately, it is just as often USE to distort or hide the realities of social structures z to reveal how they work and what human effec organization has in this society. Both Freudian and behaviouralist would agree th; individuals, in society, have an identity provided fc ’ them in relation to the historical projects of th; society. In this society, as a result of the socializatio process, and the attitudes developed within it, thes
7y choice in life identity needs are developed by relating to an organization. Because of this commitment that is built into the socialization process, it is normally almost impossible for the individual to relate his personal troubles to public issues. In doing so, he calls into question the sum of his development, his identity and world view. But, unless he is able to do this, there are no alternatives; without them, he cannot move from his position. What about those who are seemingly opposed to the established reality principle (performance principle) ? Like everyone else, he satisfies his identity crisis by changing organizations--and his sense of identity. Once the identification need has been met, the individual, in most cases, is content to leave the process there. The symptoms have been cured, not the root causes--he may not even be any more aware of what they are. Such people remain alienated, without the ability to act, but content in what they feel is their opposition and society’s stupidness--for that is the reversal that takes place. The perspective is still have changed. one-dimensional but the colours On the other hand, the drop outs such as the hippie do not really get bothered by the “system” in the same way that the radical does. There is generally less emphasis on articulating a position. He handles the situation by ignoring it in his way of life, he is quite unambitious to do something to the “system” factor which often leads to the co-option of the organizational radical.
%7sofuf us his ethic is love, the hippie restores
community.” But, he is still part of the consuming class, still affected by his socialization. Insofar as his ethic is love, the hippie restores community. Will a hippie return to tribalism result in the eventual collapse of the system of domination and control? Timothy Leary says yes: “Those great, monolithic empires that developed in history: Rome, Turkey, and so forth--always break down when enough people (and its always the young, the creative and the minority groups) drop out and go back to a tribal form.” As agents of social change, which group will have the greatest chance of success--the political radical or the hippie? The former tends to be coopted by organizational socialization; the latter isolates himself within a harmless subculture. In a purely numerical sense, any group attempting to bring about qualitative change, is in an extreme minority. Their aspirations for change seem to be highly delusional. In the absence of demonstrable agents and agencies of social change, the critique (of society) is thus thrown back to a high level of abstraction. There is no ground on which theory and practice, thought and action meet. Even the most empirical analysis of historical alternatives appears to be unrealistic speculation, and commitment to them a matter of personal preference. (or group) And yet: does this absence refute the theory?. . .the critical analysis continues to insist that the need for qualitative change is as pressing as questions of social change and have to be answered within the global perspective of our historical epoch. We must see the individual not merely as an actor in North American society, but on a world stage. The global perspective should show how the three main power blocks (China, the Western “system” and the Soviet Union and its allies) relate to one another and to the Third World. And it also must show the the internal dynamics of each power bloc related to the world system. This approach rules out any kind of nationalism as an assumption (but some from may emerge as a tactic). Socialization produces a parochial world view. It does not really point to a “world view”, in the sense of relating not only to the Empire but also to Europe, Asia, and the Southern Hemisphere. Our knowledge of China is confined to a hole-in-the-wall concept--you in, wheat and out comes money. Put This failure is indicative of our narrowness--our conceptualization of problems in a Canadian, or, at worst, North American perspective. The real Cold War will not ‘be fought between East and West. It is clear that the Soviet Union’s drive to material wealth is an attempt to emulate the United States--in the way it has organized society for this end, it becomes another betrayed revolution. The conflict operating at this period is the North-South conflict--the guerilla vs. the exploiting empire. What is the guerilla’s northern counterpart? That is, what group within North American society symbolizes hostility to the Empire, as the guerillas symbolize armed opposition in the southern hemisphere? The organizational radicals? The hippies? It must be in this global sense that one considers ideologies and resulting strategies and tactics. Neither If the alternatives stated is satisfactory for the guerilla must consider the Empire while we, in our affluent satellite, have no universal mncepts comparable to those
,
