HIGHACRES COLLEGIAN, NON. EMBER 2, 1970 - PAGE 2 Editorial Comment The remembrance of things past Students file into the crammed, already-crowded room, select less-than-comfortable seats, and prepare themselves for another "stimulating" television lecture. The depicted scene is this term's anthropology class at Highacres. But it could have been any television lecture series being shown at any of the Commonwealth campuses. The films are all the same, though the names have been kept the same to punish the guilty. Television lectures allow no provisions for cut classes or missed exams. That pleasant face on the screen "teaches" to one as well as to several. He cares not if you understand the material, or if you're barely getting by. He only cares about his "series" being cancelled. This displaced "boob-tube" personage speaks but doesn't talk. He sometimes hears by way of proctor, but he never listens. He never discusses; he only lectures. But it is not this poor soul who is to blame for the innocent withdrawal of students from the class. He cannot regulate his television program to include a question and answer period. He is only doing his delegated job. Then who is to blame? Who should be reprimanded for allowing this ineffective, useless teaching process? Certainly we cannot blame the present administrators for continuing the practice established by their predecessors. The University, as a unit, is to blame. It appears to the COLLEGIAN that there is a rather simple solution to this problem, but like many things, it will cost money. But what is money to such a great and comparatively wealthy institution as Penn State? The solution is to hire more instructors to teach the now infamous television lectures; one new instructor on each campus for each present TY lecture being "aired" at that campus. Yes, it will involve additional money alloted for salaries, but the students will get much more out of the class. They will REALLY be learning. Students will once again appreciate Penn State and begin to feel less like unnoticed, trampled beings. Penn State was established to benefit the people. It is time for Penn State to return to its original policy. The Highacres Collegian The Collegian office is located in the Memorial Building. Office hours are Monday thru Friday, 1-4 p.m. Man Leininger Gene Davis Kris Karchner.. Ed Pietroski Tom Heppe Richard Campbell NEWS: Paul Pianovich, Editor; Harland Reid, Michael Grego, Cincy Welliver, Celine Student. FEATURES: Mary Ann Rennekamp. SPORTS: Tom Caccese, Editor; Mark Braske. CREDIT: Tom Moran, Mgr; Nancy Kent. CIRCULATION: Eileen Stacelaucki, Mgr; JoAnn Kondrchek. ADVERTISING: Lisa Schneller, Mike Tam ulis, Mary Polascik, Tom Caccese. COMPOSITION: Susan Kisthart, Chief; Joan Mente, Alice Bright, Pat Adams, Rita Camissa, Debbie Guydish. TYPING: Anita Thomas, Diane Oberst, Celine Student, Cathy Motyl. COPY: Betsy Maderick, Editor; Nancy Krensavage, Linda Boiwka, Cindy Welliver. PHOTOGRAPHY: Ron Wojnar. ART: Mimi Fuehrer. EDITORIAL WRITERS: Richard Rockman, John Hancock, John Martonick, Gene Davis. MEMBER: The Press Association of Commonwealth Campuses, Association Press Services, Newspaper Council of the Press Association, Intercollegiate Press(l.P.). BOARD OF EDITORS STAFF ....Editor-in-chief Executive Editor .Managing Editor Business Manager Production Manager Faculty Advisor No Middle East settlement-Why? For the sake of all human concerns, both Arabs and Israelis should recognize the seriousness of the situation in the Middle East. •In the not too distint future, the 90-day cease fire will come to an end. Fortunately, tere will probably be an extension. However, if diplomatic impasses continue to persist, it will not be 10% before both sides begin a resumption of hostilities. It is important, then, to think of the humanistic aspects. 1) The uncertainty for Palestinian refugees is of utmost importance. Countless numbers have been driven away from their families and homes. Many are starving and diseased. It is • imperative that both sides act now to allow rehabilitation. 2) The fear and anxiety of airplane passengers flying anywhere in the world. The rash of hijackings earlier this year was unparalled with any type of piracy. Th e least that Palestinian guerilla groups could do is to confine their "Arab patriotism" to the immediate area. 3) The uncertainty for the families of those in the armed services of both sides must indeed be great. An end to the conflict would bring families back together and most important stop the senseless killing and destruction of humanity that has taken place in the last three years. The only answer as to why this cannot be done is stubborness. Both sides are afraid to give in to the other. Surely, neither side has nothing to gain by a prolonged conflict, i.e., one prolonged to any greater extent, and of course, both sides have everything to lose. All the rest of the world can do is hope that both sides will recognize the absolute absurdity of their position as soon as possible. This is the first issue of the new, improved version of the Highacres Collegian. This issue, while only four pages is a major step toward our ultimate goal of publishing the best student newspaper in the Commonwealth Campus system. Our staff is working hard to accomplish this goal, but we can do it only with