Youth and Politics
KELMAN, STEVEN
THINKING ALOUD Youth and Politics By Steven Kelman Are American high school students today getting ready to repeat the tragic mistakes of their parents—the mistakes of the generation of the Young...
...This is a People's War" the next...
...Too often the best the grade schools and junior high schools have to offer are poorly written pieces of hack work, often with grotesque cartoons, which make use of all the worn anti-Communist cliches while sugar-coating the problems of American life...
...But I am hopeful...
...Facts can be convincing sometimes, and I feel that facts are the weapon we must use if we want to avoid a continuing disaster in the first confrontation of youth and politics...
...It would be a great tragedy if the service of intelligent and politically oriented students were to be lost to liberalism or social democracy...
...I believe that the majority of our youthful radicals would have been given that gift that they lack had they read, say, THE NEW LEADER as well as Monthly Review...
...China and Cuba, as real "revolutionary" societies, as well as Latin America (much more than Africa or Asia), as an underdeveloped area so long under U.S...
...The revolutionary world inspires them, but unevenly: Algeria's Ben Bella is generally denounced as a dictator (when he is mentioned at all), ditto for Indonesia's Sukarno...
...totalitarianism...
...And the same students who, even as late as 1961, vehemently attacked anyone suggesting that Castro was aligning himself with the Communists at home and abroad, are now admitting that Castro is a Communist while still remaining pro-Fidel...
...My radical friends are very fond of telling me that the more one learns, the further left one goes...
...In general, I think these students fall into the category of "Kennedy-Johnson liberals...
...The changes brought about during the Khrushchev era have been duly exaggerated, so as to imply that Russians enjoy almost as much freedom as the democratic societies in the West do...
...They had merely heard rantings which had led them to believe that non-recognition meant that we don't believe that China exists...
...or the question of private enterprise...
...This sympathy is real, despite the fact that the Castroism which they espouse as a solution for it has brought great suffering to the Cuban people...
...There was more attention paid to the USSR's peaceful aims when the big issue was "Peace" (which is now definitely passe...
...Indeed, my teacher told me that, of the 14 book reports handed in from among her classes on this book, mine was the only unfavorable one...
...Will they also suffer the disillusionment which often lost intelligent and sensitive young people to the cause of liberal humanism and swelled the ranks of the Right-wing repenting fellow travelers...
...In our student government, a resolution was brought up and overwhelmingly passed condemning the compulsory flag salute as a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments...
...The reason that they see no need to think about or side with one side or another in this ideological confrontation is simple...
...Such actions are perfectly designed to incite rebellion against the whole idea of patriotism among adolescents...
...The subject of the military-industrial complex arouses some interest...
...In our social studies class this year, we had a debate on recognition of Communist China...
...Yet in spite of these facts we see the majority of the members of the Great Neck South Senior High School "Forum Club," among whose members are the most politically conscious in the school, favoring American withdrawal from Vietnam, not because it might be the only choice we have in the end (although a few favor withdrawal for this reason), but because the Viet Cong is somehow "better" than the current government...
...The cutting off of the sugar quota and the Bay of Pigs are most often cited...
...For all their talk about the Bill of Rights, they really don't understand that freedom of the press is meaningless unless people take advantage of the battleground of ideas...
...I read publications from Moscow News to National Review, with a good many in between...
...But from what I know about that period, I fear that history is repeating itself...
...There is no interest in Europe...
...It would be better to say that only if you are free do you have any chance of perceiving anything closely resembling that ephemeral thing called "truth...
...Let me give some examples...
...We see a craze among sophomore students, when studying China in social studies classes, to read Felix Greene's wildly naive and pro-Communist Awakened China as the only "objective" account— "objective" being the favorite word for describing such books...
...A Westerner cannot attack Communist China's regimentation because that would be looking at things from a "Western" point of view...
...I am sure that none of them views himself as a Communist...
...Among Fidelista circles, the total story of Castro's migration from "revolutionary humanism" to "the glorious banner of Marxism-Leninism" consists of U.S...
...In fact, they barely think about the split at all...
...The formation at Swarthmore of a committee to send medical aid to the Viet Cong (and the statement by its president that they were loyal Americans but that they sympathized with the Viet Cong's struggle for national independence) is reminiscent of Great Neck's Leftist student intelligentsia...
