page 8/the journal/march 6, 1972
Exorcising the power of death
Despite the great moral conscience
of young people, they are betraying
the past and future by turning inward
rather than outward toward the world.
And, although it seems that there is
little action that can be effective in the
"outside" world, something must be
done to prevent the United States from
developing a totalitarian government
within 30 years.
Whether and how young people can
face the challenges of modern living
were the questions that two noted
speakers discussed at the seventh
annual University Forum on Friday.
Philosopher Abraham Kaplan
likened the youth of this era to the
romantics of the nineteenth century.
'The distinctive ways of meeting the
challenges of today," he said, "hark
back to what is charmingly
old-fashioned. There is something
Byronic about the attitudes of today.
"We have enlarged the range of
experience we find significant. In an
era in which we have penetrated the
atom and outer space, it is not the
outer world but the world within that
captures the imagination and
commitment of the young."
Subjectivism, the turning inward to
discover "true" reality, gives us no
sense of the reality of time and of
history, he said. "If we have no sense
of the past, we cna have no sense of
the future," he asserted.
The Now Generation, the
generation that values the "eternal
moment," is right in that only the
present is the locus of meaning, Kaplan
argued. But, he said, the present
acquires depth of meaning and value
only when all of the past and the
future are brought into the present.
The force behind this turning away
from the past and future is the
anti-intellectualism of this age.
Anti-intellectualism is not new with
this generation, nor is it the sole
province of the young. But in turning
our backs on reason, he said, we are
betraying the values that have been
central to civilized man for many
centuries.
"Over and over we rise above
brutishness by reason and human
intelligence. But today, we are falling
away from our responsibility for man's
mind and its works," Kaplan said.
Kaplan holds the artists partially
responsible for the negation of reason
and creativity. "Art is a species of
prophecy. It provides new perspectives,
new challenges, new vistas of the
future in which our lives can find
meaning and value.
"But artists today are in complicity
with the attack on creativity, just as
professors are in complicity with the
attack on reason, and students and
faculty attack learning."
Youth today has both a deep,
abiding moral conscience and a
self-destructiveness caused by its
rejection of the outer world in favor of
inner experience, Kaplan concluded.
William Stringfellow would agree
that we carry the seeds of our own
destruction. But our greatest
shortcoming, and the thing that will
lead us into totalitarianism, is
"hardness of heart," a moral
impoverishment, polarized conscience,
a literal demoralization of society.
Stringfellow used the book of
Revelation in the Bible as the basis for
his speech. "I am trying to understand
America biblically, and not trying to
understand the Bible Americanly." He
used the parable of the destruction of
Babylon, which caused rejoicing in
heaven, as an example of what may
happen in the United States.
It is the people in power — the
affluent, the middle-aged, the whites.
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and the government officials — whose
moral poverty is greatest, Stringfellow
said.
Evidence of this moral incapacity is
all around, he said. We denounce
reason and violate our conscience by
naming escalation as a way to peace.
We support ecology and at the same
time support unlimited industrial
expansion. We praise the law and
defame the Bill of Rights by
persecuting those who stand up for
their constitutional rights.
Stringfellow painted a gloomy
picture of a moral wasteland ruled by a
government and institutions whose
only power is the power of death.
But there may be hope for America,
Stringfellow says, that involves a
commitment to the power of life over
When the odds are long.
And the game goes wrong.
Does your joie de vivre diminish?
Have you little delight
In an uphill fight?
Do you wince at a Garrison finish?
Then here's my hand, my trusty
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I've always wanted a good
dishea rtener.
Oh, things are frequently what they
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And this is wisdom's crown:
Only the game fish swims upstream.
But the sensible fish swims down.
Ogden Nash
Jordan
(ose
a journal
survey
-by Charles autrey
After the Administration had its day at the chariot races, the rolling heads of
the fallen ten have careened crazily abwt the campus, leaving a blood-splattered
trail almost impossible for our fellow automatons to keep themselves from getting
a little red. One head that seems to keep popoing up, that of Dr. Leonard Jordan
seems to have bounced a bit more than the others and actually stirred up some
reaction, if no really genuine concern, among the students at UNCC.