necessary for action for the guerilla. We have no expressed picture of man’s universal potentialities. We have accepted the horizons available as meekly as any Joe in the “mass society”. Our world views have been shaped and molded; only a conscious effort will place us outside of them. Marcuse has said: “In the contemporary period, psychological categories become political categories to the degree to which the private, individual psyche becomes the more or less willing receptacle of socially desirable and socially necessary aspirations, feelings, drives, and satisfactions.” I have attempted to show how some of these attitudes are instilled in the socialization process, in accord with the “economic-historic necessities of the tribe”. . But we are not a tribe, and we are not living at a level of economic scarcity, but on the threshold of affluence. These attitudes are not mobilized in accord with the economic-historic necessities of all but for the preservation of the status quo; of an overdeveloped society in a starving world. In the established society, protest turns into a vehicle of stabilization and even conformity, because it not only leaves the roots of the evil untouched, but also testifies to the personal liberties that are practicable within the framework of general oppression. It is the nature of the dissent--(lacking in radical analysis) not the society, that causes dissent to be co-opted, and reinforce continued domination. When a tactic proves so successful that further dissent is neutralized, it is the thinking (or lack of same) responsible, not the ability of administrators to use their heads. Increasingly, life in western, industrialized society is rationalized. We mean by “rationalized” the organization of institutions in ever more efficient ways. The ends served by particular institutions become lost in the means. The increasing complexity of our technology seems to produce an autonomy of technique where rationalization and efficiency are the masters served. Powerlessness seems to become a more important question than power. As life becomes more organized, with reason collapsing into rationality, we question whether any alternatives exist and, if they do, how silly it seems to talk of the agents that will bring qualitative social change. Society seems organized on a onedimensional framework and the inclusiveness of the “repressive whole” seems to bring about a functional “liberal determinism”.
‘Wucation, in this society, is not u process of discovery but one of regimentation.” What is the role of education in such a society? It is training; the educational institutions are caught up in the process of rationalization; they serve society’s needs. Education, in this society, is not a process of discovery but one of regimentation. Any idea of education as a liberating process, through which the child is introduced to his community, society and world, no longer exists. The possibility of change depends on a qualitative change in the institutional structures of society as a whole. Most students are not aware of the origins of the modern university, its uses, and their own position as recruits for the middle class. But most students have chronic complaints about the university. Dissent, however, is siphoned off. People are put on committees which do not involve structural discussions. All of them commence with the assumption that the status quo will be maintained, and how, within this framework, the situation can be improved. The illusion -that control is diffused, neutralizes dissent. It is the same tactic being experimented within industry, called co-management. Actual questions involving quality, long-range planning and aims of the organization are decided (or allowed to drift) outside of this framework. Present discussions of democracy in the university are primarily concerned with issues at the lower and middle levels of power within the structure. The drive to have students on the Board of Governors does not question the necessity or reason for the Board of Governors. ’ Much of the discussion of the quality of education at the university level is pointless for what is needed de-socialization process. that time is a bY The basic character structure is already formed and what changes that take place will largely be the result of particular (rather than universal experiences) of individuals. of educaOur concern with the qua 1 i t y how it is mobilized for the maintenance of particular attitudes toward the world and one’s society. There have been many experimental schools-Neil Summerhill and, in Canada, Everdale Place. Among the criticisms of radical designs for education, is the objection that children will be prepared for a world that does not exist?There is some truth in this. But, a more liberated individual, with an identity and concept of self apart from institutional structures, will
be capable of accepting or rejecting society through the use of reason rather than rationalization. The criticism is not really valid but acts as a caution to those who would engage in such experiments. Many of the “progressive” experiments taking place in educational systems today have to be carefully evaluated in terms of the child and society. Many of of these are simply changes in content to get the child to read earlier and start him on the road to “progress” earlier in life. The peak of his life, the license for consuming goods and services, is the golden gateway to the middle class, the university. As a trend, this will lead to a general acceptance of the security offered in society. It is not seen as a conflict that the course of one’s life is managed and directed. And it is only through conflict that the necessity for change in society can be seen. University reform, based on the consciousness of the people in such movements and the reactions of liberal administrators, will be co-opted. Action will only be useful when it is used to build a movement for qualitative social change; a movement that will understand the historical processes operating within society and its institutions. The motivation to form organizations is socially conditioned. But issue-oriented organizations do not provide the basis for a continuing commitment. The commitment ceases when the issue disappears. This gives rise to the popular and often true belief, that young radicals will “grow out of it.” Arguing against a lack of involvement in organizations is not an argument for removal of commitment to social change. For involvement to bring about a growing process, widening horizons of experience and greater self-awareness, the organization must be relevant to qualitative social change in society. There is a great lack of such organizations. And until the time comes when such an organization can be formed, I would argue against involvement in organizations. In place of this the individual must build a commitment to understand society and his civilization.