...It is populated by middle, upper-middle, and upper income people...
...I feel that the only remedy for this would be for teachers, parents, and librarians to spot the inquisitive and doubting student early, and try to teach him that every issue has many sides...
...And the one thing that this group of intellectuals lacks is the ability to read on anything but their side of an issue...
...The standard explication, of course, is that American policy "pushed" Castro into his present position...
...And this coming from the member of the junior class with probably the highest scholastic average...
...After the debate, the vote was 12-8 against recognition...
...Actually it is they who have been brainwashed—not by Time or the U.S...
...Most of the rebels are economically comfortable and do not fall into Max Nomad's category of the declasse intellectuals seeking power and position through revolution...
...In contrast to the '30s, when domestic issues dominated attention, the home front does not seem to arouse much student interest, with the notable exception of the civil rights issue...
...I believe it is the fault of those elements in society which try to feed intelligent and inquisitive young people with oversimplified and purely emotional patriotism...
...I feel that the best way to do this would be to encourage the development of a more mature approach toward patriotism, Communism, problems of the underdeveloped world, and the issues of freedom...
...I remember once in Forum Club when we were having an argument about Cuba, someone said to me, "I don't see how you could take the positions you're taking if you only would have read I. F. Stone's report on his trip to Cuba.' When I replied that I had read it, he looked shocked...
...Perhaps the one (rather dubious) "contribution" of the ridiculous Smith and McCarran Acts is that they have made "Communist" a dirty word even among those who support virtually every Communist opinion...
...On the other, they expect to grow up, go to Ivy League colleges, and become rich doctors or lawyers (there are a few exceptions to this: the more genuine rebels who have no such ambitions...
...In America today, young people are maturing faster...
...There is no great enemy like Fascism to which Communism seems the most radical alternative...
...I have never heard Malaysia's quarrel with Indonesia mentioned...
...A student, eager and tired of being talked down to by some foolish piece of crude propaganda, will have already been lulled by the siren call of well-written Leftist publications which speak to his mature level...
...Their radicalism is basically insincere...
...According to this point of view, it is not proper for the observer to make decisions between ideas like freedom vs...
...Indeed, they are right...
...This is so despite the fact that today there is no Depression to make it appear as if capitalism were a crumbling order...
...One result of this type of "rah-rah" patriotism is the development of what I will call the disease of relativism...
...Have you read Theodore Draper's Castro's Revolution...
...When he is disgusted with simple-minded propaganda, he is not likely to be attracted to intelligent presentations of essentially similar opinions...
...Obviously, too, I am in the main discussing the views of the politically engage students...
...While it is impossible to determine how much the ideas reflected here hold true for intellectually inclined high school students across the country, I think it fair to say that they reflect a good deal of thought on college campuses...
...The caliber of the social studies department in my school is high...
...There are many other intelligent students whom I know—in general those interested mainly in science—who are mildly interested in politics, but not obsessed or overly concerned...
...There is little answer that can give them, because they naturally assume that the only person interested in such a publication would be a Communist...
...Such relativism is conveniently forgotten when one wishes to attack, for example, South Africa's odious apartheid system...
...What causes these intelligent students, in this day and age, to toe the Communist line...
...Widespread rebellion took place when the Soviet Union was characterized as a "totalitarian state" in the curriculum...
...Actually, "dirty word" is a poor description of their attitude...
...Perhaps surprisingly, interest in the USSR is on the downgrade...
...The shattering of innocence experienced by the last generation of youth— the Purge Trials, the Nazi-Soviet Pact—should be enough to convince any reasonably fair-minded person that the Revolution has been, to say the least, betrayed...
...For a person with healthy skepticism will never fall victim to a panacea of any sort...
...In short, a favorable climate for interest in politics, and a climate aided by the high level of political awareness among Great Neck adults...
...The truth will make you free," we often hear...
...The New York State Legislature passed a law last year requiring each school day to begin with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance...
...This does not necessarily mean that the student Left "sides" with China in the Sino-Soviet dispute...
...State Department, but by publications like Minority of One or /. F Stone's Weekly...
...I have no objection to doing so, although I think that it is unnecessary and meaningless...
...When I asked one Fidelista why, if Castro wished to be independent, he aligned himself with the USSR, he told me: "Castro didn't want to but he had to after the Bay of Pigs...
