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University Daily Kansan Thursday, March 9. 1961
Guest Editorial
Black and White Bad
We would hope that those who fight sound arguments with emotional fury are among a dying breed. But in observing the tone of anti-Catholic literature prior to President Kennedy's election, the tone of most sentiment against antidiscrimination legislation, and the tone of most anti-UN sentiment, one cannot help but notice some striking similarities.
(From The University of Washington Daily, March 1. 1961.)
Perhaps the most remarkable common characteristic of emotional arguments is the reliance upon a two-valued orientation. Either the person is for or against, or an object is good or evil. There is no middle ground. Any attempt at a multi-valued orientation becomes immediately regarded as deceitful.
FOR EXAMPLE, IF J. EDGAR HOOVER tells us that the Communists are appealing to youth, as may well be the case, the two-valued person immediately suspects all youth as tools of the conspiracy.
Unfortunately for such two-valued persons, society is not created in such simple colors as black or white, and consequently the two-valued
person finds himself out of step with reality. It is easier for him to hate that which he does not understand than it is for him to try to understand.
In "The Nature of Prejudice." G. W. Allport notes that "one of the facts of which we are most certain is that people who reject one out-group will tend to reject other out-groups. If a person is anti-Jewish, he is likely to be anti Negro, or anti any out-group." From this we can see further use of the two-valued system.
SINCE THE TWO-VALUED PERSON WILL automatically reject notions that differ from his own, and since it is impossible for him to reconcile his position, he forces himself further and further away from society, until such a time as he is against any or everything.
Other persons are thereby classified accordingly, to the extent that they are good if they agree and evil if they disagree with the two-valued persons' beliefs.
Perhaps the day will come when the two-valued person will be no more. Until then, we can only lead him to logic, but we cannot make him think.
The Theater Corner
By Bill Blundell
The University Theatre players, doubtless encouraged by the successes of the past season, tackled a major 70-role production last night as they tried to do justice to Bertolt Brecht's epic "Caucasian Chalk Circle." The results were disappointing.
GRANTED, THIS is one of the most difficult plays to stage ever written. There are often two, three or more centers of activity on the stage simultaneously, set changes are constant, story lines cross, and a dangerously large number of players are usually on stage at the same time, threatening to detract from the major focus of action.
All these difficulties plagued the cast last night. The supporting actors often overplayed minor roles, throwing scenes into jarring distortion. They often seemed to prefer the bludgeon to the caress, insuring the attention of the audience but robbing the scene of a meaningful portrayal.
THE SETS WERE ingeniously designed for quick changes, but this advantage was offset by the distracting tendency to show off
their mobility at every opportunity. Major set changes are noisily made in full view of the audience while the story teller or another character may be saying their lines. We could hear the casters on the set squeaking as it was rolled out of the backstage gloom, and we could see it plainly as it came center stage, but the lines the characters were speaking might as well have been Greek.
The play itself is a masterful one, weaving the lives of a diverse group of people together in a common thread at the climax. It contains all the heroes and villains whose characters we have come to expect in any dramatic production; its scope is life-size, embracing all the good and evil in men — but the evil becomes humor, and the good is extolled.
Brecht borrowed from many theater techniques to create "Circle." Narration, choral speaking, the use of filmed segments, bizarre quasi-oriental makeup, unusual entrances and exits, and other unorthodox methods featured last night's production.
UNFORTUNATELY, the methods used failed to flow together
and produce a cohesive drama. The cast had difficulty in using the various tools supplied them, and the effect was at times choppy and disconnected.
The play did have its bright spots, however. Jim McMullan was an excellent storyteller, never dominating the action or stealing the thunder of the rest of the characters. His songs were gemlike.
The story dragged until intermission. In the first three segments, a revolution forces a governor's wife to flee and leave her high-born child. The baby is taken and protected from harm by a menial servant in the governor's household, who spirits the child away to the hills to protect him from the soldiers of the revolution. She adopts the child and marries a boorish peasant, well-played by Hoite Caston. At last the soldiers capture the boy and bring him back to the capital, where a counter-revolution has re-established the old ruling class.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
"IN CONCLUSION — I HOPE MY LECTURE HASN'T BEEN TOO DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO FOLLOW IN YOUR TEXT — I EXPECT MY GLASSES WILL BE REPAIRED BY TOMORROW."
