UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 27,1994
5
Editor's column symptomatic of social intolerance
David Stewart's tirade against defiance in last Wednesday's opinion section was frighteningly symptomatic of the attitudes that our leaders have toward ways of life and systems of thought other than their own.
GUEST COLUMNIST
Stewart seems to believe that America's problems with violence are caused solely by the moral decline of the urban poor corrupted by proponents of social relativism. He suggests that if "those at fault" would simply "be nice" our collective ills would dissipate like second hand smoke.
Stewart quotes New York Mayor Rudolf Giuliani: "The more you tolerate social deviancy, the more serious crime you will have."
I would first point out that "socially deviant" simply means "outside the bounds of what is considered socially normal." Now, it is obvious that what Giuliani or anyone considers "normal" is what *that person* is "familiar" with—what matches the experiences that have shaped his or her personality and modes of perception. The Mayor's statement could be rewritten: "the more you tolerate unfamiliar ways, the more serious crime you have."
I don't suppose many people can take this seriously in our vibrant society where overpopulation, rapid technological advances, and environmental changes force us to digest and assimilate new social habits on a daily basis. Are cellular phones a form of social deviancy? Rock music? Recycling? In this light, "social deviency" is just a negative term for any "social change" that the speaker fears.
And here are the horrible deviant acts identified in the article as representative of the "crimes" that "set the
moral tone for the rest of society" : "panhandling, public urination, and music blasting from boom boxes."
The first of the offenses, panhandling, has always existed in countries where there has been an uneven distribution of wealth. Since our leaders are moving the United States in the direction of a radical fissure between rich and poor, increased public begging is an expected "nuisance"—one that is poignant because it makes us think.
Furthermore, is panhandling really any worse than what Citibank and MCI do every day? They send us a forest's worth of letters and call us at home begging for money. Of course, Stewart and Mayor Giuliani keep crime in the ghetto, where it belongs.
As for public urination, where, in a city whose establishments forbid the use of restrooms to non-customers, is a homeless person supposed to urinate? If Giuliani has a problem with homeless people, he should just admit it, rather than trying to blame them for violent crime.
social adaptation that demarcate the bounds of what wealthy Manhattanites consider the dangerous classes. Certainly the tolerable noise level in a public space is a relative value, as the trucks that the city of Lawrence routes through my East Lawrence neighborhood at six o'clock every morning prove quite well. So the argument seems to be that their form of noise pollution should not be allowed in our public space. Of course this raises the question of who the space belongs to in the first place...
Lastly, boom boxes are just another.
In any event, it seems obvious that these minor offenses are not causes of violent crime, but embarrassing marks of difference perceived by the segment of society running the show.
Do our leaders really believe that they can make our country "right" by erasing the noticeable marks of the inescapable poverty and the hopelessness that cause violent crime without addressing the problems themselves? That if mayors and newspaper editors don't have to see the problem, it doesn't exist?
ethics and values in public schools in order to prevent the way we saw things before the 1960's from slipping away. Ah, the golden '50s, when happiness was just a Pontiac away!
Stewart calls for the discussions of
Now I have no problem with discussion - contrary to Stewart's accusation, most relativists don't- but I might argue that only a system allowing constant radical value changes will enable us to survive on this planet. Those Pontiacs left with a lot of polluted air and water.
And back to the Mayor's comment "the more you tolerate social deviancy, the more serious crime you have." What is a social deviant? The kind of person who advocates necessary radical changes in our ways of thinking? We used to call them philosophers. Or does the Mayor mean something else? Would you know one if you saw one? Is he Black? Is she a lesbian? Is he a "long-hair"? Is she a woman who wants a divorce, or teenager who sees little hope in the future, as Stewart's article might suggest? "That one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me--get him up against the wall!"
I applaud David Stewart's position against violence and the way we have become numb to it. And I agree that the solution might be seen in philosophical terms. But I wonder how he can preach the golden rule if he lacks the basic human empathy required to understand that different people have different viewpoints.
I also agree with Stewart that any solution to our problems must include education. But I think Stewart perceives the problem in a simplistic "journalistic" way- the idea being that a small set of eighth grade words manipulated in a common-sensical way can provide a plan for making the world a better place, without even knowing what that is.
And I for one find his location of the roots of social ills outside the sphere of "normal" American values questionable and dangerous. It is as if he is saying "Not in my expensive, chemically treated, suburban backyard."
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