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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, March 20. 1962
The Disease of Liberty
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
President Kennedy shot down a favorite canard of the far right when he told his news conference last week that there will be no winners in a nuclear war. He was responding to a question which noted that the Administration has been accused of following a "no-win" policy in the cold war.
This curious illusion that the United States Government does not want to "win the cold war" was applied to the Eisenhower Administration as well as to the present one. President Truman, also, heard himself so accused, by Senator McCarthy among others. Generally what the critics mean is that American foreign policy is not anti-Communist enough, not hostile enough, not aggressive enough, to suit them. They want the "hard-line." They want somebody punched in the snoot. That is their idea of a "vigorous" foreign policy.
The "hard line" people, of course, always deny that they actually want a nuclear war. We are quite sure they do not. But advocating policies which would make war inevitable, or even increase the probability of it, is not sharply distinguishable, so far as results go, from consciously advocating war itself. A man who lights a match in a gas-filled room may not be in favor of explosions, but he might as well be.
MR. KENNEDY'S effective reply was that every American citizen wants the United States to be secure and in peace; and all "want the cause of freedom around the world to prevail; quite obviously that is our national objective." But he quietly reminded anybody who would engage in nuclear warfare to liberate the world that there will not be any winners in such a war.
THOSE WHO regard as weakness any attempt to reach an honorable accommodation of our interests with Soviet and other national interests are victims of a juvenile psychology. Lacking the intellectual or moral stamina to face the enormously complicated and frustrating problems of today's world, they retreat into the childish fantasy of abolishing the problems by "being tough." The adult world is not so simple.
The problems exist, and they will not go away.
To assume that they can only be solved by our "winning" or "losing" the cold war is to misconstrue the nature of the world struggle. It is not, indeed, a war at all, and we should not become victims of our own metaphors. Nor is it a game, which after four periods will come to an end, with a neat little score to determine who won. Rather it is a conflict between basic philosophies of government, of man, of politics—a contest of social and economic systems—which has been going on in one form or another for centuries, and will continue to go on (if anything does) long after the present antagonists have passed from the scene.
IT IS EASY to suppose that in this struggle the world must go all one way or all another, but in fact it never has. The more reliable assumption is that the world, if it survives, will continue to be a place of variety, a pluralistic world, a world of contrast and contest, a world that resists reduction to a single pattern. No element in it, not our own system nor the Communist nor the infinite gradations in between, possesses the monopoly of power necessary to impose its will on the others. And the decisive fact is that any attempt to impose a single way of life would result in mutual annihilation. In this age, Sparta cannot destroy Athens without simultaneously destroying itself.
Of course every American wants the area of freedom to expand; and we think it will expand with time. But the basic truth to be faced is that survival demands that competing philosophies and social systems learn to live together in peace. An armed crusade to compel men to be free is self-contradictory. The President, quoting Thomas Jefferson, put the case better when he spoke of enabling the "disease of liberty" to be caught.
In the end, mature minds must recognize that we cannot escape living on the same planet with those we do not approve. That is why President Kennedy is wise in saying that our foreign policy must "proceed with responsibility and with care in an age when the human race can obliterate itself."
(From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
They Listen to the Men
Editor:
This article threw light on the question in my mind as to why the opinions of the men in residence halls were given such respect when the administration announced the plan for triple rooms. The women's dorms have been triped for years, and every year they move in more bunkbeds. Do the girls complain? No, they accept any idea which comes from the Dean of Women's office as gospel, and if there be one who dares to question such truths, she is immediately brainwashed. If brainwashing does not work, she is ignored.
I now know why the men on this campus are given more independence than the women. They have earned the right by showing their ability to think.
I REFER to the stand taken by Sigma Nu in saying that they have a right to discriminate. I agree. I do not believe it is right, but I do believe they have the right. What I admire in Mr. Brawner is that he admits frankly that fraternities discriminate. Sororites are not quite so realistic. Panhellenic says that sororities are "not discriminatory because the Negro girls have their own sorority" (quoted from an article on rush from UDK last year). The fallacy of such "reasoning" is obvious.
THE ADMINISTRATION knows that an ignored rebel cannot gain followers because the others are either too afraid to use this new thing called a brain which they have just discovered, or they are too stupid to know that they have one. (I hope some rabble will be rused by this statement, but probably it will not.)
So carry on, Sigma Nu, the opportunity of a college student to think for himself is rare.
Dorothy Kelly
Mission junior
* * *
Kansan Editorialist Criticized Editor:
Throughout this controversy on Greek restrictive clauses, it has seemed that the most vehement critics have been the most blatantly confused. To compound this, Mr. Karl Koch has added to this misunderstanding a demonstration of what I believe to be erroneous logic. I am referring, of course, to his attack on the explanatory statement made by Mr. Steve Brawner, Commander of Sigma Nu, which was an honest and clear attempt to explain to the critiques that which they seemed to misunderstand and which they continue to misunderstand. Mr. Koch is both sadly misinformed and strongly lacking in understanding of the issues involved.