Vreedom of content the mouths
is u word stripped when coming ffom of liberal orators.”
Again, why argue for change? Why not try and iron out some of the bothersome features of an otherwise acceptable society? Why not work within institutions? A repressive society continues to exist. Economic and political control combined with military power continue to be suppress and exploit the underdeveloped countries of the world for the benefit of our affluence. Our own lives continue to be more and more organized. Freedom is a word stripped of content when-coming from the mouths of liberal orators. And as long as society exists for the continuance of domination and repression (external and internal), there will be Koreas, Vietnams, Santo Domingos, and military takeovers financed by foreign countries. And this is the fault, not of the master, but of the civilization that produced them. “Think of the colossal brutality, cruelty and mendacity which is now allowed to spread itself over the civilized world. Do you really believe that a handful of unprincipled placehunters and corrupters of men would have succeeded in letting loose all this latent evil, if the millions of their followers were not also guilty. ” --Sigmund Freud I
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With the death of Richard McKenna in late 1964, America lost one of its great writers. McKenna on,ly published one but novel, “The Sand Pebbles” When he it was- a great one. died, he was working on a second one, “The sons of Martha” which promised to be as good. This book contains three selec.tions from this uncompleted work. The book contains McKenna’s “A chronicle of earliest piece; a five-day walking tour inland on the southern portion of Guam.” In this awkward early piece with its abrupt ending we see McKenna’s promise. The story ‘!King’s horsemen” is set on the China station but in a later period than “The Sand Pebbles” so that the tension between the Japanese and the Americans is obvious. “Fool errand’? is a short early work built around the idea of a left-handed monkey wrench.
It is a great pity that we have lost a master craftsman like McKenna.--Dale Martin. The disasters of war by Francisco Goya. General Publishing, $2.10
Man has always had an impressive tendency towards inhumanity. Onel.man who saw this was Francisco Goya. Dover Books have now brought out a paperback containing his complete aquatint seties known as “The disasters of war.” Goya saw the misery, bloodshed, and cruelty of the French suppression of the Spanish insurrection of 1808. ‘And what he saw. made him spend ten years completing this collection. What he saw was not pretty. Goya’s war is filled with rape, torture and death. But as one proceeds through the book one realizes that this is ‘the way it has always been. Then one looks at newspaper illustrations of Viet Cong suspects being tortured and bodies being dragged behind tanks, --Dale Martin.
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tfl don’t
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mother
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university?”
OR
VI&
was never
possible
when
AI Gordon
was registrar!” from th~~I~~;~~~~oFraser* 9 , Friday, May 24, 7968 (9.3) 29
- “What
do you think
convocation
Mr. and Mrs N.E. . FOSTER We’ll probably get a better view of things.
of watching
on close- circuit
MRS. N A F ZIGER ’ Its fine with me as long as I get to see it.
.
3B Civil
,
K V. ?
MRt. AND MRS HAFF We want to watch it in person--after all how often does your son get a doctorate.
