Black Power and the New Left
Starcs, Janis
BLACK POWER AND THE NEW LEFT This article will deal with the militants of the Black Power movement, and more specifically their kinship with the New Left. My impression of these two parallel...
...He also is the author of numerous books, among them The Conservative Mind and The American Cause...
...he desires nonconformity and creativity but refuses to tolerate the divergences of viewpoint and the frequent eccentricity which are the price of nonconformity...
...It is a welcome sight to see people abandoning hair straighteners and skin lighteners...
...A combination of volunteer Regular Army and of National Guard reserves — together, of course, with our missile armament and other tremendous weapons — not only would be sufficient for our present military needs, but far more reliable than conscript masses...
...Their oligarchic and totalitarian philosophy would render students not their social, cultural, and intellectual kin to a state of serfdom...
...Indiana achieved this rating in spite of having neither engineering nor agricultural departments and Gourman did not consider I.U.'s medical school, endorsed by the AMA as one of America's ten best...
...Volunteer forces — raised (as once) by states and districts rather than by the present draft-scheme — would possess an esprit de corps and a general capability superior to that of the present conscript army...
...This swirl of nonsense and lies should convince students that boorishness and skulduggery are the politician's chief components and that when someone packages a politician attractively he becomes downright dangerous...
...My impression of these two parallel movements was never very favorable, and that impression has been strengthened by recent antics at the National Conference for New Politics in Chicago, I only wish that H. L. Mencken were alive to comment on this madness...
...The New Left is a hard thing to grasp, as there are many divergent tendencies contained in it...
...Many: are nihilists who hold the view propounded by Bakunin that there is a purifying character to violence...
...It is refreshing to see the militants exposing the mawkish sentimentality of the white liberal for the condescension it is, and telling him to take his burden of guilt and cram it...
...Oops — it finally slipped out...
...in which case he will probably join the other vassals in the field...
...I can only point to Impact as the lesser of evils...
...Post College, a syndicated newspaper columnist, and a senior editor of National Review...
...Many have declared total war on our society, on Western civilization in general, and have sided with our ene1 mies the better to eliminate us...
...Those people who thought that it was necessary to obey only the laws with which one agrees, find thenideas being applied in a way which horrifies them...
...The liberals have repudiated the traditional bases of authority, making the Constitution elastic enough to sanction almost any act the government chooses to perform, and they have abandoned the sanctions of the Hebrew-Christian moral tradition...
...There is an elitist element which has thfe arrogance to try imposing their own private blueprint of the new society on an unwilling majority...
...5 AN ALTERNATIVE (Continued from Page 2) prp chairman robin redbreast, heralded from Pigeon Hill to the by-pass for his seedy canards and sleazy appearance, solemnly and sorrowfully announced that in approving the fieldhouse the Board of Trustees had rejected an opportunity to raise Indiana from a secondrate institution...
...But then let us not get our hopes up...
...The politician will pre-empt the student, and the student will either quit his studies to assure his stake in student government or plug his ears...
...We shall return to the Hobbesian "war of all against all" if this revolutionary activity is successful...
...Yet the rioters they encourage may feel less uplifted if society has to start restoring order in earnest...
...Black racism will only aggravate the race hatred, away from which the militants would like to educate the white population...
...Clearly a large part are merely confused and have not thought out their political philosophy to its logical conclusions...
...It is regrettable that it has to be combined with a racism as depressing as that of the southern redneck...
...The involuntary vassals would hardly receive better treatment from an administration of students than from the present one, though probably the student administration would spray its dictums in haughtier contempt...
...Their meek acceptance of the outrageous demands of the Black Power militants at Chicago makes me wonder how these two motivations balance in their own minds...
...It^was not an edifying sight to see the New Politics convention in Chicago endorsing a statement supporting "wars of liberation" everywhere...
...In the din of this perpetual politicalizing envisioned by loftman's "Grate Society", where will one be able to read an occasional book, attend a lecture, or write an essay without being assailed by pamphleteers or "piped in propaganda...
...In making every office from Union Board to Union Janitor elective these fascists would so inflate the power of student government it could treat those students either unable or unwilling to participate in politics as mere vassals...
...Janis Stares 10...
...The Gourman Report: Confidential Ratings of American Colleges, published by The Continuing Education Institute, Inc., finds the Big Ten academically one of the finest conferences in the nation, and Indiana a top university in that conference...
