Blackburn College - Beaver Tales Yearbook (Carlinville, IL)

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ue Viana sii ie RAL WAT?

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begin then to repair that world... “One thing that is happening, and may well con- tinue to happen, is that the young have rejected a speeded-up world that denies them any part of mean- ingful contact with anybody or anything. The speed- up of human transactions is inflation and inflation deprives all human association of nutritional values, creating a social anemia and depression.” Marshall McLuhan The new decade of the seventies opens with the Blackburn student in a far different position from that of the sixties. He is more aware of the world in which he lives, and the problems he must face at school, in America, and in this world. The society in

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which he lives is undergoing tremendous and rapid technological change. This great speed-up, of which McLuhan speaks, has left social and political change far behind. The student at Blackburn has begun to enter the mainstream of the youth movement in his concern for other human beings and power in America. The heroes of the sixties — JFK, King, Malcolm X, Bob Kennedy —all are dead. Unlike the idealism of the sixties, a sense of cynicism about the future seems to characterize the beginning of the seventies. There are more than one of two problems that must be fought. War, poverty, pollution, violence, alienation, racism, oppression — the list becomes endless. At the same time, no coherent, consistent philosophical or political framework has developed for mounting an overall effort for change in society. None of the tradi- tional political categories apply to this movement. ‘The movement, involving many youth, many students and varied segments of the society, is being driven by a desire for a new, responsive, and participatory society. Its cornerstones are equality of opportunity, and most