OPINION
University Daily Kansan, June 15, 1984
Page 4
The University Daily KANSAN
Published since 1889 by students of the University of Kansas
The University Daily KANSAN
The University Daily Kalkan (UPS 605040) is published at the University of Kansas 118 Hall of Science, Kansas City, Kansas, daily during the regular weekday hours. UPS is an official U.S. government agency and offers holidays and final periods. Second class postage paid to Lawrence, Kan. UPS 60403. Subscriptions by mail are issued twice weekly, on the first Friday of each month. Subscriptions are any 61 a.m. session pass through the student activity line (PARTMATE). Send a request for a pass through the student activity line to [us.edu] or [kcalks.ks.edu].
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Hard to believe
Thomas Hardy once said that "Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened."
"Strange" inadequately describes the story today about the works of the "Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation" in Kansas City. This cult, and this word too seems inadequate, has been placing pamphlets on the windshields of cars that accuse the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church of a bewildering array of the world's great tragedies.
bewildering array of the world's great tragedies. The assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, not to mention the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, and World War II, are among the many evils which the foundation blames on the church. In this age of moderation given way to fanaticism, it seems nothing is too bizarre for the imaginations of the emotionally ill.
Often it is in the best interest of a free nation to dismiss such fanaticism in the name of religious tolerance, but we cannot imagine how tolerance of such a disturbed group of people benefits society.
Reasonable people can be expected to ignore the radio and television broadcasts, and books and pamphlets produced by the foundation, but this organization also operates a school for children in grades one through 12. Tolerance of fanaticsim here results in the tragic indoctrination of innocent children.
Only the pressure of responsible public opinion can discourage the fanaticism to which our modern society is so prone. Society must embrace moderation. "Christians" such as Tony Alamo should not be passively dismissed, for as the French philosopher Denis Diderot once said, "From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step."
Going overboard
A Nation at Risk. This was the ominous sounding title of a report released last year. The report, which detailed the serious crisis our public education system faces, scared many educators, parents and legislators.
A wave of educational awareness is sweeping the country, and Kansag has been caught up in this tide of reformism.
The state has taken appropriate action by raising teacher's salaries and certification standards, as well as instituting competency testing in math and reading skills. These are needed repairs of the faults of the U.S. educational system.
needed repairs of People demand reform when confronted with alarming statistics such as those in the report. Sometimes, however, they go too far. The Legislature used misguided overkill with recent legislation requiring students to enroll in six hours to be considered full-time students.
However, the legislation requiring seniors to attend an extra hour of school will be ineffective. Contrary to what our state legislators seem to believe, quality, not quantity, is what's lacking in our schools.
The problem is not that some seniors take five instead of six hours, it is that these seniors don't have to take academically substantive courses. In fact, many of the students taking only five hours are taking advanced courses in subjects such as calculus, history and government. Are these students getting an inferior education because they are taking only five hours? In the famous words of John Wayne, "Not hardly."
A math problem
While computers assume the administration of factories, the guidance of missiles and the entertainment of children, the foundation for our cybernetic society is sagging. Mathematics research has suffered tremendous losses in funding and talent during the past 15 years. Half as many Americans received doctoral degrees in mathematics in 1982 as in 1968. Inadequate funding for fellowships and research has discouraged able students from entering the field. The National Research Council has called for an increase of federal funding from $80 million to $180 million a year for the next five years.
A nation that discourages its young people from pursuing mathematics is not developing the talent necessary for advancement in the natural sciences, engineering or the social sciences. The computers and robots that will help brace American industry against its competitors will not be built.
built.
Mathematics is to sciences what literacy is to the arts. It deserves far greater support than it's been getting.
(Detroit Free Press)
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Springsteen sings America on new album
Bruce Springsteen looks more like a garage mechanic than a rock star.
He sings of cars and girls and families falling apart, of men who work days at the car wash and drive in their chasing dreams down dark highways.