Graduation day predictions : (the first in a series of serioussure-to-to-come-true, home-brew SNU PEE predictions. ) First of all there’s one typical occurence at every graduation and it follows a pattern something like this--the kid doesn’t want to go--the kid tells his friends its a big drag and they convince each other that its a farce-the kid tells his parents he doesn’t want to go--the parents object--the kid says he won’t-the parents say you have to--the kid relunctantly agrees--they all go--the parents don’t enjoy it-the kid doesn’t enjoy it--the kid admits he doesn’t enjoy it-the parents have so much at stake that they can’t admit it. MORAL--Dogs are easier to train than parents. Well anyway, the convocation marathon gets off to a slow
’
MR. AND MRS. J. HOI K A We’d much rather watch it in person.
by all the people (mommies and daddies and hangers-on) the show is being put on for, dressed in their finest, most colourful, contrasting springish outfits. Overhead, in the press box (the gondola) will be none other than the Campus Raggers getting a blow by blow, Hansard like ‘description of the goings on. The highlight in the gondola will be Stew Saxe with a rose between his teeth (he thinks all those robed people are at a matador convention) just trying to get in the spirit of it all. . . All the big campus wheels have come out of hiding for the second day in a row and are sitting on the elite, elevated The gradies will, on a stage. given secret signal, proceed in an orderly order to be accepted into their degrees (there are rumors that there are going to be twenty-three polling sta-
“At one of the new universities several of the learned rituals have lately come under close scrutiny. A committee of faculty, students, administrators, and alumni appears to favour the abandonment of the standard convocation exercises as not in keeping with the spirit of the time. While considerable sentiment was expressed for the retention of a gowned procession, perhaps to give an otherwise drab occupation at least that occasional bit of colour, vacuous speech-making by local and cosmopolitan dignitaries before bored and resentful audiences is evidently to be a matter. of the past. Nor is the committee disposed to allow the political leadership to use the academic platform for position papers on major issues in domestic or foreign policies. Instead it has recommended that, after a march of the entire university community through the campus and parts of the city, a series of graduation conferences shall take place. These converences would serve as opportunities for the new graduates to confront the power holders in government, industry, and the professions, to raise questions, to make their wishes and aspirations known, and to level with them about their misgivings -and uncertainties. Similarly, members of the community who have been providing much of the financial backing of the students’ university careers through taxes and donations would have the opportunity to question the new graduates about their intentions, the ways they hope to put their learning to use, and how they believe they can benefit those who helped to support them. It appears that these innovations are intended as rites of passage into responsible citizenship. The new plan also calls for closing ceremonies during which academic honours would be bestowed on persons, groups, or organizations that a special faculty-student committee considers to have greatly contributed to the wellbeing of the society.”
News items from the Utopia Herald, May 24, 1999 \
- In- 1889 there appeared Thorstein Veblen’s “The’ Theory, of the Leisure Class the last chapter of which is entitled “The Higher Learning. ” Referring to the mid-West region of the United States as the rather less sophisticated part of the country, Veblen wrote :
lAQO~NO @otcn~o Pqfirr fHE
NOON IllI:
LIST FcNR7’H
s CWCVRW FOR TIM
e
but celebrity-studded start. The initial stage (the Mathive gradies) is .a small scale testing ground for the super spectacular today. It is hoped that all the serious mistakes Thursday can be corrected before today. The biggest celebrity of all will be the great granddaddy of Ontario, John Parmenter Robarts, whose first son, Wee Willy Davis, has (un)done so much for us students always acting in best interests. With the exception of the occasional (at five minute intervals) botch, I predict that Thursday (yesterday by the time you read this) will be a drag for all. The real extravaganza takes place at the local cow palace, the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, sorry, that should be the H.D. Goldbrick Memorial For the first Cow Palace. time, gradies will get more than two invitations to the ordeal and won’t have to smuggle in their girlfriends, fiancees, wives and kiddies after their domineering parents swipe the pair of official invitations. Most of you know what the interior of the cow palace is like so ‘let me describe the scene as it is expected to be this afternoon. The floor seats will be for the gradies and will very appear somber , almost funeral-like when overtaken by the blanket effect of the 850 black as black academic-type gowns. This will be surrounded
tions, I mean deputy chancellor stations, to handle the large mass this year--the registrar’s office refused to comment). After being degreed by the chancellor, the gradies proceed to the penalty box where the registrar gives them their official parchment to be used in the future as evidence of the ordeal. CONCLUSIQN.. .hypocrisy super magna-drag. deluxe and a The alumni association reception afterwards follows the drab You’ve never seen or trend. heard more people bitch about freshie in a punch bowl before. The Saturday (tomorrow) night is the only relieving and saving feature of the weekend. Its the gradies’ ball and a good excuse to tell mommies and daddies, to get lost. This event probably better be left without much predicting as it has all the potential of being completely unpredictable, Yes After all-even by Ralph G. with wine, women, song and a swimming pool----? and tails! Next week the verity of these predictions will be reported as well as the effect that the events have had on the various and assorted stocks that will be so effected. and.. . . .. . there’s two sides to a hole (but I can’t find the outside) and the shortest distance possible between any two lines is a point.