...The high school library has an excellent collection of books on politics and also subscribes to magazines ranging from the Nation to the National Review...
...In a typical year, 80 per cent or more of the graduating class at either of the two high schools goes to college...
...The typical story is, "I personally have no objections to working in an organization with Communists, but I'm afraid that if the organization gets on the Attorney General's list, my future career will be endangered...
...Such unimportant things as facts are not enough to influence these views...
...Before the debate, the class stood 13-7 in favor of recognition...
...To be sure, almost anything can be explained by historical conditions, but, if we are to defend Western civilization, we have no choice but to look at things from a Western point of view...
...Although worded so as to make the protest only on so-called "Constitutional" grounds, it became obvious during discussion on the resolution that most people were disgusted with the rote exercise...
...But, as I said, there is a good deal more interest in China than in the USSR...
...Brainwashing consists, I feel, of reading on only one side of an issue...
...Thus, many of these young radicals have asked me why I subscribe to Moscow News, when I know that I will get on some FBI list...
...When I mentioned the arrest of Hubert Matos, the deposal of Manuel Urrutia, the forced Communization of the university and trade unions, I got nothing but blank stares...
...Many of these young radicals are performing valuable services at the forefront of the civil rights movement...
...THINKING ALOUD Youth and Politics By Steven Kelman Are American high school students today getting ready to repeat the tragic mistakes of their parents—the mistakes of the generation of the Young Communist League, the Popular Front, the absurd toeing of the party line ("The Yanks Are Not Coming" one day...
...Most young Leftists call themselves Socialists, but care little about economic conditions in America...
...I believe that this lipped patriotism probably diluted the real patriotism of a number of sensitive and rebellious students...
...domination, get most of the international attention...
...It is therefore to our interest that we try to stop this sad story of youthful quasi-Communismfollowed by Rightist Goldwaterism—something which I fear will eventually come to today's young idealists...
...For one thing, this is a personal account, not a statistical one...
...Their idols are foreign Socialists—above all Castro...
...When the president of the Forum Club suggested that we buy 50 copies of Fred Cook's Nation article on this subject, saying that it was something that "did not receive enough attention,' I replied, perhaps in a fit of chagrin, "I think it's received too much attention," and then realizing that I really didn't think that, I added, "at least among the people in the Forum Club...
...policy toward Cuba...
...for another, Great Neck is not a typical town...
...I have read I. F. Stone on Cuba," I said...
...For example, I have tried in vain to discuss with my friends, or in groups like our Forum Club, subjects such as poverty in the U.S...
...In senior high school a more mature approach is used, but by then it is often too late...
...Nearby is New York City— where you can buy anything...
...Rebellion comes early, and an educational program which only starts presenting issues intelligently in high school comes too late for many...
...Most of the teachers are left-of-center (some a very good deal more than others), yet the department as a whole maintains a subscription to the Right-wing Human Events...
...On the one hand, they are all in sympathy with the struggling poor majority of the world...
...Accepting this definition, it is just as easy to be brainwashed by /. F. Stone or Human Events, on the Left or Right respectively...
...And, as I mentioned previously, most of them do have an honest, if often misdirected, sense of sympathy with the poor and downtrodden...
...Perhaps the demand would be small, but the gift of healthy skepticism about what you read should be worth the expense...
...Even junior high school libraries should be stocked with books like Mills' Listen, Yankee, Deutscher's Trotsky, Djilas' The New Class, or Buckley's Rumbles Left and Right...
...This brings us to the basic contradiction to be found among Great Neck South's pint-sized and self-styled radicals...
...I am a student at Great Neck South Senior High School, Great Neck, New York, and I therefore have no personal experience with youth and politics during the years of the Great Depression...
...I am optimistic enough to believe that such a "stage" is not necessary or inevitable...
...Yet after the aforementioned debate, many of my classmates told me that they had never heard most of the arguments and statistics I presented before...
...I recognize that what I am describing cannot necessarily be called typical...
...Self-styled Leftist students often tell those who disagree with their views that they have been "brainwashed by official propaganda" (I recall a long and caustic argument we had in social studies class one day when one girl maintained that there was no difference between "propaganda" or "brainwashing" in American and Soviet schools...
...Of course he had not...
...Above all, Communism is no longer the "noble experiment" which it may have seemed even during the '30s...
Vol. 48 • February 1965 • No. 3