...What is worse than the foolishness of the New Left is their exploitation of the bitter and disillusioned Negro minority in the big city slums for their own political ends...
...If the violent upheavals that militants revel in continue, it is the Negroes who will suffer, not the radical college student flirting with politics...
...There is a notable absence of coherent political principles and realistic plans for reforming the society they so despise...
...The series of diplomatic and military blunders which led to half a million American troops being mired in a defensive action in Vietnam need not be repeated...
...They cannot have it both ways: "Physician, heal thyself...
...The liberal chickens are coming home to roost...
...The older members of the League for Industrial Democracy are seeing the members of their now independent youth group^ Students for a Democratic Society, challenging them in their positions 6f authority...
...The slum dwellers have legitimate complaints against a racist society, but their probhms will worsen by following this collection of nihilists and Reds...
...As a preliminary I would like to state some points in favor of the Black Power movement before getting down to the business of showing its shortcomings...
...We are going to have to reform our society within the confines of the existing social order or suffer the consequences...
...The self-reliance, at least, of the Black Muslims is encouraging...
...Apparently the white members of the New Left do not mind being called "honky," either because they share the guilt of the old left or because they are so alienated from society that they identify themselves with this revolutionary movement and gleefully wish to tear apart the whole fabric of society...
...As to loftman's assertion that he is protecting the intellectuals, they might find cozier security in the Kremlin...
...The racial pride, which is epitomized in the slogan: "Black is beautiful," is encouraging...
...If Durkott's formulation of "student freedom" means freedom from guy loftman and his marching hundred, Impact may serve a positive good...
...Allowing volunteers to select their own branch of service and their own regiment also would bring advantages...
...I wonder to what lengths they would be willing to go to achieve their ends...
...The New Left and the Black Power movement really are declaring war on Western civilization...
...There are practical ends to be sought within the present social context through organizing politically and economically...
...It is only from self-respect that the Negro people will be able to take part in society at large on an equal basis...
...It seems incredible that one should have to defend such elementary political principles as obedience to the law, but it seems that this is what we are reduced to...
...This brings me to one of the ugly aspects of the movement, namely its racism...
...Will this bird-witted absurdity appeal to any literate existing beyond the confines of a pig sty...
...BLACK POWER AND THE NEW LEFT (Continued from Page 5) movement but refuses to pay the price for movement...
...He desires (Continued on Page1QJ...
...Their alienation is not yet that complete, and they will not be well served by being enticed to follow the messianic will-o'-thewisp of the New Left...
...But from whence will the civilized minority find succor...
...The population, led by the more educated classes, has followed their relativism...
...The results of this self-indulgence are apparent in the New Left and the Black Power movement...
...They rfanri to stand for participatory democracy,' yet the majority of the nation, even the non-racist.elements, will not be too willing to see the social order'overturned...
...These people do not want to adopt a middle class way of life, yet it is just what most Negroes have sought when they have had the opportunity...
...This position is well put by Stephen J. Tonsor, a professor of history at the University of Michigan: ". . . locked in his preconceptions the Liberal intellecr tual is impotent to do more than mourn the passing of an age in which variety and the dialectical opposites produced a rich and dynamic society...
...Frankly, I prefer the present administration of retired basketball coaches whose bungling is at least unbiased, to a troop of totalitarian ideologues who are as foreign to me as Asiatic cholera...
...In any case, the rest of society will not be so understanding...
...L for one, have a more than nostalgic'attachment to such amenities of bourgeois society as elections and civilized political discourse.- I do not welcome the prospect of having to take to the streets, or delegate an army to do so, to defend what I consider my vital interests...
...George Nathan OUR ARCHAIC DRAFT (Continued from Page 3) reforms would give us superiority over the "armed hordes" of Russia and China...
...here...
...indeed, we could not possibly carry on so inefficient and prolonged operations in several parts of the world simultaneously, by present military methods and with present military personnel...
...The roving slums making up the New Left are no more democratic than Adolph Hitler, nor any more intellectual than Soupy Sales...
...blind his eyes, and attempt the cultivation of his mind...
...He wishes creativity but is uncomfortable with the messiness of failed experiments and failed lives which creativity produces...
...Russell Kirk is research professor of politics at C.W...
...Party chairman redbreast will find Gourman's study in I.U.'s second-rate library, where we suggest he spend his second-rate time, reading second-rate books, thereby avoiding such first-rate stupidities...
Vol. 1 • October 1967 • No. 2
