page four/the journal/december 9, 1971'
peerpoint
A change of purpose
.by lou bonds
(Reprinted from the Daily Tar Heel Nov. 17, 1971.)
Social institutions and traditions of UNC are taking a beating
of late. Many students claim they are dead. Others maintain they
are dying. Traditionalists argue both are still operative and faring
quite well, thank you.
But one point seems valid. The social institutions and
traditions have lost their original purpose. Many have found nes
purposes. Those which have not are on the brink of becoming
obsolete.
Take them in order: fraternities and sororities, the homecoming
football game, dances, concerts, dating and dormitories.
THE FRATERNITY system once enjoyed popular sovereignty
on this campus. To wear a Greek letter was to be the apple of
a sister sorority’s eye. It was a symbol of brotherhood, friends
pledged to common causes and ideals. There was community
effort towards delicately mixing academics and fun (sometimes
not so delicately) and social intermingling — new friends, lifelong
associates, contacts.
No time for that now. The 1971 student has declared himself
an individual apart from the brotherhood. The larger community
has broken down into many smaller ones. Friends are contacts,
they are chosen at the discretion of personal tastes, not by
contractural agreements.
Goodbye fraternities and sororities.
The homecoming football game was THE DAY on campus.
Football players got cheers from the stands and cheers in the
locker room. “Do it for the Gipper, Qioo Choo.” Parades
clogged downtown traffic, floats lined the sidelines, and, oh, the
crowning glory of the homecoming queen. The parties, the
imported dates, the liquor.
“THERE’S A WAR going on, man. What about poverty? What
about ci\nl rights? A homecoming football game is irrelevant. Too
many pressing issues that are more important. And look at the
bod they’ve chosen to be homecoming queen. Rank chauvinism is
what it is. You aren’t going to catch me dressing up in some
monkey suit for some giggling broad. No money for a corsage,
for God’s sake.”
Goodbye homecoming football game.
The Tin Can was once called the most useful building on
campus. It served many purposes, but alumni remember it best in
connection with the BIG DANCE. Guy Lombardo’s appearance
there in the thirties pacxed the couples onto the floor. This
campus used to swing.
TEe BIG DANCE gave way to the little dance at frat parties,
dorm mixers and ni^tclubs. And these have given way to no
dances. When the dances slowed down so did enthusiasm for
dancing.
Goodbye dances.
THE NATURAL replacement for the dance was the concert.
And this tradition still draws large crowds. But they will wane.
Too many problems.
Jubilee fell because of the mess and gate crashers. Gatecrashers
are a problem at coliseum concerts. Trouble with name groups
puts the number of concerts on the decline. People come to hear
music that evaporates into noise at Carmichael auditorium. The
concerts cost a lot of money. They’re here now, but how much
longer?
Goodbye concerts.
Dates used to be challenges of male ivirility pitted against
girlish submission. Too much sophistication nowadays. Free love,
free sex, birth control pills take away the challenge. Ideals have
changed, too.
Goodbye dating.
DORMITORIES WERE study rooms and playhouses. Anybody
for a poker game? Finished by studies, how about a water fight?
Pillow fight? But campus political organizations were winding
down to the dormitory level and the playhouses soon found
themselves wrapped in bureaucratic protocol. The hall clown was
replaced by the hall president, the dorm partier by the dorm
social chairman. Organizing, organizing everywhere in the dorm.
And off-campus housing is just a tad more comfortable and
about as cheap.
Goodbye dormitories.
Undoubtedly, these traditions and social institutions will be
replaced only if new purposes are not introduced. If frats and
sororities cater to individuality, they will remain. If the
homecoming football game is played on behalf of charity fund
raising campaigns or poverty, it will remain. When the new
meaning of dating is understood, then dancing will return. And
so on.
It is not the social institution and tradition that is dying. It is
their purpose.
pages of opinion
UNCC
Opinions of the Journal are
expressed on its editorial pages.
