KANSAN Comment
'I shall be happy to record the minutes of this meeting.'
One hand clapping
By MIKE SHEARER Arts & Reviews Editor
Yes, maybe our cup does runneth over
Yes, maybe our cup does runneth over. And maybe the cup isn't always filled with such worthwhile stuff as we think.
An old Zen tale tells the story of the wise old master named Nan-in who was visited by a professor who wanted to inquire about Zen. The old master invited the professor in and began to pour him tea, but when the cup was full, the old master continued pouring.
"It is overfull. No more will go in," the professor cried.
"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"
Like the professor, most of us, particularly in the academic world, are full of our opinions and speculations.
'Tis the season to be jolly . . . and also self-objective. It's the best time of the year to ask ourselves the embarassing questions we avoid in our daily routines.
How many of us angry young men could always name the source of our anger and justify our full cup of bitterness?
How many of our professors could always name the source of their self esteem and justify their full cup of aloofness?
With so many things left to learn, it is a shame that so many cups should be so full of bitterness, aloofness or the other common side effects of academia.
With cups so full of self-importance, who of us really has time to absorb the splendors that other people have to offer us? With everyone's cup filled so lavishly with himself, where is the old Zen master to pour his tea?
Nothing so needs changing as other people's bad habits, Mark Twain wrote. He could well have known America's academic personnel of the 1960's, because we have been guilty of over-teaching when there was so much learning to be done.
Of course, we can't give up our teaching, our pleading with America to change its course in foreign policy and domestic non-policy.
That is a big task to accomplish with the coming of Christmas and the turning of the decade. It is almost as difficult as understanding the sound of one hand clapping, the sound which led to Zen enlightenment.
But to succeed, we must become legitimate students, all of us.
May we all hear the sound of one hand clapping throughout the holiday. May it lead to a Merry Christmas and an enlightened new decade.
Readers' write
In a letter to the UDK last week, Jonathan Jordan wrote that we are in Vietnam because we have learned "that to appease an aggressor [in this case North Vietnam] merely whets his appetite," so the U.S. must fight to defend South Vietnam and thus teach the Communists that their aggressive policies will not succeed. The following aspects of the history of this war raise doubts in our minds as to whether the Communists are the only aggressors, and whether our interests are only to preserve the freedom of South Vietnam.
To the editor:
1. Between 1950 and 1954, the U.S. spent $750 million aiding the French war to regain colonial power in Vietnam.
2. We were instrumental in creating and maintaining Diem's power after the Geneva Conference.
3. We apparently supported Diem's "land reform" acts which aided mainly the rich landlords, his failure to hold the elections provided for by the Geneva Accords, and his repression of all opposition political activity.
4. Due to Diem's repression and unresponsiveness to the people, the Viet Minh and other groups began an armed rebellion in 1957.
5. In 1960, North Vietnam recognized the Viet Minh (by then the NLF) and declared their willingness to help them fight to remove the foreign American control in their country.
Now can we say that North Vietnam has been the only aggressor here, when we heavily supported the French military activity and then helped create and maintain the first of many unpopular governments. It seems also that our intervention in Vietnam has not only been to defend an independent and free country, but also to create a state willing to cooperate with us to uphold our political and economic interests. Mr. Jordan says that our policies discourage the Communists from being aggressive and encourages anti-communists to resist that aggression because they can count on our aid, but it seems that partly we are encouraging the Communists to fight harder to resist our interventionist policies, and discouraging our allies by pursuing the war in Vietnam in disregard for our stated ideals of self-determination without foreign control or coercion.
Our main concern in this brief reply to Mr. Jordan has been to balance the black-and-white picture of Communist aggression and American defense of freedom that he has presented. The U.S. has for too long hidden its faults and hypocrisy behind moralistic rhetoric, and it's time to take a more realistic viewpoint even if it offends our virile, self-righteous national self-image to do so. We would be glad to talk to Mr. Jordan or anyone else about any aspect of the war in Vietnam in order to present more fully our viewpoint and to understand more clearly theirs.
Jack Krebs
Jon Cates
Committee for Education
on Vietnam
Student Mobilization
Committee
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