On his new album, "Born in the U.S.A.", Springtime writes about the American Dream — and the American Disappointment — with a poetic simplicity rarely found in today's popular music.
He sees life through the eyes of a garage mechanic, not through the eyes of a glitter-haired MTV creation.
The album's cover says it all. Springsteen stands in front of an American flag wearing grubby Levi's and T-shirt, a baseball cap tucked in his pocket.
With patriotic drums pounding to open the album's title track, Spring-steen spits out the bitter tale of a Vietnam vet, who has returned home without a job and without his brother.
For more than a decade Springsteen has explored the darker side of America, filling his albums with desperate vignettes of people trapped in jobs and relationships out of their control.
His last album, "Nebraska," opened with a loose retelling of the mass murderer Charles Starkweather. The album's other characters were just as tragic as Starkweather, men who turned to
rage and crime as their only way out,
and offered no other explanation than
“there's just a meanness in the world.”
On "Born in the U.S.A." Springsteen's characters are still grappling with this meanness, still searching for something better than what they have now.
In "Working on the Highway," Springsteen sings of a flagman on County Road 95 who finds happiness in a pretty girl: "She don't know nothin' about this cruel, cruel world," he says. But it isn't until the end of the song that we realize the flameback. He's flamback. It's an prison work gang, and the girl is only a picture in his head.
ation, but they know their肌 must go on! For the protagonist in 'I'm on Fire' and 'The Road to Happiness', much: "Sometimes it's like someone took a knife, baby/Edgy and dull/And cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my skull."
the men in "Bobby Jean" and "Downbound Train" have been deserted by their lovers. They hurt, they drop to their knees in desperation.
But unlike his characters on "Nebraska," Springsteen's characters on "Born in the U.S.A." don't always succumb to despair.
In "Gloy Days," the narrator glances at the students with two friends from high school, a former baseball pitcher and a divorced beauty queen. The narrator admits that their memories are merely "boring stories," but for the divorced woman, those stories get her through the day.
In the album's finale, "My Home-town," the narrator wonders whether he and his family should pack their bags and move south. As he drives through town, the pleasant memories of his childhood contrast sharply with the grim pictures of reality: the white-washed windows on Main Street and the dying textile mill where he works. At the song's finish he sits his son on his lap and says, "Son, take a good look around, this is your hometown."
Bass and drums form a foot-stomping foundation beneath the guitars and keyboards; handclaps and tambourines mix with 1950s "sha-la-la" choruses, Add Clarence Clemons' defiant saxophone and Springsteen's gritty voices, and the album's message comes alive.
The album's more upbeat music reflects this sense of hope. Spring-steen has called "Born in the U.A.S." a "fun" record, replacing the sparse guitar and harmonica of "Nebrake" for the full force of the E Street Band
The characters on "Born in the U.S.A." are older, saddled with the responsibilities of adulthood. They can't hide as they did during their childhood, they know they must cope with life's inevitable disappointments.
And as the lonesome organ fades, we realize that it's not just Spring-steen's home town he's singing about, but ours too.
"Born in the U. A.," is much more than 12 "fun" songs. It's 45 minutes of America, from Los Angeles to New Jersey, with an awful lot of Lawrence mixed in between.
A new role for Europe?
NATO solidarity has been challenged by the Dutch hesitancy to accept U.S. built cruise missiles. But the Dutch are not alone in a seemingly different attitude from the U.S. government's position on what NATO should be. A recent public opinion poll taken in the 10 countries of the European Economic Community indicates that in Europe, economic and social, not defense issues, are of primary concern. Europeans perceive the Reagan Administration waging an ideological campaign against the Syrian regime of pressing violence. They see an undue emphasis on the arms buildup in the United States without an equally strong commitment to diplomacy.
The Reagan Administration's rationale is that the United States has increasing commitments around the world; protecting European oil supplies in the Persian Gulf and preventing Central Asia from becoming a Communist are only two examples. In Reagan's view, Europe should play a stronger role in its own defense, especially by increasing its conventional arsenal.
