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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, December 6, 1968
De George examines "new Marxism" in book
This summer's Czech invasion was a violent skirmish of a more subtle ideological war between Russia and Eastern Europe's "New Marxists," a KU professor said yesterday.
"The rape of Czechoslovakia," says Richard T. De George, chairman of KU's department of philosophy, "was consistent with the old-line Soviet Marxism-Leninism. It was a serious setback, however, for the 'New Marxists' emerging in Eastern Europe."
De George is the author of "The New Marxism," published this fall and now available in the Union bookstore.
The present unrest does not represent a desire for capitalism, De George emphasizes. Eastern Europeans favor socialism, but they want it more responsive to the popular will. They also want an end to Soviet domination.
Anti-Russian grievances vary from country to country, De George says. In Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, a more humanistic Marxism is desired. The Rumanians, however, equally wary of the Soviet Union, are satisfied with the old ideology. They merely want more national autonomy.
Of the various "roads to socialism," that of Yugoslavia appears the most promising, said De George.
Following complaints of "corporate statism," the Yugoslavian
government allowed factory workers to share in the profits and decision making.
This policy's ultimate fate—and that of the entire Yugoslav liberalization effort—depends on who replaces the aging Tito after his death.
America's miniscule Communist party has been unaffected by the fresh Marxian breezes blowing through Europe, says De George.
"The American Communists know they will never gain power and they don't really seem to care."
One desirable by-product of the new Marxism, says De George, is the dialogue now going on between Christians and Communists. While the Russians have been militarily atheistic, "New Marxists" consider religion a private matter.
This tolerance has been reciprocated by Christians, and meaningful exchanges are taking place.
Because of their minority status, says De Geroge, the Communist parties of Western Europe have abandoned the Marxist "violent upheaval" theory. Instead, they have adopted such "bourgeois" techniques as campaigning and electioneering.
Whether they would forcibly seize power if the opportunity arose, he would not say.
No link exists between the West's "New Left" and the
KU administrator writes science fiction on the side
A childhood interest in science fiction has lead James E. Gunn, administrative assistant to the Chancellor and English instructor, to a second occupation of science fiction writing.
Gunn, who spoke yesterday at the SUA Poetry Hour, said science fiction has the reputation for prophetic meaning.
"Science fiction," he said "is really concerned less with prophecy and more with speculation. My own writing is concerned with ideas."
His presentation began with a reading of a short story, "Cave of Night," one of three stories in a series "Station in Space."
The story concerned the plight of a U.S. Air Force officer stranded in perpetual earth orbit and illustrated man's liberation from the earth's tyranny.
A lighter tone characterized Gunn's second story, "Feeding Time," which dealt with a girl and her dreams of a monster.
The administrator-writer has written plays, radio script, articles, poetry, and criticism. But his first love is science fiction. Gunn began writing science fiction in 1948 and sold nine out of ten of his first stories. In all he has written and sold 50 stories, 6 novels, and his master's thesis, which was about science fiction.
Gunn, who classifies his writing as sociological rather than technological, said he uses elements of philosophy and places stories in the near future instead of the far future.
Most of his stories are written in series and later combined into books. Aside from publication in more than 60 magazines and
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books, four stories have been dramatized over NBC radio and one appeared on national television in 1961.
Since his appointment to the Chancellor's staff, Gunn's writing time is limited to summer. I do most of my writing now in August, he said, when I take my summer vacation.
"New Marxism," De George savs.
"The 'New Left' is basically a nihilistic protest movement offering no constructive alternatives, 'New Marxists,' by contrast, are reformers, who want to use their reinterpretations of Marx to build a better life."
The average Russian who can't understand the "New Marxism," strongly supported the crushing of Czech liberalism, and vehemently disapproves of antigovernment dissent.
"Those who speak out are mainly literary figures," De George said. "Philosophers and the theoreticians rigidly adhere to the orthodox line."
While this is caused partly by fear of punishment, a feeling of national loyalty enters in as well. Russians are proud of their nation's strength and hesitate to criticize its government.
Computerized geology conference lures international geology experts
About 80 persons are expected for the international "Workshop Experiment in Sampling," the fifth in a series of computer colloquiums held at the University of Kansas from Dec.11 to 31.
The workshop will be directed by Prof. John C. Griffiths, distinguished visiting scientists at the Kansas Geological Survey. Griffiths, a professor of mineralogy and geochemistry at Pennsylvania State University, is also teaching the geology department at KU.
Assisting Griffiths for the workshop will be John C. Davis, Kansas Geological Survey; Charles W. Ondrick, Pan American Post Doctoral Fellow at the Kansas Geological Survey; John D. Winslow, U.S. Geological Survey and Daniel F. Merriam, Kansas Geological Survey.
The workshop, sponsored by the Kansas Geological Survey, the U.S. Geological Survey and KU Extension, began two years ago and has continued at six month intervals.
Merriam said the colloquim series has become famous as an interdisciplinary idea exchange. He said 10 to 15 papers are usually presented at each colloquim.
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