the co-operation of the student body. We want to know what is going on. If your group is doing something newsworthy, or you want to see something in print, let us know. Our office is located in the Memorial Building. We're listening. War-How Absurd! Picture this scene taking place several thousand years ago . . . Gathered about the lone waterhole located in a twenty square mile region are several groups of man-apes. These groups consist of members of the two tribes of man-apes living in that particular region. Calmly they all drink from the waterhole. Everything appears peaceful. Suddenly without warning man-apes from the tribe in the hills begin throwing stones at the man-apes from the flatlands. It is a very disorganized attack, but its success is never in doubt. Th e man-apes from the flatlands, surprised by the unexpectedness and the viciousness of the attack, are driven from , the waterhole. Fleeing the vicinity, they leave behind many dying and injured members of their tribe. During the following days, the man-apes from the flatlands try to return to the waterhole only to be driven away again. Finally, because of their overwhelming thirst, they are forced to leave the region in search of a new waterhole. One can only speculate why the man-apes from the hills decided to attack and drive out the man-apes from the flatlands. There had been a very long and severe drought for several months. This one waterhold was the only one that remained. Pe ita* the inherent desire for survival made the man-apes from the hills realize that the other tribe of man-apes from the hills realize that the other tribe of man-apes had become a natural threat to their lives. With the other tribe sharing the dwindling waterhole, they probably had sensed that the water would not last quite as long as if they were the sole tribe to use it. Thus, the man-apes from the hills attacked the man-apes from the flatlands. Man, henceforth, has become a warring creature. Since tllip time of die man-apes and the event at the watbrhole, man has progressed from a very primitive form of war to a vastly improved technological and specialized field, the professional military unit, that we know today. Man-ape attacking man-ape with stones was a very crude and extremely inefficient ways of making war. As everyone knows, it requires time, a concerted effort, and a sincere caring to acheive perfection. Through the years man has done his best to perfect the means of making war and destroying other men. Starting with the simple stone, he has invented more and more efficient finally today, man has at his disposal "the" most efficient weapon ever created: the atomic bomb. Man is now able to kill more people in the shortest amount of time than he ever could before. Man has triumphed over the mediocrity of the stone and the knife and improved the quality of his weapons. He now has the capacity to destroy the whole world. If, in the future, man does annihilate himself at the base of that now infamous mushroom, he would set an unheard-of first. Man would then be the first creature to cause its own extinction. Th is is a startling realizaion. It is an ever-present possilility. It is everyone's responsibility (and, ever-increasingly, a necessity) to do away with war and bring about "peace." War is the most wasteful reality ever created by man. Millions of lives have been lost, all of them incalculable in terms of price. Was their sacrifice really worth the loss? And how about the billions and billions of dollars in money and resources that were used? Consider the world today if the money and resources had been directed into building up the world, not destroying it. Th e starving people in the world could be fed. The lot of man could be made better. War must be done away with; peace must take its place. Everyone has to work to bring about the changes needed to stop the senseless destruction and to unite the world in useful cooperation. Everyone must realize that war is absurd, and only peaceful co-existence will truly benefit all of mankind. Peace must be the choice of everyone; the only other alternative is self-destruction. by John Martonick -The Collegian Staff by Gene Davis Turning Point is a program sponsored and set up by an organization known as CODE—Council On Drug Enlightenment. The purpose of CODE is education of the public about drugs and drug abuse in this area. The members of CODE are interested students and adults from Hatleton and its surrounding area. Those who participate in Turning Point have gone through a training• program which endowed them with adequet knowledge to answer various questions about drugs and their misuse. Anyone wanting information on Turning Point should watch the local newspaper for meeting dates. All meetings are open to the public. When dealing with a social ailment it is easy to confuse its symptoms with its cause. We have ntade this error in formulating our current problem of environmental pollution. Factory waste, poor utilization of our natural resources, airplane, truck and automobile emissions each causes pollution of our environment, but none of these is the primordial cause of environmental abuse. Our attitudes can determine our actions. If we believe that the world is flat, then we do not attempt to sail around it. If we believe ourselves to be