The Christmas Gift that Was
Kristol, William
The Alternative January, 1971 7 ified them They are armed, and should be considered extremely dangerous. Certain men in each department are pushovers. Find them and take their courses to satisfy...
...The women's lib movement has platforms Dr...
...But at least The Christmas Gift List That Was 8 Hefner has trir-d to keep policemen out of the bedroom...
...Eberhard exulted that the evening had been a return to the high days of the classical Greek theater, when plays were acted in the nude...
...This was news to me, though 1 had spent over a decade of my life studying and teaching Greek drama...
...From reading this second half of the interview with UCRA's executive secretary, Professor M. M. Todorovich, we hope you will gain an appreciation for their unique place in the contemporary struggle for the campuses and in American history...
...At least Mr...
...and about their groups that became organized to do a specific job--all implementing some or all of UCRA's basic propositions One very important case in point was the whole problem related to the so-called Princeton Plan, the two-week recess instituted at some colleges and universities for electioneering purposes Now, you see, we are fully cognizant that the whole idea could be presented in a very pure way which may sound very commendable...
...Apparently agreeing with our Board of Directors, many of our member groups and individuals were--and are--actively working to rectify the situation This is then another example of how we gauge, through action, the effectiveness of our organization...
...you can always find some way out "Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you " Don't ever cut language or math courses your first year...
...But K. male insisted that he had himself just filmed two The United Nations - Communist China Communist China - the United Nations John Birch Society - tooth decay (due to their principled refusal to use fluoridated water) William Rogers - a handkerchief to cry into whenever the Russians do anything naughty Walter Hickle - an igloo Israel - an ally, any ally The Arabs - civilization, any civilization Idealistic youth - a punch in the mouth Pastimes such as "searching for a better world," "doing one's own thing," "moving to the beat of one's own drum," etc...
...because we are getting a continuous feedback from the campuses to this office So...
...I got only one surprise...
...I could not get off the phone...
...Look around...
...Phyllis sniggeringly abetted the questioners...
...Phyllis will want to edge her way onto...
...some success any success Spiro T Agnew - a few weeks of obscurity John McCormack - an increase in Social Security benefits Chet Huntley - three tons of horse manure for his boots Charles Reich - the greening of America America - the greening of Charles Reich Jacob Javits - James Buckley New York City - the abdication of John Lindsay Richard Roudebush - a six-pack of beer and perpetual oblivion Vance Hartke - the prospect of another opponent like Richard Roudebush J W Fulbright - the New York Times "Man of the Year Award" for his courageous and consistent stand against non-whites in South Vietnam and nonwhites in the South Irrelevant things - a comeback Presidential commissions - extinction The intellectual community - all the common sense, decency, and humility it presently lacks (this is probably the biggest gift of all) assemblage, presided over by the K's, spidery in their tight black clothes and white, lifeless faces (which seemed almost as stark, in this dim theater, as under the protective masks they wore on the platform...
...Shirley MacLaine, overblown ("we ripe and ripe," said Shakespeare...
...Yet, when we go over to the letters, to the clippings from student newspapers--don't forget student newspapers are mostly run by very militant if not even extremist groups so they reflect their thinking--when we go through all available materials and find that many unversity facilities which are by law tax-exempt have been given to a particular kind of very doctrinaire people to be able to run their one brand of views (which very often meant the suppression of all other views), then the whole affair-the Princeton Plan--exhibited a quite The Alternative January, 1971 different practical appearance, and UCRA was--and is--very much opposed to this kind of midterm recess...
...In the Golden Days of Klannery and One-Hundred-Percent Americanism when the American Protective Association attempted to bring us together and anti-semitism competed in popular thought with nativisni, most professors meekly followed the tides...
...If you can't write clearly enough to survive in history, there's a place for you in sociology...
...And in his prowlings about the country he has discovered that the following people received these concomitant gifts...
...If you can't think rigorously enough to be a philosopher or a scientist, and if you can't read fast enough to go through enormous piles of books (eliminating yourself, English and literature), you can major in history...
...Phyllis, pendulant ("and then we rot and rot...
...Get behind here, and it's all over...
...The marshals for that affair were more restrained than the formal sponsors of it, and they kept people like Abbie Hoffman off the platform...
...It gave them a blanched, stricken look, two death masks above black turtleneck sweaters...
...Yes, they're right...
...It was interesting, as I went around the edges of the platform, to see who had made it up there...
...Composed of professors of many different political persuasions its members wish to preserve open universities and free inquiry...
