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Summer Session Kansan
Friday, June 28,1963
Some Choice
They may give us a choice in 1964.
After all these years without a "real" opportunity to pick between men with radically different political philosophies, 1964 may end that dilemma.
ESPECIALLY IN 1960, the word has been that, regardless of which man you vote for, foreign and domestic policy will remain relatively unchanged.
It could be different next year. Senator Barry Goldwater may be the Republican nominee.
Those wishing for a race between two men with radically different philosophies would herald a Goldwater-Kennedy runoff as a match made in heaven.
THERE IS only one thing wrong with such a possible match: Goldwater might win.
It would be a tragedy akin to resurrecting Ulysses S. Grant for the purpose of finding a forceful, intelligent diplomat to lead this country.
The United States is strong enough to withstand many things, but Barry Goldwater could be the reactionary to break the nation's back. He is one of two things: naive or nuts.
CONSIDER the United Nations, and this country's posture towards it. No one has ever considered the UN a perfect instrument for maintaining world peace. But it has a distinguished record earned in critical spots such as Korea, the Suez Canal, the Congo and the Gaza Strip.
To be certain, an imperfect record, but World War III has been averted. Worthwhile, don't you think? Well, Goldwater doesn't. He would wash it down the drink as too expensive; lacking in fiscal sanity.
The question of fiscal sanity is where Goldwater attracts fans with his answers.
IF THE senator from Arizona is short-sighted or narrow-minded on foreign affairs, he is just plain astigmatic on domestic matters.
After several months of riots, ambush murders, bombings and nation-wide agitation, Senator Goldwater offered an insight which goes to the heart of the riots down South.
It came out during an interview, when Goldwater was asked what stand he would take on race relations if he runs in 1964.
WELL, SIR, he is not worried much about that. Why? Because race relations is not the real issue in the South.
He says the real issue in the South is states' rights.
Well, right there on that point alone, we would have a real choice offered between Goldwater and Kennedy.
Kennedy says the issue is not states' rights, but rather human rights. Kennedy considers it a real issue; in fact, a moral issue.
WILL THE Republicans send Goldwater to the voters in 1964? It is entirely possible. Right now, it appears that Rockefeller has been married and divorced too often; once too often in each category, to be specific. Romney is a reluctant tiger, and Scranton is relatively without stature.
The Republicans have a problem.
Let us hope they don't pass it on to the world under the guise of offering the voters a choice in 1964.
Terry Murphy
In the course of human events . . .
Man's Enduring Problem: Men
By Marick Pavton
In the early hours of man's pilgrimage through time, his extraordinary mental abilities were sorely taxed to enable him to reap sustenance from this reluctant planet However, with the industrial revolution as fertilizer, the earth has flowered under man's stewardship and starvation has become unknown over much of its surface. Yet, happiness has evaded the mass of men. As they have come to terms with the rest of nature, they have found the problem of peace with their fellows beyond solution.
MEN HAVE continually faced each other as slave and master, and continual war has been the result. It seems that among the characteristics of the species, Homo sapiens, belongs the element of authoritarian personality.
Men are motivated to interpase a threat of force in the deliberations of others by two desires: (1) to influence the other to act in a way that will benefit the authoritarian, and (2) to get the other to act in a way which the authoritarian thinks will benefit the actor more than the actions that he might take if free from the threat of violence. The first could be termed malevolent, and the second, benevolent authoritarianism. However, despite the seeming dissimilarity of the two, their natures in both cause and effect are the same.
A man always acts seeking the satisfaction of his own desires. He may threaten a young woman with harm if she does not physically submit to him, or he may pass a
law promising punishment to any woman freely submitting to a man for a price. In the first case he seeks his own pleasure at the expense of the woman, in the second, solely to benefit the woman. But, in each case he is posing the threat of violence to achieve a situation which he desires and he is placing others in a position of incurring harm if they act in the way they think will bring them the most satisfaction. In both cases the happiness of the second party is precluded by his frustration at not being able to act in the manner he thinks best.
EXAMPLES OF BOTH malevolent and benevolent authoritarianism abound in contemporary America: Much of the wealth of every citizen is taken from him to be spent by others. He is forced to give additional money to his governors on the promise that they will return it to him in his old age. The young men must spend two years of involuntary servitude in the armed forces. The farmers are told what they may plant on their land and the city dwellers what they may build on theirs. Lovers may not live with each other without the State's license and permission. Many may not sell their labor or its product on the first day of the week, and the government frequently establishes the maximum and or minimum price for which they may do so on the other six.
