PAGE FOUR THE LIMITS OF SELF-RIGHTEOUS By Alan Price On August 20, 1964, I was in the English port city of South ampton. I was there to meet a ship which was to carry me back to this country, and with my nervous attention to the details of punctuality I had managed to arrive twenty-four hours early. After I had exhausted the local museums, department stores, and city parks, I came upon a small monument near the docks. The inscription read: ** * * In Memory of the Heroic Death of Mary Anne Rodgers, steward ess of the Stella, who on the night of Mar. 30th, 1899, mid the confusion and terror of ship wreck aided all the women under her charge to quit the vessel in safety, giving her own lifebelt to one who was unprotected. Urged by sailors to make sure her escape, she refund lest she might endanger the heavily lad en boat. Cheering the parting crew with the friendly cry of "Good Bye, Goad Bye" she was seen a few moments later as the Stella went down lifting her arms with the prayer "Lord have me," then sank in the waters with the sinking ship. Actions such as these, reveal ing steadfast performance of duty in the face of death, ready self-sacrifice for the sake of oth ers, reliance on God; constitute the glorious heritage of our Eng THE GANG lisp Race, they deserve perpet ual commemoration, because a mong the trivial pleasures and sordid strife of the world, they recall to us forever the, nobility and love and worthiness of, hu man nature. *G * * The important aspect of the in scription.. is not the heroic act of Mary Anne Rodgers .(though I respect it); the important part is the tone of the second half which places her act in the wid er perspectives of. "the glorious heritage or our English Race" and of' human nature. It is this tone of "let's all join hands and give a cheer for the greatness man is capable of" that I want to call "self-righleousness." "Self-righteousness" is a word which has acquired a very nasty connotation. We speak of old wo men 'who sit in church and con demn we wicked sinners as "self-righteou.l." This =nota tion is unfortunate because we all need a. certain amount of self-righteousness to get by in the world. Call it "pride" or "confidence,"we need to think that we (the self) are right. Na tions depend on the self-right eousness of patriotism to insure the social fabric of the country. The Memorial Day Parade and the Fourth of July speech all say, "the nation is great; the nation is right." Therefore, this pride or patriotism or, as - I choose to call it, this self-right eousness is very important to us as individuals and as social un its. Much of what is going an on the American campuses today is the product of self- righteous ness. Moreover, to the extent that the individual student deve lops a sense of dignity and con fidence in his moral judgements, Felf-riEthteousness is a good qua lity. On the other hand, when students become so caught un in the private and public immor ality which confronts them that their only solutions are violence and disruption, then the time has come for them to get down off their high horse and grovel with the rest of us toward some more reasonable alternative. Many of the student demands such as revised curriculums and better teaching are justified, but THE FrIGHACRES COLLEGIAN this attitude of "you do it my way, man, or I'm going to it down" is not justified, e ially in an academic comet One of the problems of ing older is that one realize the realities of life are less .I able than the strict moral as'es of youth. For exarnpl4 people should be nice to other, but they are, not, should be a constant tenderne it is not. People in positior authbrity should be godlike; are not Mothers and fay should practice what prit2ach; they do not at There should be no more unfortunately, there probabl: be. We are living, of course, in a time of great social change. I do not think college students no tice this change quite as much as their parents do. Further more social changes on so large a scale as a nation of 200 million people take time and inevitably cause some unfortunate social dislocation. The pressures ap plied. by students and Negroes can accelerate charge, but it will not be accomplished quickly no matter how much pressure is ap plied. The country is like a mule. With a mule you have to get him started in the right direction and keep him going. However, if you try to make him go too fast, he will stop. We have some good social legislation, and we are, I think, moving in the tight direc tion, but the changes will not be overnight miracles in any case. In conclusion, much of the self righteous indignation of college students is justified. However, one must ask whether students are using the right methods to, insiire, social change. Violence and disruption within the univer sity community may give them an immediate sense of relief, but the long range effects may be disastrous. Moreover, a real istic attitude toward social change is one which allows time for the chancre to take effect. The students will have to learn to temper justice with mercy'. It seems to me that one of the ob ligations of being right is to real ize the limits within which one is able to act. ESS NANCY ANCHARSKI BONNIE BANGOR .MAY, 1969
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