When asked about Dr. Jordan and the rest, most of the student body,
surprisingly enough, seemed to know what was happening though few ventured to
guess why. Student feeling (one could hardly call it opinion) is remarkably
consistent. After summarily reading the newspaprer coverage and other info
handouts. 98% of the student body has the same basic feeling — the sacking of
Jordan and the other members of the unwashed ten is really a bloody shame, but
legally they haven't a head to stand on. Yes, it seems the average student (not a
totally inaccurate term atUNCC-there is a veritable sea of mediocrity) has finally
found a cause he can stand up for -as long as he can do it sitting down.
Although nearly all of our beloved student body wanted Jordan to stay, the
reasons given were somewhat varied. Most of the people questioned did not know
Jordan personally but felt that all views should bepresented to the student in a
balanced diet of social theory: Ergo Jordan, or someone like him, must be on the
faculty.
Some did not particularly object to Jordan’s (or anyone else's) non-renewal,
but were miffed at the fact that none of them were given reasons for their
decapitations. A few of those questioned knew Dr. Jordan personally and rapidly
came to his defence. It is generally granted that Dr. Jordan is extremely
competent in his field of study and is a facite lecture. "Why must he go?" they
howl. Even if the majority really doesn't care, does that mean that the students in
a certain curriculum should have to bow to the dictates of an uniformed upper
crust?
One coed interviewed wanted Jordan to stay because she thought he was
"cute."
Aside from the decidedly anti-Administration
"l-really-think-it's-rotten-but-what-in-hell-can-l-do-about-it." weighted apathy,
there were a few sound arguments from several widely-differing campus.
At least two of those interviewed were glad to see Jordan go for one reason or
another. Possibly, they considered him disloyal to the Stars and Bars, and other
American traditions.
One fellow interviewed, said "I really don't see what Jordan's gripe is." He
brought out that the non-renewal-without-reason provision was written into the
contract beforehand, and that Jordan (or any of the others) had no legal grounds
for recourse. He did not, however, think that the no-reason provision was a good
one.
Of the same genus but of a different species, was a veteran student who
commented that he was completely unsurprised and unmoved at the situation. He
was used to such things, he said. In fact, he thinks the whole bit is rather funnV-
Faculty members, as a group, were pretty uncommunicative about the subject.
It's understandable, though. Three-fourths of them have the same kind ot
arbitrary non-renewal clause written into their contracts.
Blacks did not seem to differ much from the general drift of student feeling,
though they tended to be a bit more vocal in their responses. Some students seerf
to think that Jordan is using all the free publicity toward his own evil ends,
manipulating the student body just to keep his job. This, however, does seem a bd
farfetched as it would seem that a man of Jordan’s talents would have more viabi®
alternatives than staying here.
To an interested observer, the student attitudes toward the dismissal of Jordan
and the rest might seem to parallel the attitudes of the Roman citizenry at th®
Circus. Some liked the blood; othere were revolted by its barbarity; still othet^
were so callused that they thought the whole matter was screamingly funny.
But the tradition went on urKhallenged for centuries because, however theV
might be revolted by the practice, they kept silent with the knowledge that th®V
might be the next victim if they spoke.
"Off with his head!" cride mighty Caesar.
"Whoopee," yawned the crowd.
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Forum speakers
by Sharon deck
death. A .o, in a more specific sense,
getting Richard Nixon out of the White
House would be the first positive step
in re-asserting the power of life.
"It may not work, but if we do not
try, we are abdicating completely. And
even if we lose, we will have spent our
energies on something worthwhile," he
said. Unless Richard Nixon is defeated,
Stringfellow asserted, the next thirty
years will see more totalitarianism
-more wars, more persecution of
political prisoners, more contempt for
human life.
It may be too late. Although
Stringfellow and Kaplan do not see the
situation as hopeless, they gave the
impression that the time is short, and
growing shorter yet
Mixed feelings on