Feiffer states satire; empty
By Karen Henderson
The radical middle finds the extremes in any debate and locates itself between them. It invents and makes popular those extremes over which it chooses the middle position, he said.
Social criticism and satire are popular today because they do not mean anything, Jules Feiffer, syndicated cartoonist, said at a student colloquium yesterday in Hoch Auditorium.
FEIFFER SAID man craves peace but has contempt for it. War is a social outcast but basically a hero. For the first time in our history, Americans are committed to the idea of peace.
"The high spirits of war bring on the middle feelings of peace. After war the country welcomes restful isolation and apathy. Radical middlism gives us nothing, and for that we are glad. Dissent, if discovered, usually does nothing but add to confusion."
"Satire is no longer a comment on the way we live. Satire is the way we live," he said.
This is where social criticism and satire enter. He said the satirist's job is to eliminate the possibility of a situation having a serious solution. The situations become a part of life.
"We have become like the nouveau riche everywhere, overly conscious of how other people dress," he said. "The issues with which we are faced are lost in the detail—the presentation becomes more important than the cause. It is more important to look right, to act right, than it is to be right."
Photo by Hector Olave
JULES FEIFFER
'Our Radical Middle Society'
The satirist provides an outlet, an escape hatch, by attacking and thereby eliminating the possibility of any serious situation having a serious solution.
"THE MARVEL OF American society about which there hasn't been nearly enough comment is its ability to swallow its critics. There is nothing our radical middle society likes better than to be made to feel guilty."
This "radical middle" is Feiffer's explanation of the development of the "middle of the roader," or the "responsible moderate."
Parents spend a child's early
the centennial university DAILY KANSAN
years by filling them with ideals and their young adult years by telling them to forget the ideals and grow up, be "realistic," he said.
THIS "GROWING up" Feiffer said, "means to accept the imperfections of the world or the fact that you were sold a false dream and that life is not nearly so sweet as you were promised when you were young, nor our laws so generous nor our courts so just, nor our heritage so pure. And there's not much you can do about it."
Feifer asks if the reaction of avoiding problems is such an unhealthy one, Why protest if there is no answer to the problem? The radical middle man saves himself by allowing himself an assortment of attitudes but few real feelings, he said.
Feiffer's drawings have appeared in Playboy magazine and other publications. He is the author of several books, including "Sick, Sick, Sick" and Boy, Girl." He also has a play scheduled to come out next fall. His favorite topics deal with sibling rivalry, social workers, etc.
serving k.u.for 76 of its 100 years
KU
LAWRENCE, KANSAS Wednesday, April 13. 1966
Cong strike big base near Saigon, killing 8
SAIGON—(UPI) — Communist guerrillas staged a sneak artillery attack on the largest U.S. air base in Viet Nam today killing eight persons, wounding 128 and causing millions in damages to a fleet of warplanes. Seven of the dead and 169 of the wounded were Americans.
An estimated 30 Viet Cong crept to the edge of the sprawling Tan Son Nhut airbase and fired recoilless rifles and mortars for 15 minutes at its storage facilities, 13,000 sleeping warriors and rows of airplanes.
THOUSANDS OF PERSONS in Saigon watched from rooftops as flares, tracers and flaming aviation fuel lit the night sky. The guerrillas damaged 33 airplanes before armed helicopters of a U.S. reaction force drove them away.
U. S. and South Vietnamese
VIET COMMITTEE TO DEMONSTRATE
THE ALL TIME LOW of 65 delegations (they include about ten delegations from other campuses in Kansas and other neighboring states for the first time), will complete final registration procedures in the Kansas Union at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Registration will be followed by the first committee sessions at 1:30 p.m. From 8:30
By Swaebou Conateh
Closely following three days of Centennial celebrations at KU is another three days of meetings by the annual KU-Y Model UN assembly starting here tomorrow. The assembly is dealing with a variety of problems that today plague mankind, an appropriate setting for the "Man and the Future" theme of the Centennial celebrations.
Model U.N. to confer on world's problems
The 65-member model assembly will deal with the nine resolution areas listed below: Red Chinese representation, India-Pakistan border dispute, charter revision, disarmament, South Viet Nam, Rhodesia and the Dominican Republic. The last three have been made Security Council questions by the steering committee of the Model UN. The rest are on the assembly floor.
Former chancellor Franklin D. Murphy's centennial address Thursday in Hoch Auditorium will begin new activities of the KU Committee to End the War in Viet Nam.