ugly, then we are shy at a schO?l dance. Our evaluation of a given situation may govern how we, deal with it. If our evaluation of it is mistaken, so will be our solution to its problems. We have evaluated the causes of pollution incorrectly. We attempt to find its cause in nature when its c.angells in our own corrupted Attitude toward nature, in our own unwarranted egocentricity and naive optimism. lt-mits written in Genesis that God commanded man to rule over the earth and to subdue it, to be fruitful and to multiply. It is man's misinterpretation of this command that is the source of our infected posture toward our environment. "To rule," in Genesis means to rule as God would rule, to rule with reason, justice and compassion. But man has taken "rule and subdue" to mean "tyrannize and destroy." He has taken "be fruitful" to mean "be gluttonous." The notion of rule implies that of obligation. One is obliged to rule well or his rule becomes tyranny. The notion .4 fruitfulness implies those off careful planting and of gentle harvesting. Fruit poorly planted does not grow. Fruit inconsiderately harvested is bruised, no longer fit to eat. Man has not, however, recognized eith his obligation to the earth over which he was to rule or his need to tend carefully what he would bring to .fruition. Having misunderstood God, man set out to carelessly abuse God's gift to him. He attended only God's words not God's example. It was flattering to man that he see himself as the zenith of creation. In the metaphysical and ecclesiastical conception of the universe that dominated the middle ages God was highest, the summum bonum. Below God ranked the angels. Below the Angels stood man and below man the cows and vultures of the field. Be low the animals sulked wheat and shale. This hierarchical scheme was feudal in its notion of obligation. Man owed allegiance to the Angels and God, the Angels allegiance to God, all animate and inanimate objects submission to man. God was the paradigm Ling, the Absolute omnipotent ruler to Whom all else was vassal. But man had his own Dukedom. He was to be the absolute ruler of snakes and weeds and rocks. He could spit out upon the earth whatever bitterness he felt toward the King or Fate. He could whip, ravage, seduce the earth as he pleased. If God was the center of the universe, man was the center of the earth. He flattered himself for being the ruler of a planet at the center of creation. His conceit set the conditions for his fall. But man would not fall rapidly. From his own vision of his central place in nature it was easy for him to add a naive optimism to his already misguided pride. It was easy to develop a notion of progress that would reinforce his own arrogance. If a benevolent God governs the universe, and if he gives to man the duty to work, to conquer, then, though man, whatever work he does must be an improvement upon nature. All human effort must turn out well in the end. The Protestant Ethic, as Max Weber has called it, fit well with the scientific revolution of the 17th and 18th Centuries. Hard work done in the service of God must be good. Science is hard work. Thus man could conclude that science is good. The products of tech nology became in our eyes the proof that we were truly God's children. We had indeed subdued the earth. The cotton gin, the steam engine, the power loom, were our obvious rewards for serving God so well, or so we thought. It was in his easy optimism of the Enlightenment that man became more arrogant. It was not only he who was at the focal point of creation but his products too. As God had looked at His creation and seen that it was good, so man looked at his inventions and thought that they were better. It was not until the 19th Century that Wordsworth, Zcita, - Dostoyevsky, Kierkegaard and Marx suggested that not all human works, especially not industrial machinery, were a blessing. They argued that man was indeed too egocentric, too optimistic, that he must see that many of his works destroyed nature's beauty and corrupted man's Attitud It is certainly a pity the U.S. Cavalry has gone out of vogue. A better, more efficient group to deal with red and pink enemies of wholesome, all-American boys has never existed. With bugle* blaring and equestrian nostrils flaring, they developed a traditkas of rescuing a hero from the red menace. Our modern day hero, Spiro, hasn't that advantage. However, with the national guard anil this paper in his defense repertoire, he may not have need of cavalry. It is the premise of this article to show that our second-in-succession, commander -M-chief is quite successful. Too bad though, that he pursued the wrong field of endeavor. America gives evidence of being a "promised land" for the comedian. Late night television lures with hint of a quick rise to fame and fortune. Night clubs offer exposure to TV, talent hunters, and provision for the maintenance of a level' of subsistence. The successful comedian runs engagements from coast-to-coast. Quite simply, we are a nation run by dowtsa. Perhaps it should be made perfectly clear that what is meant 'la that we are a nation in which clowns run. This brings us to Spiro Agnew, who has been running in American politics with honest Dick Nixon. No other guffaw-drawer in recorded history has reached the same high level of