All unsigned editorials are the
majority opinion of the Editqrial
Board. Letters and columns
represent only the opinions of the
.individual writers. Opposing
editorial viewpoints may be
printed by contacting the Editor.
Charlie peek
The Christmas
Greening of the Avenue
With Madison Avenue guiding and gilding all aspects of oui
lives from the cradle to the grave, it comes as no divine
revelation to realize that Christmas, along with underarm
protection, mouthwash and love, is marketable.
It is not enough that capitalism, the shining product of
democracy and God, soaks all it can from the deepest of human
emotions and feelings for humanity. No, they must go deeper
still and pervert one of the few honorable traditions left in the
Western world.
If anything brings home to man the feeling that he’s living in
a plastic make-believe world, in which he is even made to think
that an extra dose of humanity lasts only from Thanksgiving to
New Year’s, it is the gross exploitation of Christmas.
1 cannot help but believe that it must do something to a
child’s character, something far reaching and pervasive, to go
see Santa Qaus in a modern department store. The poor kid has
to stand in line for close to half an hour listening to other
mothers shout at their “brats” to keep quiet and keep still or
Santa Claus won’t bring them anything (another
Christian-American dogma of do good-get something, do bad-lose
out). Then he’s propped up on the old guy’s lap, given a piece
of candy and is expected to pour out his fondest desires at the
drop of a hat, with dozens of people staring at him and grinning
like idiots.
Thirty seconds on Santa’s knee, then a flashbulb pops and he’s
dragged over to the cash register to wait for his parents to pay
for the pictures. Standing there listening to the cash register ring
over and over, all in anticipation of me day when he can tear
into $200 worth of presents. It has to do something to a child’s
value system. Twenty years from now, what will be his fondest
memories of childhood Christmases.
Whether you’re a Christian or not, one should still be able to
enjoy the season. It’s ideally a time for fellowship, goodwill,
peace, oranges, Braal nuts, and fireplaces. But just work in a
retail store over the Christmas holidays. People come in like
hungry wolves looking for ANYTHING that will fit their budgets
and keep them from losing face with their friends and relatives. 1
worked at K-Mart one Christmas (a mistake) and at closing time
on Christmas Eve people were still beating down the' doors,
trying to buy, buy, buy. Working at a cash register, I saw so
much green, 1 almost got seasick. Yuletide is measured h'
neckties and cologne.
But invariably, some bonehead will counter with; “What about
all the ‘Christmas Spirit’ that surrounds everything and everyone?
Any person who is a true Christian or even a convicted
humanitarian will feel no all pervading, Damascus Road, diviu®
‘Spirit’ solely at Christmas. From what I understand o*
Christianity, a “Christmas Spirit” diould be present throughout
the year. Having a lonpng for peppermint candy and eggnog is^
far cry from a true commitment to goodwill and peace that the
“Spirit” is proposed to be.
So what’s one to do to shed the plastic, $1.99 coating o
of
Madison Ave. Christianity-Capitalism. One could simply ignore
altogether. This can save much frustration and even promot®
some amusement for yourself.
However, if one is bound and determined to get somethiug
personal out of the season, I suggest a few possibilities: 1) huy *
real, live, authentic GREEN tree, 2) decorate it with homem^^
decorations, regardless of how ugly or simple they may be
still be proud of them), 3) MAKE a present for someone spect^^
with your own twg, grubby, hot little hands, 4) give a toy to
child who migjit not get one. 1 don’t mean gjve it to m
Marines or the Salvation Army; 1 mean p\e it directly to hiw
and just watch his face. 5) don’t stay in a department sto^
more than 15 minutes at a time, 6) bake some cookies
Christmas Eve (even if you can’t eat them, just sit there ^
look at them).
These are only a few suggestions. Tty one or two and
might be inspired to think up some more of your own.
Have a Happy Christmas. Sh^om.