A proposal by Ham Salsich, assistant instructor in English, to hold a demonstration met with overwhelming approval at a meeting of the committee in the Kansas Union last night.
"We're not trying to win the war for the Viet Cong, we're not trying to tear down American democracy," Salsich said. "All we want is peace."
By the time the plenary session stage is reached, the committees would have decided on which of the resolutions submitted to the steering committee will be debated. Dick White, Wakefield, Mass., senior and secretary-general of the assembly, said that there are at least three resolutions submitted on each of the nine resolution areas by the delegations.
Afterwards the delegates, who would have already met informally as well at a diplomatic reception the previous evening, will reconvene into the first of four plenary sessions of the General Assembly that shall last through Saturday evening.
to 12 p.m.Friday will also be taken up with committee meetings.
THE PROCEDURE FOLLOWED after the steering committee has filed all the resolutions is as follows. Three committees have been set up by the sterring committee of the Model UN. Each delegation has at least one representation on each committee—there are three of them. Committee membership is augmented by steering committee personnel who provide secretary, and legal advisor as well as chairman for each committee.
troops who pursued the fleeing guerrillas reported several hours later they caught up with them about three miles southwest of Saigon and killed two in a brief fire fight. But the others got away.
The airport, which serves both military and civilian traffic for Saigon, is only three miles from the city center. With takeoffs and landings once every 30 seconds, it is considered the world's busiest.
MOST OF THE CASUALTIES were from the 90th Replacement Depot, a transient center where virtually all U.S. servicemen arriving or leaving Viet Nam pass through. About 300 were reported sleeping in the replacement depot's tent city when the pre-dawn attack was launched.
Gen. William C. Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Viet Nam, toured the littered flight line just hours after the attack.
"It is impractical to conceive of an airtight defense against attacks of this nature." Westmoreland told newsmen. "But we learn lessons every time there is an attack like this and we put this knowledge to work."
Council helm changes hands
Farewell addresses by Leo Schrey and Bill Robinson, student body president and vice president, were heard by new and continuing All Student Council members last night.
Following their talks, Schrey and Robinson relinquished their offices to the newly elected executives, Al Martin and Janet Anderson.
"You are on the threshold of taking some bold new steps," Schrey said, "and it will take a concerted effort by all 42 of you to take them."
HE ASKED that the members do three things toward making the ASC an effective and solid body:
- Develop arguments and ideas, and make a concrete presentation to whoever will make or effect the changes.
WEATHER
- Promote a strong cooperation between student organizations on campus to present a united front and a more unified government and activities program.
Concerning specific goals, Schrey recommended both changes in the government structure and in its relation with the University.
"If changes are to be made," he said, "we are going to need a strong tie with the Faculty Senate. These are the people directly concerned, especially with curriculum changes.
"I ALSO THINK we need a system of controlled student fees. For instance, the Athletic Department gets so much money each year, and there is little we can say about it. If we could hold that $110,000 out in front of them, and say, 'Now look, we disagree with some of your policies,' we
The U.S. Weather Bureau predicts cloudy and cool weather tonight and Thursday with occasional drizzle and rain. The low tonight will be near 40 degrees.
could really represent the student's financial interest.
Scheyre asked that the council follow through on all issues concerning student rights because of the urgency of the matter.
"If we don't move ahead in student rights," he said, "and if we don't push-not resolve, but actually push—we are going to lose ground."
ROBINSON DEALT with the concept of responsibility and student government. He said that there is no really good way to govern a transient society such as the students, but that there is still a great deal of responsibility connected with an ASC seat.
"Just one success," he said, "one that would effect even a small number of students, is much more important and significant than all the failures and mistakes."
Al Martin and Janet Anderson, the newly-elected Student Body President and Vice President, were sworn in last night along with the new ASC members from the school districts. With the new council seated, nominations were opened for ASC officers. Nominated for Chairman of the ASC were Kay Orth, El Dorado junior (UP—Sorority) and Jim Prager, Annandale, Va., junior (Vox—Small men's).
Theater pro at Seminar
Broadway director Howard Clurman told the Inter-Century Seminar this morning that the theater must reflect American Society if it hopes to survive. Clurman, who is executive consultant to the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater in New York, said that historically, theater in the U.S. has tended to be only entertainment.
"Productions are sold just like commodities," Clurman said. "Purely as entertainment, there is no future for the theater."
See THEATER page 10