success as this humble Marylander.' His met* mention of a simple adjective like effete, causes a large percentsge of the American academic community to laugh uproariously. He has propelled the term "leftist radical" to the same heights as the famed Fugowie (variable spelling) Indian tribe.. Possibly, Ida fantastic success can be attributed to the fact that he actually takes himself seriously. Another notion is that clean living is at the root or base of his rise. He is most careful in regard to the prevention of athletes foot. Basic and all-encompassing howeva, is his lovableness. He is simply cast in the wrong light, and profession. Pollution inal by Richard Campbell spirit. They sounded again the warning of every parent to hie child: "You don't get something for nothing." Progress, they implied, had cost us something. The devastating blow to man's conceit was not dealt by these men, how ever. It was dealt by Darwin. Copernicus had shown that our earth is part of a heliocentric rather than geocentric system. That was a heavy blow, one that the Church for a long time attempted to duck. But even if earth was not at the center of the universe, it still remained that man was at the center of the earth. He was still God's special creation. Darwin removed even that last vestige of illusion Man was not a paradigm creation but a hiorogical incident produced by natural selection Instead of ruling nature he was suddenly victim to its laws. He was no longer the narcissistic monarch but himself made of the same stuff and in the same prescribed evolutionary way as any rattlesnake or cactus. So grand is man's egocentricity, how ever, and so paranoid his way of being, that in the 20th Century he has turned even harder against nature and against himself. So the two world wars. So Hitler. So our nuclear weapons and still fouler rivers. Let us remember, however, that "to rule" did not mean in Genesis "to destroy." Man, from his own weakness, perverted his duty to rule by failing to see that he had an obligation to the earth and to his fellow men. He chose his own conceit, his own manufactured optimism, his own perverted attitudes, over the facts of God and nature. His pride condemned him to an attitude of contempt for nature. It is that contempt that is the real cause of pollution in our world today. As long as men persist in their self-centered contempt for what they take to be inferior to themselves (like "niggers" for instance) they are bound to pollute their world and themselves. Man who believes himself to be "master of all that he surveys" must realize that a master depends upon his slaves. Master is himself a slave to his enslavement of others. Free and productive human beings— must avoid any form of slavery. If the real cause of pollution is man's enslavement to a contemptible attitude toward nature, then we must assault and change that attitude if we are to remove pollution. We must se man as capable, but we must not worship him. We msut especially not worship any of his works. We must also make every attempt to remove his neurotic narcissism by removing those factors in contemporary life that so render a man ontologically insecure that he must hide behind conceit in the first place. In an age when the machine rules we must replace the man-machine with the man- person. We must call for a "transvaluation of all values," as Nietzsche said, a total reassessment of that value structure' by which our culture is slowly suffocating itself. So long as we ascribe to false values, to false pictures of ourselves, of our world, and of our place in it, we cannot help but pollute ourselves with an indifference born of arrogance. Only a partial cure for the problem of pollution can come from our engineers. They can remove the effects of pollution but not its cause. It will be man's fate to perish unless he can destroy his pride. Destroying false pride is not the job of our engineers. It is the job of our teachers. It is not the mechanic but the poet who is failing us. Religion has distorted man's view with its promise of life everlasting, for if we live forever why bother to clean up this world, The social sciences have failed man by providing him with statistical data when what he needs is a new cosmology. The arts have fled man for their own fragmentation and sub jectivity. And philosophy, from which, with religion, the great axiological visions have come, has fallen into a preoccupation with verbal quibbles. Our present infected spirit comes from a failure of our humanists to provide new values by which we can "reorder our priorities." We need science in order to cure pollution, but we need effective humanistic education more. Value is the province of the humanities If a re-valuation and alteration of our attitudes is wat• vve need, it is to a new humanistic preoccupation that we must turn, But a turn toward humanism must not be a return to a deification of man. It must rather be a turn toward a reasoned re-examination of man and his culture from the point of view.of preserving what is most human in both. We must turn to man, to changing his attitudes, not as we turn to a conqueror new wounded, out as we turn to an orchid desperately in need of clean water and clean air if it is to sumo Spiroonery by John Hancock
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