FIRST, MR. KOCH said "There is no known instance where a university has ordered a Greek house to accept anyone." This will be recognized immediately as fallacious by any Greek who has kept abreast of recent occurrences in this area. I can only suggest that Mr. Koch write to Amherst and Williams Colleges and ask them how they manage guarantees of good faith, total opportunity, and forced placement in fraternities of those boys who wanted to pledge but did not receive an invitation during formal rush. Then, I believe Mr. Koch will be forced to admit that his statement was neither logical nor true.
Secondly, why all of this preoccupation with the "Big Bad National" idea? Steve Brawner
stated it correctly when he said that he wouldn't be a Sigma Nu if he didn't belong to the national organization. Of course, Mr. Koch is incapable of understanding this. He fails to see that National is not an overbearing, bigoted group, but simply a collection of chapters, each of which is a part of National and each of which is instrumental in forming the rules of the fraternity at national conventions. Mr. Koch seems to feel that National is set apart from the local chapter in a dictatorial position so as to be able to obtain its "bigoted" demands. Can't Mr. Koch understand that we are indeed as much members of our national organizations as we are of our local chapters, and that acting as members of this group, we are entitled to be selective just as we are on a local basis. National does not tell us what to do. We have made these rules, and therefore, we are telling National what to do.
I CERTAINLY feel that we have a right to set up our national organization the way we want it and to maintain the same membership standards nationwide. If that's the way we want it, why can't we have it that way, without having someone completely ignorant of the situation take potshots at us in the dark.
I feel that it is rather senseless to argue with someone who is not in full possession of the facts, but it is also rather difficult to sit idle and watch this display of ignorance be magnified in the face of Mr. Brawner's honest and voluntary explanation.
Bill Gissendanner
Bill Gissendanner
Kirkwood, Mo., senior
Past President,
Phi Delta Theta
"NO WONDER ALL TH' GIRLS ARE SO ANXIOUS TO DATE FOREIGN STUDENTS."
By Bill Charles
DE SICA directed Sophia Loren so well that she has won an award at Cannes and is a nominee for an Academy Award. The recognition is proof that she has content as well as form. But the laurels for "Two Women" must go to De Sica. His black-and-white, narrow-screen
"Two Women": with Sophia Loren and Jean-Paul Belmando. Directed by Vittorio De Sica. At the Varsity.
As certain scenes — notably the rape scene and the hysterical mother who has lost her baby — clearly show, "Two Women" is a brutal and realistic film. But it is not without its sentimental moments. These ingredients are part of the style of Vittorio De Sica. De Sica is one of the older members of Italy's society of intelligent film-makers. His heyday was the post-war flowering of neorealism. Although he is no longer considered among the avant-garde, he cannot be relegated to the status of minor director. De Sica knows how to tell a story with film. Any director with that skill will never be a second-rater. The camera moves; the effect of "Two Women" is visual. In other words, it is an honest-to-God motion picture.
After two postponements, Lawrence finally has its chance to see "Two Women." The film should find favor with those who expect more than merely big-screen television from movies. Producer Carlo Ponti and Director Vittorio De Sica did not make this picture to provide people with something to watch while they eat popcorn.
"TWO WOMEN" is set in Italy during World War II. It offers a glimpse at the havoe of war as it concerns a mother and her adolescent daughter. But the film is more than a protest against war. The clue to this is the title, which does not really apply until the film's end. The little girl has become a sort of juvenile woman, due not only to her brutal rape but to the peculiar and unfortunate circumstance of war.
production is a very colorful, a very big picture.
By Murrel Bland
"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse": produced by Julian Blaustein. At the Granada.
War, death, conquest and pestilence—the four evils that appear in a vision as horsemen in the Bible—are used to carry out the main theme in this movie. The story concerns an Argentina ranch baron, played by Lee J. Cobb, who has two daughters. One daughter marries a Frenchman. The other daughter marries a German. They all live in Argentina.
A CONFLICT in the family arises just before World War II breaks out. The old man is quite disgusted because his German son-in-law and grandson have joined the Nazis.
The French son-in-law and his son Julio, played by Glenn Ford, go to France. Julio later joins a French underground movement.
The movie shows how war, conquest, death and pestilence divide a family.
The acting in the movie is better than average. However, some characters go to extremes and overact. For example, Lee J. Cobb overplays the part of the fiery old man. In the scenes just before his death, it appears that he is trying too hard to play the part. The audience sees Cobb as an emotional actor and not the fiery old man.
THE MOVIE USES some interesting technical methods. Several film clips of the war are seen. Red and blue filters are used so that these film clips, which were originally filmed in black and white, blend in with the natural color of the rest of the movie.
The movie is worth seeing. However, do not see the show if you are interested in seeing a religious movie. The title, which is taken from the book of Revelations in the Bible, is quite misleading.
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