“Cap and gown have been adopted as learned insignia by many colleges of this section within the last few years; and it is safe to say that this could scarcely have. occurred at a much earlier date, or until there had grown up a leisure-class sentiment of sufficient volume in the community to support a strong m,ovement of reversion toward an archaic view as -to legitimate education. This particular item of learned ritual, it may be noted,’ would not only recommend itself to the leisure-class sense of the fitness of things, as appealing to the archaic propensity for- I spectacular effect and the predilection for antique. symbolism; but it at the same time fits into the leisure-class scheme of life as involving a notable element of conspicuous waste.” Whether we count the cost of annual rentals of academic robes for two convocations over the normal academic life span, or instead consider the one-time disastrous expense of a gown and hood more properly measured to the academic man’s or woman’s particular build, there is here a cost factor which will not readily be accepted by the internal revenue men as legitimate expenses in the acquisition of professional tools of trade. But the question may well be raised whether these paraphernalia of ritualism do not serve a more appropriate and indeed necessary end than Veblen indicated in his allegation of their consPicuous If we find for these rituals a rationale waste characteristics. as rites of passage by which the student is led into greater responsibility, greater independence or, as his certificate typically says, new privileges pertaining to the degree obtained, neither the rituals nor the paraphernalia , employed in them would be wasteful. But by whatever index one assesses the utility of convocation exercises as rites of passage, one cannot now so readily reject the Veblenian formulation. -Neither honorary degrees ritualistically awarded for frequently wholly pecuniary considerations, nor the contents of convocation addresses that seldom enough dare confront the realities awaiting the graduates, can serve as rites of passage. In the ancient institutions of the higher learning it is perhaps undertraditions do not exist, academic intelligence might yet want to confront the question of the establishment of conspicuous waste, and of the substitution of more useful forms of social life appropriate to the conditions that obtain there. We are reminded of ai event that occurred some years ago at a regional academic conference. A group of professors had left their hotel and taken a taxicab to the university campus that acted as host to their conference. The cab driver inquired into the nature of the meetings. On being told, he said somewhat petulantly, “YOU fellows get millions of dollars for your universities. What do you do with them? You spent months and years polishing your rear-view mirrors, ’ when the problems actually lie ahead.”
