University of Miami - Ibis Yearbook (Coral Gables, FL)

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from the members of that state. We have con- sicously chosen to forget that the state of which we speak is bonafide only when it evolves willingly from its peoples ' wills. These ar- guments are trite, but they hold true. A people presided over by a state separate from them have no rights. It is rather easy then, to understand why both Nixon and Agnew alluded to devisive policies of the Democratic Party. They reproached Mc- Govern for co-authoring a set of rules which gave substantial representation to disenfran- chised minorities. And they stiffened their charges by crudely polemicizing on America (sic) as being no place for quotas that this land is still that great salad bowl where men mix their beliefs and attitudes and so string the whole. Yet, if one were to gaze out upon the convention, he or she would be hard pressed to find a minimal number of voting blacks, young people, Spanish Americans, Indians or other distinct minorities. And if the white Nixons in this country are of the majority, well, then, one would be well advised to consider James Madison ' s articulations on majority tyranny in the 10th Federalist paper. The wars are still with us, although we wage them by highly technological means (anti-per- sonal bombs, napalm, computers etc.) rather than the fists of visable men. I expect should we ever really end the war in Vietnam, we won ' t really end it, but just extricate ourselves a little differently than we might have years ago, before Cambodia, before Laos, and before ' the North ' occupied land 10 miles from Saigon. We ' ve got bigger and shinier Cadillacs equipped with self-accelerating mechanism, self-sticking American flags and name plates, Panasonic tape decks putting out an accolade of Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash hero songs, bigger chrome bumpers and love it or leave it signs. I ' m still an innocent and can ' t understand why one must lie and cheat and steal to make all the money he can. I still cannot understand why the rich and powerful refuse to pay the taxes that directly or indirectly would allow the less fortu-

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Let me begin with a quote from Camus, which, if all proceeds according to plan, will lay the foundation for this essay: I ' ve had plague all these years long years in which paradoxically enough, I ' d believed with all my soul that I was fighting it. I learned that I had an indirect hand in the deaths of thousands of people; that I ' d even brought about their deaths by approving of acts and principles which could only end that way. I During these past years, most of my thoughts have been consumed with purposes and direc- tions in my life. And at times, when I ' ve felt so sick from prejudices and failures and Nixon and it all, that I ' m ready to move to some secluded cove in Maine, I suddenly realize again my re- sponsibilities to myself and my environment and think that although I ' m consumed by dark- ness, I have only to venture in and thus see the light and know whatever it is all about. I believe, although often acting to the contrary, that concoctions and thoughts of philosophy are never really my own unless I am fully these thoughts. In essence, I can speak truthfully only of that which I am. I believe that growth is es- sential to my humanness and that I grow only through concern with my own being, with the affairs of the world around me, and with production in that world. Subversion, insecurity and pain are necessities in my life. Drowning is not. I believe that one should always continue to revolt against what he perceives to be the ills in his society. And so I revolt. I have begun to believe that schooling as it is now continues to be one of those ills. And I am not anti-intellec- tual but precisely the opposite. We are raised to believe that each of us is a very unique animal, possessing a unique structure comprising mind and body. But as we begin to declassify, as our generation is doing during this particular time in history, we find that we all share many of the same storms and stresses. Schooling has been for us mainly custodial care. It exists to take us off the street until we are set loose to make our way on the street, supposedly more adeptly than we otherwise might have. What is ironical is that the more schooling we have, the more despressing the withdrawal from it becomes. Yet, we are to believe our schooling a privilege, and indeed it is, principally because it is only for a privileged few. It is true that the more we immerse our- selves in this privilege, the more certificates we will receive and the more doors will be opened? I believe this is not so in most cases. In reality we are trained only for obsolescence, consuming the same products in different wrappers from the same producers; filling the same old molds. Amidst this all, thinking has become a direct challenge to the established infrastructures. We have patterned schooling around our often clouded observations of what a child must do and act like in the future. From our youngest days, in a society structured around the maypoles of age and rank, we are taught to believe ourselves supremely intelligent; thus we belong in school, learn in school, and can only be taught in school. Consequently we all come to believe that our learning results direct- ly from our attendance in school. This increases with self-input (checks on our report card for working to our full ability) and with grades and documentation by certificates as adequate and sole proof of performance. In this light, one may not challenge the lies and ill preparedness of one ' s teacher lest his grade be lowered. The result of this all comes to be that once we believe all value can be measured, we as humans tend to alienate ourselves from our- selves even further, accpeting all kinds of rankings for the value of almost everything. And with all the degrees and certificates, we come to distrust each other so that we journey on endlessly, choosing specialists here and special- ists there to solve our every problem. Many of us have been alienated by a system of laws which we have learned were conceived as the cornerstone of a society ' s existence and its people ' s self-protective mechanism. But we have watched and seen that it is a system which in reality is constantly denegrated, changed, ig- nored, and falsified by self-seeking power struc- tures, which, because they are contained under the guise of the state, disallow any challenge

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nate just the basic commodities which a just so- ciety owes them: their food, clothing, shelter and warmth, least of all, affection. And lest you believe me simplistic, I ' m aware of the ar- guments on regenerative wealth and Gulf Oil ' s concern with the environment in Portuguese Africa. Portuguese Africa? By what right does one man possess another? And a study by Har- vard University has reported no significant holdings in Gulf Oil, which of course has al- ready determined that no significant justice would be served by playing an active role in the de-colonization of Portuguese Africa. It is unfortunate that we all cannot help but be guilty for our nation ' s acts. We buy our food- stuffs directly from a company making napalm or bombs, our clothing from a company polluting most of Delaware, our shelter from corporations which cheat consumer and em- ployee alike, our warmth from companies oppressing North or South American Indians or African natives, and our affection with good dope from Columbia or from a whore on the street. Most frightening is that the majority of these exposures provoke neither shame nor a sense of guilt, although they are a violation of some of the most fundamental moral taboos of civilization. The legitimacy of these actions is not questioned. Some say, Because our society functions in spite of, then it is justified. But lest we forget, the times they are a changin. We can now believe in long hair, our self-ri- tualizing blue jean society and the new poli- tics. We can hate business and government and American pie because we have nothing else in our blindness to hate. I can tell you where its at and where it isn ' t and you can tell me the same thing and I ' ll be damned if we don ' t recite totally different diatribes. We ' ve become experts at talking but our logic is stren- uous and our beliefs almost dissolved. We incline towards doctrine and very seldom think individually. But then, we ' ve got bruises and scars to show for our wounds and isn ' t that good? Didn ' t both Dostoevski and Sartre believe that true life was a life of insult and suf- fering? Didn ' t both Nietzsche and Van Gogh die as evidence of that insult and suffering? Didn ' t Martin Luther King say, We shall over- come? Well then --we probably will, granted of course, we aren ' t overcome first. We must each answer for the acts of the regime or leaders we tolerate, allow to rise, and give active or passive support to. We are each responsible for everything - - for our delusions and the delusions to which we succumb. We have the responsibility to delve into the root of things and the only important question is whether we do it before or after the fact. This is the logical requirement of human freedom and dignity. I know that whatever kind of world my own children have to grow up in, neither should they have to write such denunciations of their society nor feel the same guilt and shame I have felt in my lifetime. I believe we all deserve much better. But if we are ever to accede to a better life, we must accept full responsiblity for our present lives.