AFTER INTERMISSION, the play took on power and cohesiveness, thanks to the development of the character of Azdak, the rascally yet infinitely tender, boorish yet sensitive, judge. Placed by Sidney Berger, this role is thought to be autobiographical in that Brecht himself was a man very much like Azdak. Berger steals the show with a magnificent job in a juicy role. His trial of a nincompoop stablehand charged with rape by a voluptuous farm girl had the audience roaring. But in a later trial, he proves himself wise as Solomon in a situation which obviously has its roots in the biblical story in which the king of kings determined a dispute to maternity by offering to cut the child in dispute in half and grant one piece to each of the women. One was agreeable, but the other begged the king to give the whole child to the other woman, saying she could not bear to see it hurt. Solomon knew the right mother, she who would give up her own before she would let it be injured. So does Azdak, as he submits the contestants—Grusha the maidservant, who raised the governor's child and now demands she be permitted to keep him, and the governor's wife, who only wants her son so that she can claim certain lands — to a very similar test, though not so gruesome; the test of the Caucasian Chalk Circle, Grusha wins, insuring a happy ending, and the storyteller intones: "Take note of what men of old concluded; that what there is shall go to those who are good for it."
Daily Hansan
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Sound and Fury
Disagreeing on Disagreement
By Francis O. Okediji, Nigeria Graduate Student
Augustine G. Kyei, Ghana Senior
Part I
Brothers, as well as sisters, disagree. Even they fight. This is also true of twins. However, they manage to reconcile within a short duration of time. Why can we not do likewise as regards our own friend from Pakistan, Rab Malik, with whom we have so much in common? After all, we are all from the so-called "under-developed" countries, which have the potential to become "developed" countries.
BACK TO THE ERSTWHILE AND PROBARLY WORN-OUT subject, "What Is Wrong with America?" The issue is very simple. Some American students invited a few foreign students to share with them some notions about what is wrong with their country, America. Mind you, those foreign students did not force it on the Americans to organize that discussion. We assume that the foreign students who participated in the discussion realized that such a topic is difficult to handle, and it is equally distasteful. In addition, they expressed their own points of view, and not the points of view of all the international students at KU. This must be clarified once more, and that finally.
These foreign students could not digress from that topic to say anything by way of the innumerable virtues of the United States of America; their gratefulness for studying in this great country; the comfort of living which they too have the privilege to share; and the freedom to travel to different parts of America. The subject is, "What Is Wrong with America?" It would be tantamount to hypocrisy, if they had not mentioned what, in their own opinion, constituted the faults of the United States of America.
THERE MUST BE AT LEAST MORE THAN ONE SIDE TO every situation. Now that you have heard about the faults of the United States of America, we implore you, the organizers of the Current Events Forum, to organize another discussion on the subject, "What Are the Virtues of America?" Or it may be another topic along this line of thought, and let the foreigners express their own views.
Mr. Malik, if it fell to your lot to be selected to speak on that topic, what would you do or say? Would you have said anything devoid of any trauma of criticism, we surely would rush to the Lawrence courthouse to sign an affidavit to surrender gracefully our last bottom dollar to you.
Such indeed is the simple point which our friend failed to see. Then, with the speed of a Baluba tribesman's arrow, our friend grabbed his pen to go on a rampage of resentment and fuss against Europe, Africa and Asia; indeed, about the whole wide world. What a great unequalled achievement in history!
AND BY THE WAY, MALIK, YOUR UTTER DISGUST AND emotion-drenched articles were much of a big joke for some European students who sat tete-a-tete over coffee in the Trail Room the other day!
Malik, please let us forget about Asia in this discussion. What we want to grapple with are your views over the vast continent of Africa. You wonder when the African Continent will stand on its own feet. This is an interesting wonderment. The answer, we think, is very simple. The Africans are telling the world that, "We, too, Are Men." We are saying this by freeing ourselves from the shackles of colonialism and tribalism. Hundreds and thousands of African students are in institutions of higher learning preparing themselves to help their people. The achievements which the free African states have made since independence double that of colonial days. In addition, we want to mention the fact that the colonial powers gave us some lead, when they were pushed. To help us stand on our own feet, we have the Africanization system in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, for example. This means simply that, wherever we have available qualified Africans to fill high administrative posts in different branches of the government, they are preferable. In cases where we do not have qualified Africans available for the moment, foreign experts are employed by our different governments. Are we not trying to stand on our own feet? In fact, this is just the beginning and we are determined, like all other nations, to move ahead. We only hope that this does not sound like bragging!