Page Two

SCARLET 8 BLACK

student Newspaper oi Grinnell College

I202 Park Street Grimm“ Collego
Grinnell, low soil:

A weekly newspaper published each Friday or
ms college yenr by the crinnsn Commtttee on Slu-
gerit r‘pbnﬁations Sldeprescnthldor notional Idvei.
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patron ”7 ,,
MANAGING am
ausiuass MANAGER
cmCULA'rmN mmocn
STAFF WRITERS _

0P8

parry Ancona

, Nell Fischer
_ Stephen Warm
, , urnre Stroll'l

Mnrxhl Eerkcy, Gordon Christensen,
dill-ms, Anne Flrrer, manic sentry,

inck cocnsnoner, Andy runes, navia itantrnan.
Adrienne Lernrnons, Molly Mccnire, site Mllle'r, pnul Nnchmnn,
.letl srncchter, Ger-Id Swnnson, Ann rattei, Anne rnylor.

rlioroolurttnns All" oemnnrdt, oon Becker,
Leln Ssororrl. nick 'rrcurnann

Editorials . . .

l The Editor is on vacation Ihis week. Summer re-runs are
‘ on page four.

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PHILOSOPHERS
NOT PARTISAIIS

By PAUL JONES

Quite obviously. it would be a mistake to call anyone a partl-
Ian at Grinnell; if there is a place in lowa where there is a great
or diversity oi opinion and ieelings than Grinnell, nobody has
discovered it But not being a partisan does not imply that one
is necessarily a philosopher. I don’t mean a philosopher, however,
the usual man-inrthesstreet concept, but rather one who has a phil-
osophizing spirit; one who does not have opinions for the sake of
opinions, or helieis tor the sake of belief, or revolutions for the
sake of revolutions, but rather one who has a willingness to look
at a problem as reasonably as possible, one who has a passion
[or the truth, whatever it may be. Prolessor George Eastman, in
a recent letter, put it this way:

It strikes me that a genuine philosopher is one who MUST
take all knowledge as his province —- —must become iamiliar
with the conceptual frameworks and operational terminology
of the sciences, economic, soc-anthropology, the tine-arts, law,
history, political science, literature. There is the danger of
shallow dilletantism, but this is a hazard worth risking in
order to acquire it total view of a problem ~ a sense of an
inclusive context — perception of generalizations that explain
large numbers of particulars. Philosophy, I think, represents
one or the few strongholds against the excessive fragmenta-
tion and specialization or our age. it remains, in other words,
one of the low meta-disciplines, one capable or remaining
ABOVE social, cultural, economic, and academic, vested in-

Ierests.

Not every student at Grinnell obviously has this type oi passion
tor the truth; but the unfortunate thing is that veiyjew have any-
thing close to it, even many students who call themselves ‘philos-
ophy majors’.

A great deal oi the cause, of course, can be found in the edu-
cational process which calls for a cognizance of historical data
rather than a development of immediate, creative processes of
thinking But at the same time, it seems clear to me that stu-
dents, particularly at Grinnell, should be concerned with the lock
of direction of most of the educational process here, We are
trained to be good teachers, yes, but to be creative thinkers, no.

Evidently, however, there is not a lack of diilering ideas on
campus; there are rarely two people who think the same way
about anything. So, no, we are not partisans to any one, large
principle of society fostered on us from an external source. But
neither are we philosophers about the principles which we sup-
posedly seek, or the rules which we supposedly think lair or un-
fair. There are too many who are now willing at this point in time
to say that such and such a rule or way ot tile is good or bad;
but to look objectively at the causes of such beliels, the conse-
quences ol such beliels, the components oi such belieis, is out of
the question for Grinnell’s intelligentsia. As William James put it
in ‘The Moral Philosopher and the Moral LiTe’: ‘Ollr society en-
courages us not to be philosophers but partisans.’ The shame at
it is that even though Grinnell has iew partisans in James' sense,
I also hill low philosophers in any sense.

SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday, October I3. I96!
_—_z

GSM ISSUES VIETNAM PETITION

The members of the Vietnam
Committee of the GSM, after
weeks oi discussions and meet-
Ings have drawn up the tol-
lowing petition, which they en<
courage their fellow students,
teachers, and college adminis-
trators to careiully consider,
and, it in substantial agreement
with, to sign.

This petition will be circulated
on the Grinnell College campus
1mm October 15, to October 29.
At the end of this period, copies
or the petition will be sent to
President Johnson, influential
Senators and Congressmen, as
well as the leading potential
Republican candidates for pres-
ident.

The members oi the Vietnam
Committee of the GSM believe
not only that the Grinnell COL
lege community should make

its views widely known on this
subject, but that these views
can and will have substantial
influence on the upcoming nom-
ination and election of presi.
dential and congressional can-
didates This petition is one
means, though certainly not the
only means, oi having the Grin-
nell College community’s views
on the war in Vietnam made
public, which the Vietnam Com-
mittee oi the GSM wholeheart-
edly supports.
PETITION ON

THE WAR IN VIETNAM

"We, the undersigned, mem-
bers of the Grinnell College
community, do not support the
Johnson Administration’s policy
in Vietnam. we believe that the
War in Vietnam is immoral in
its useless destruction
lives, and detrimental

nation's vital domestic policlel
and its image as a freedom
and peace loving country. Wq
support the tollowing alternaljvd
to our nation’s policy in Viet-
ham:

1. Cessation of United States

bombing in North and South

Vietnamr

2, Declaration of a unilateral

cease lire by the United States,

3. United States acceptance

or the tact that the National

Liberation Front has sub

stantial support in South vteo.

ham and must thereiore play

a role in any meaninglul her

gotiatinns.

We believe that these con.
ditions would lead to a favor.
able atmosphere for negotlSa
tions, an end to the war in
Vietnam, and the eventual withr
drawal of all foreign troops,

 

THE POOH REGRETFIILLY,
FRETFULLY EXPLAINS

By DON WINNEY

After last week‘s sick article
and alter several friends ask-
Ing me about my health and
sex life, i thought this week I

would assure everyone that
both are ﬁne—except I might
need a date next weekend.

I would like to consider here
not the demerits of what !

 

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Drug

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927 warn a‘vs

deem last week was a noblq
lailure but its essential literary,
problem which Is also a social
problem at Grinnell.

That is, how does one express
the horror—not just the cute, or
musing absurdity ot hypocrisy,
but the sheer horror—oi incomt
petent medical service in the
town of Grinnell? How does and
arouse his readers not particu.
larly to spasms oi laughter but
to plain disgust at that service

~and to a consideration oi the
distasteful implications?

Well there are many ways.
One may write some kind or
polemic, a melodrama per
haps, or a Kaika-esque contes-
sion, or perhaps a gruesome
iactual study in Capote style at
numerous cases limping around
canlpusiall oi which would
probably leave the reader al-
ready beset with such problems
as gradepoint and open dorms
with an understanding it not in- ,
lliilererlt frown.

One may try to elicit this
shock through satire which it
not done properly can make
the author look as sick as the
article, and one may always
throw in a little sex which con<
{uses some because they look‘
for sexual implications in eye
erything.

Or one may simply do noth}
ing, thinking the problem—lit-
erary and social—is not that
important to upset people—pan-
ticuiarly the administratiom-
because no one else has writ-
ten about what many have oi-
ten said, and after all, one I!
really not a good enough write!
tor that kind at thing, and what
good will it do because nothing
will be done anyway And one
may not want to think about it
because one has been lucky or
wants to target or likes to woo
ry about great issues like open
dorms.

In other words, strong inten-
tions may make lousy art, But
being neither an artist nor an
English major, in this particu-
lar case I’ll take the intentions.

 