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Views from the top University presidents are by nature a conservative lot. Perhaps because of the great responsibilities involved in the job, stemming from the tremendous power they have, these men are usually resistant to changes in their domains which originate from anywhere but their own safe bureaucracies. Speaking at Waterloo Lutheran’s convocation, where he received an honourary degree, University of Alberta president Walter Johns articulated the position of the arch-conservative, even going as far as equating the quality of life to an abundance of material possessions. “Never in the world’s history,” said Dr. Johns, “have the standards of living of the people of the western world been higher.” Then he went on to complain about reformers who protest miseducation, poverty, American imperialism and police * brutality. “The point is,” he said, “that those who are criticizing everything in the society in which they live and work are extremely vociferous, while the great majority never feel obliged to make themselves heard, and wish only to their job. ” get on with The point is just that, Dr. Johns. The great majority in our universities, and in our society never feel obliged to make themselves heard. There are few persons, students or ‘non-students, who value activity as citizens. They are passive in public and hardly more idealistic in their private lives. A Gallup poll of students has concluded that they will settle for “low success, and won’t risk high failure.” There is little willingness to take risks, no dangerous goals, no real conception of personal identity except one manufactured in the image of others, no real urge for personal fulfillment except to be almost as successful as the very successful people. The so-called activist left, which
Dr. Johns fear, sees the apathy and alienation in North American society as forced, by what he calls “a proper balance in our economy or our society”: the separation of people from power, from relevant knowledge, from pinnacles of decision-making. It is fortunate that there are a few university presidents who have at least an idea of the reasons for student unrest. Dr. Johns might well consider the thoughtful words of President Murray Ross of York University last February : “Today’s students measure our society’s practices by its principles, and they find the practices to be woefuily wanting. We profess, in our classrooms, our churches and our parliaments and, I confess, in convocation addresses, certain notions of equality and justice and freedom and dignity of the individual and we drum these notions into the heads of our younger generation. Could we not expect they would throw them back at us? “The unlikelihood of children from poorer homes going on to university offends their notion of equality. The depraved condition of the Canadian Indian offends their notion of justice. The quality of life in the Spadina slums or in the negro quarter of Halifax offends their notion of the dignity of the individual. “The older generation talk about love and brotherhood and peace but accept a way of life that seems to repudiate these values. ” Dr. Johns and, we hope, other university administrators, will heed Dr. Ross’s conclusion : “Let us not be too concerned with neutralizing student rebellion. Its better side is a worthy attempt to build a more human environment for us, and to compensate for the deadening influence of an aspiration and an endeavour in which we should all want to participate. ”
I think they’re trying to tell us something!
Disestablishmentarianism This is the third time we will have run this editorial-once a year for three years, yet the point it makes is still as important as it was when it was first written. We urge university authorities to realize the insult they are paying to non-christtins by ignoring our suggestion.
The prayer that opens convocation ceremonies should be abolished. According to the 1966-67calendar the University of Waterloo is incorporated as a “non-denominational institute of higher learning...“. This must be recognized for the sake of those non-Christians, both atheists and members of other faiths, who receive diplomas. The university is a secular institution and must officially establish no religion or antireligion. The prayer was used, no doubt, primarily to set a mood of reverence and sobriety. But to those present of other internationfaiths --particularly al students from Moslem, Hindu
and other backgrounds-- it could only have created a pang of irritation and the sensation of exclusion. To the audience of general North Americans of the postChristian era, the recitation was meaningless-- dusty old words. Those who mumbled scorn to themselves were at least honest, though perhaps rude. The aware Christian may have felt both embarrassed because . the prayer affronted the first group, and himself affronted because the unwelcome prayer invited scorn and rejection from the second. :The university as an institute of our society, although born of medieval Christianity, today is no longer under its guardianship. The age of Western Christendom is at last finished--a good thing for both church and society. Our society is not Christian, and to pretend that it is-in such ceremonies-is distasteful to both non-Christian and Christian. This anachronistic convocation prayer must be abolished.
A tYMntX?r
Of the Canadian hliversity Press The Chevron is published every Friday (except exam periods and August) by the board of publications of the Federation of Students, University of Waterloo. Content is independent of the university, student council and the board of publications. Offices in the campus center. Phone (519) 744-6111 local 3443 (newsroom), 3444 (ads). Night 744-0111. editor-in-chief: Steward D. Saxe news editor: Bob Verdun features editor: Steve Ireland managing editor: Frank Goldspink
Instant hills, instant grass, instant trees, and even a big top for the circus scheduled to take place at the mathive building. How come they never do anything around here until just before a visitors day-and then they pay super overtime.
photo editor: Pete Wilkinson ass, news editor: Ken Fraser ass, photo editor: Gary Robins
8000 copies And for another week-chairman of the board of publications: Geoff Moir Bob Verdun is out in Winnepeg at the CUS seminar so we borrowed Rich Mills from CHYM. Pickles, Farrell, Peavoy, Detenbeck, Sidall, Dickson, Burke, Rose, Trott also helped out. And in case your interested only one person made a dime by reading this far last week and telling me about it before 6 p.m.
Friday,
May 24, 1968 (9:3)
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