...perpetual oblivion The military-industrial complex - a public relations man The F-111 - wings, or anything that will make it fly All "concerned" adults and youth - a bridge over the generation gap (not for Teddy Kennedy's use) Hugh Hefner - a surgical operation Women's Lib - babies Ronald Reagan - student unrest High-minded public servants - low pay The Gay Liberation Front - Puerto Rico Kingman Brewster - a magic wand Leonard Bernstein - Beethoven's Book of Etiquette Eugene McCarthy - U S. Am bassadorship to Tennessee Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - wrinkles The Defense Department - a grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity Brezhnev and Kosygin - a thirty-second diplomatic parley with the Jewish Defense League Edmund Muskie - four or five hundred I Q points The Alternative -fame, fortune, and a salary increase for the Eastern Bureau chief 0 authentic Greek plays done in the nude...
...He was a nice Southern boy trying to be Tennessee Williams on the gifts of a valentine versifier...
...Two zombies in the making...
...but don't mind watching rats learn, you will do well in the psychology department There's a place for almost everyone...
...It was a dreary According to our Eastern Bureau chief, Christmas 1970 was the most joyous Christmas of all...
...If you're a math major, take "Math for Economists," then take "Math for Psychologists," and "Statistical Techniques for Sociology " That takes care of your social science requirement...
...It will Part II A Conversation at the University Centers for Rational Alternatives Courage has never been a virtue prominent in the American professor's repertory...
...Even Hugh Hefner was in it...
...Even as the bleak winds of Nazism began to howl through Europe the professors did not raise a very resonant hue and cry...
...They were the swinging K's - Dr...
...Men were upset that the boys had no onstage erections...
...He tells how the "documentary" shows two subteen girls who oversee a lesbian act and imitate it -- a spontaneous and natural experiment, the K's say on the soundtrack...
...Next to Evergreen, it is a gradeschool paper" (Evergreen is put out by Grove Press...
...Phyllis was on the phone, stumbling through a pretentious press release on the "authentic" performances --which took place in a night club...
...The great movie she described is now out, being widely shown...
...Take breadth courses after the freshman year...
...Not even which playwright...
...Nope, not just now...
...An elderly couple had smeared white protective lubricant on their faces, to keep out the sun...
...For information concerning membership in UCRA write, 100 West 40th Street...
...They conducted the discussion with a zombie-like ascetic air of humorlessness...
...Lesbians present objected that boy actors had exposed their genitals, while girls stripped only to the waist...
...They would be glad to tell me what plays they had filmed, but -- um-- they couldn't, at the moment, remember...
...l'OOOROVIl'll: Oh yes, and I may only add that it will come and perhaps is already in coming I know of some professors--it's a mixed group of UCRA members and non-members in the California region--who are trying to produce precisely something like a code...
...When the symposium ended, I went up to ask what Greek plays had been filmed...
...You can't catch up, the course work is consecutive, unlike the humanities or social sciences...
...You could not get me to it with a cattleprod...
...They are doctored carney barkers and P-R specialists who get in front of any large crowd they can find...
...Universal Press Syndicate a getting our efforts amplified...
...Kronhausen female (Phyllis), agitators for free sex (and other things) who try to give an academic air to the intercoursefilms circulated by Grove Press...
...During the most militant speeches, K. male would raise a wispy arm, and wave a gingerly clenched fist...
...The audience, which arrived in unisexual pairs, badgered him about his experience in the play's subject matter, and Dr...
...Sign up for one extra course each quarter, then drop the bummer of the bunch before the deadline...
...The University Centers for Rational Alternatives was founded by vigorous intellectuals like Sidney Hook who believe freedom and democracy are precious and worth fighting for...
...The first half of this interview appeared in our December issue...
...New York, New York 10018...
...And women's lib people hate Playboy...
...Indeed, Dr...
...but Stanley Kauffman suffered for us and wrote a fine review in The New Republic...
...Find them and take their courses to satisfy your academic breadth requirements...
...The educational process is much longer and slower than we have anticipated and this lesson which we learned the hard way is indeed affecting our future programs '1'111:As Oscar Handlin recently said in Encounter there seems to be a lack of a professional code for professors Do you think this is true and do you think perhaps UCRA will be trying to establish or to promote a code...
...0 Porny Vampires Iti Gar% Wills On 9 May, after Kent State, there was a giant anti-war rally in Washington...
...The K's were in a hurry, and tried 'o mumble their way by me - but when T pulled out a press card, their cardboard faces became serene with helpfulness...