These edicts come from the State that is, from the men running it. Yet, in a democracy, authoritarianism is manifestly more general than the proportionally small lot of
politicians and bureaucrats, for these are kept in their positions of authority by the wish of at least a majority of the population. Government is authoritarian by nature. Thus, to the extent that the people are not ignorant of this fact, we can presume that all who seek governmental action are eager to forceably interfere in the affairs of others.
Such is the 20th century enamoration of force. Such also explains the antagonism, indeed, hatred that pervades our age. To fathom its depth within our own society one needs only read the publications of any political organization, either political party, any labor union, or the magazines of political opinion.
AUTHORITARIANISM is one way of dealing with others. Its byproducts are frustration, envy, hatred and war. It is my contention that these consequences render it unprofitable for all concerned.
There is another manner of social intercourse: voluntarism, which means cooperation to the extent possible and a live-and-let-live attitude when not. It is premised on the conviction that human differences can be better resolved by appeals to reason and good-will than by the "fast gun" of old or the multitudinous guns of the modern police force.
The general practice of voluntarism would improve man's social environment in many ways, principally by bringing a condition of real peace. However, such general acceptance seems unlikely in this century. Voluntarism must, then, make it appeal on the psychic rewards it offers.
Summer Session Kansan University of Kansas student newspaper
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I propose that voluntarism is the most satisfactory posture towards one's fellows because (1) it is the only manner of dealing with men consonant with a respect for Man, and (2) no man can know that greatest of satisfactions — self-satisfaction — unless he holds that which he is to be of value.
There are many stupid men, who do many stupid things; but they are men. Their own happiness is their only purpose. As long as they are alive they have the potential to realize their nature as human beings, to find the satisfaction they seek. So long we must respect their search if we respect our own.
AMERICAN HERITAGE (June, 1963, $3.95).
A series of articles about significant Supreme Court decisions begins in this issue. The articles are edited by John A. Garraty, Columbia University professor of history, and they will consider arguments that resulted in decisions that have been of critical importance in U.S. history.
Garraty comments on an era in which decisions of the court have helped to bring about jeering mobs and children trying to get into previously all-white schools. The opening article in the series deals with the role of John Marshall in the creation of judicial review, and with the famous Marbury v. Madison decision of more than 150 years ago.
Another key article in the new American Heritage concerns the seals of the Pacific Ocean and of the efforts of Henry Wood Elliott to prevent the extinction of the species. "Bonus March" describes the now-famous event of 1932, when unemployed marchers converged on Washington and were driven out.
Other articles: The story of Jefferson and his death mask; the attack on Fort Sumter; summertime at the turn of the century; Allan Nevins discussing the "robber barons" of the Gilded Age; paintings by Edwin Whitefield of Minnesota in the 1850s; William Whiper, a fighter for Negro freedom; Jedediah Smith, the true "pathfinder" of the West, and Laurence Stallings writing about the battle of Balleau Wood.
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USAGE AND ABUSAGE, by Eric Partridge (Penguin Reference Books, $1.25).
Most of us should be grateful to Eric Partridge for assembling such a book. Grateful, even though there are people assembling other books on the language that are doing nothing but a disservice to the King's English (as the term used to go).
Partridge seems to proceed from the assumption that there are "rights" and "wrongs" in writing, and that popular usage is not the best criterion to apply. His book, which first appeared in the late forties, is put together alphabetically, so one may look up a matter which may trouble him, or he may read it straight through as a book, as one may read the dictionary (H. L. Mencken did read the dictionary, as a matter of fact).
The author has written a number of similar works. His slant is perhaps more toward the British, rather than the American, reader. But that should not keep anyone on this side of the ocean from using the book. In fact, it should be used even more. As Henry Higgins comments in "My Fair Lady," English is a language that in America has not been spoken for years.-CMP
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THE MOUSE ON THE MOON, by Leonard Wibberley (Bantam, 50 cents)—a light, amusing, trivial tale about Grand Fenwick, "the mouse that roared," and its race against Russia and the U.S. to get to the moon. The book is timed for the release of the movie this summer. Such a book perhaps, puts in perspective the whole race to get farthest first in outer space.
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MY LIFE WITH CLEOPATRA, by Walter Wanger and Joe Hyams (Bantam, 60 cents)—A behind-the-scenes tale, so plugged, beautifully timed for the release of "Cleopatra." Liz and Richard are on the cover, and one of the authors is the producer of the film.
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CATLOW, by Louis L'Amour (Bantam, 40 cents)—A paperback edition of what was in pulp form a few years ago. Readers of wests- erns are sure to have been here before.
by Bibler
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
DAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT DEMOCRATS --- I HAPPEN TO KNOW HE FLUNKED 13 KNOWN REPUBLICANS LAST TERM. "