Although President Reagan on his recent trip to Europe assured the United States' close and continuing ties with Europe, his recent trips to Asia indicate a shift in U.S. attention toward the Pacific.
There have been even harsher voices on this side of the Atlantic. William Safire, in a column in the New York Times, describes the Europeans as being interested exclusively in having the United States defend Europe and resentful of any action the United States takes elsewhere to protect its own security. In order to counter Europeans' complaints against U.S. foreign policy, he advises an independent European
WOLFGANG
DOBLER
Staff Columnist
defense with the United States offering for sale the latest intermediate nuclear missiles.
The idea is appealing to many Americans and Europeans. The United States finally could look to its own "vital interests," and Europeans pursue their idea about the "Europeanization of Europe."
However, there are some problems with an "independent" Europe.
While Americans and most politicians in Europe picture a unified
Europe firmly rooted in the Western world, almost 30 percent of the 18- to 34-year-olds in France, Great Britain and West Germany favor neutrality.
A few clearing remarks are in order: Europeans are right in pressing for a revival of negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union Reagan's view of diplomacy differs considerably from the European counterparts, who see these compromises and compromise Europeans see that U.S. and Soviet weapons threaten each other, but both threaten Europe.
A unified and neutral Europe, however, is very unlikely to come about. The dream of a safe Europe between two superpowers hostile against each other is based on unrealistic dreams rather than a rational assessment of the political situation in the Eastern Hemisphere
The role of Europe is rather to soften rhetoric and military excesses in the Soviet Union as well as in the United States. It is easier to achieve this goal from within the respective treaty organizations than from the outside. The chance of Europe therefore lies not in neutrality but in strengthening its political role and identity.
What do philosophers do?
Before I tell you my major, I would like to assure you that I have never been a participant in a parapsychological firestorm, read anything by Kahil Gibran, or even closely approached the meaning of
My major is most certainly a misunderstood one. Some people believe that a philosophy major studies by relaxing with a transcript of an Abbie Hoffman speech, a Jeferson Airplane course through his long hair) and a pipe filled with a harsh brand of tobacco.
I am a philosophy major.
philosophy students to read something four times. I respectfully ignore them, with full knowledge of my ignorance.
Actually, I take all the prerequisites other people take, wear clothes with only a few holes, and able to sit for several minutes thinking about life before I find myself in some ice cream reverie. I don't have facial hair (look at my picture — it's true).
But a philosophy major I am. And although I am certainly not qualified to discuss my major, as I am only an introvert, I can tell you what I hope to be a valiant attempt.
Guest Columnist
philosophy is by reading the books in the philosophy sections of most bookstores, unless the bookstores are on a university campus.
MIKE
O'ROURKE
Most of these shelves contain works by authors who specialize in parapsychology, religion or faith-related literary fields such as poetry
The first point to realize is this:
One will not come to know what
Secondly, philosophy is seldom analagous to any type of altered state, except perhaps severe confusion or frustration.
One or two works in these sections may deal with authentic philosophy, but only on rare occasions.
And thirdly, philosophy requires much reading, which is not what one would call light reading. Some people (known as philosophy professors) even have the audacity to expect
According to the American Philosophical Association, which is far more prepared to discuss this subject than I, "Philosophy pursues questions in every dimension of human life." It is a reasoned purportation of truths, a quest for understanding as study of principles of conduct."
Philosophy is traditionally divided into four areas: logic, ethics, metaphysics and epistemology. Logic attempts to discern good reasoning from bad. Ethics deals with the meanings of our moral concepts. Metaphysics seeks basic criteria for reality, and epistemology involves the nature and scope of knowledge.
I must, however, clarify some stereotypes. Decent, self-respecting philosophers don't serve as mediums in their spare time. They also avoid summing up their "philosophies" in a barrage of vacations, rapid rise
They will probably have facial hair, though (women excluded).