...Now I knew what the K's joyless preaching ardor, their enthusiasm without warmth, reminded me of -- Count Dracula's need to make converts, with a bite...
...I had last seen the K's when sent to an affair of theirs with a magazine article in mind...
...But how "spontaneous" was it, Kauffman asks, for these girls to be recruited, taught their roles in the "natural experi Till•: \1.'l'ER\.\'1'1\'1: Do you feel you are achieving the goals you set out to achieve' TOl)ORO\'I('II: Most emphatically so First of all we gauge this by the kind of happenings that are going on as reported by the press and other media When for instance Professor Ralph Bendix who is, I think, the out-going chairman or president of the American Sociological Association gave a speech a while ago and was quoted extensively in the New York Times about politics not having any place on campuses...
...1'111 . L'l'1•:RN,\TI\'I•:: What have you learned that will affect your future programs' TOI)ORO\'Il'lI: We have learned especially one thing: that because of the enormous number of psychological factors involved the progress is and will be much slower Not overly difficult but just very slow Different stages have to be crossed before a new positive stability can be achieved, and when I say stability I mean a peaceful, normal and regular development towards the further strengthening and widening of the educational process And in that sense we had to learn that the development of rational alternatives, which we thought would at this stage be a much bigger part of our operation, will have to unfold in a much slower way We are quite unhappy because of that On the other hand we have to realize that this is how things are and that trying to jump ahead too soon may prove counter-productive First you must almost follow certain events People have to see and learn from what is taking place on their home ground What happened at University A is only partially profitable to people in University B unless they experienced at least a certain degree of disruption So there is need for the faculties to experience a certain degree of turmoil before its enlightened elements within or without UCRA can hope to become really effective...
...Kronhausen male (Eberhard) and Dr...
...Yes, Playboy has a long way to go...
...The play was embarrassing, not only because it bared the actors in feigned homosexual rubbings, but because it left the author's talent exiguously naked, unashamed in its banality...
...The Kronhausens understood these objections, yet defended the author's courage, genius, and liberalism (all three of which they seemed to treat as synonyms...
...They were conducting a tilmed "symposium" on one of New York's nude plays, With the dramatist, actors, and audience participating...
...Richard Nixon - a success...
...Whenever I am told that the new sexual freedom expresses a happy, sane laughter and openness, I think of the Kronhausens on that platform, white masked creatures of night out of place in the air and sunlight...
...as I said, many of our good members-and it you read the letterhead of the organization it's almost like Who's Who of those who are willing to be heard and do something--are getting into the act, and they seem to be doing it because it's important to them This is then one way in which we are getting to know that we are probably getting across and succeeding in ment," rehearsed in it, then told to perform it for the camera...
...Phyllis was lyrical about her thousand current projects -e.g., the great movie she was making...
...his talk was almost "straight UCRA" as we jokingly observed here in the office And that's a very pleasant feeling I don't mean to imply that our writing influenced exactly the thinking of Dr Bendix who is a good social scientist in his own right, but we think that we are in a sense giving the people a certain point of view of what we see as the most pressing university problem at a certain time We can do this...
...The second way is through the kind of things people write to us--they send us copies of their local campus resolutions, tell us about things they are trying to do...
...The "plays" were actually skits put together from snippets of late Hellenistic and Empire-period eroticists...
...let's give these students a chance to learn something about the election process and give them an opportunity to support the candidates of their choice...
...Kristol hopes they received these gifts, as they surely were in need of them...
...I said Hefner did not share some of her enthusiasms --e.g., for homosexuality...
...When the more decent of our professors do take action to defend an open university they deserve the energetic support of all thinking students, whether conservative, moderate or liberal...
...If you don't like learning personally...
...But if I would leave my phone number with them .. . Early next morning, Dr...
...Thus we should not expect many of our tweedy-coated tape recorders to act against the barbarians intent on destroying their university...
...It would be wrong, you see, for us here in New York to sit down• scratch our heads and invent such a code It has to come from the grass-roots level after, of course, a lot of preliminary informational exchange Then as soon as, anywhere in the country, such a program becomes a codified reality, UCRA will do its best to disseminate the necessary information If the newly formulated code survives the first wave of criticism we may even suggest that it be officially adopted and so on Most definitely there's a need for such a code which--let me point this out--would probably in retrospect represent nothing terribly new, something that was not known several hundred years ago...
...K. female kept edging into the circle that got the most attention - which made for three studies in bralessness: Jane Fonda, molded close...
Vol. 4 • January 1971 • No. 3
