ustxtxb_obs_1964_12_25_50_00013-00000_000.pdf

fiber of the nation by that very broadening. . . . [However] it is difficult to imagine how a strictly mass undertaking can inspire the individual to individual achievement. It is difficult even to imagine how widespread individual achievement is possible in the context of a draft. How can the man on K.P. duty really feel he is giving to his country, even in time of war? It is only in positions of responsibility that a person can feel that he is contributing something worthwhile. With a national draft, would there be enough responsibility to go around? Being attracted to a tradition of service is a highly individualistic sort of thing. How many postal clerks feel pride in their position? How much really can be left? Perhaps I am ignoring the fact that there is a great need of people willing to serve in “menial” positions for society. But these jobs must be filled in ways other than a draft. ROY FULTON Mere Facelifting I believe very strongly that this program is well-intended but seriously misguided, but I do not think the author was altogether unconscious of this. First of all, any thorough examination of the modern massexperience of nihilism would show that among its major constituents are futility, a sense of ineffectiveness, in fact often a vigorous if merely implicit attitude of determinism. It is inconceivable that any compulsory program could do anything but verify and intensify this conviction. Socond, and most crucially, among the further constituents of the nihilism the author is certainly familiar with would be the failure to apprehend anything worth working forthe other side of this being the plethora of bogus godlings that have been arbitrarily’ established, the consequence of which is the disagreement over possible or desirable goals mentioned in closing. This problem certainly deserves greater attention: it would be little trouble to establish a great list of mechanical or sociological or medicinal “problems” that need attending, and less trouble to draft people to do them; we could even engineer their consent toward the ideality of these projectsdoubtless there would be few critics. But the problem, as the disagreement over goals implies, is not giving a project an image of this sort; it is finding a project that deserves such an image. What can be done for justice and truth and meaning? Dams can be dug and wounds can be bandaged, objects can be pushed and pulled and painted and removed and replaced; but none of this is pertinent. What is pertinent is the discovery and dissemination of so EUR OPE An unregimented trip stressing individual freedom. Low cost yet covers all the usual plus places other tours miss. Unless the standard tour is a “must” for you, discover this unique tour before you go to Europe. EUROPE SUMMER TOURS 255 Sequoia, Dept. JPasadena, California cially pertinent knowledgethis is all that is both useful in our dilemma and motivat ing. The project suggested I do not find revolutionary nor even progressive; in the face of our problems, I think it is enor mously conservative. If the entire face of America is given a facelifting, nothing will be solved, no one saved; if anything, the project would be mere escape from our genuine task, self-reflection and the reor ganization of society and the dissemination of pertinent beliefs. Transfer of population into social work, conservation, etc., will not explode the myths under which we are laboring; it will only strengthen them, and give us the illusion, always fatal, of having done something commendable and noble. Further, to introduce institutions to give us challenges and to expect institutions to help us find meaning and social reality and self-dependence is seriously to mistake the essential functions of institutions, which in fact exist to do the very opposite. KENNETH SMITH Youth Overestimated . . . Such a program will necessarily propagandize the enrolled youth in a very strong manner. The romantic youthful idealism, so powerful in its fervor, so easily molded, will be hit at a critical age by very forceful means. The means are forceful because the youth will live the ideology for the duration of at least one year. Every youth will mature with the ideal powerfully instilled in his mind that it is part of his duty to physically, mentally, and economically serve his country for the betterment of society as a whole. Such a program can only be seen as a precursor to the complete welfare state. Perhaps the election of President Johnson is an endorsement of the welfare state, but if he was elected for negative reasons, the pill of welfarism will be difficult for many Americans to swallow. Personally, I am in agreement with the European systems of government, but feel that an appreciable portion of other youths and, to a greater extent, adults, have no sympathy toward this area. Indeed, a unifying force equal in magnitude to a war is needed. I am not certain whether the “ultimate in political skill and conviction” is adequate at present. From a practical standpoint, I find two objections. . . . The first problem is simply the enormity of the bureaucracy required for such a program to work successfully. And the immediate success of this program I hold to be imperative for its enduring past the first change in administration. The complexity and broad spectrum of our needs are equaled only by the widely varied potentialities and talents of youth. These must be quickly and accurately matched and closely supervised, inorder to achieve success. The problems that beset such a program appear to be more grave than those which face our present military complex; graver both in number and scope. I feel that any relatively widespread bungling and/or graft in the early stages would send this program to the unbearable position of a gigantic WPA. Busywork must never be employed, for youth are quick to realize a lack of vitality and this realization brings contempt and cessation of effort. Secondly, I feel that the author has perhaps overestimated the nation’s youth. My experience has led me to believe that while “many young people are profoundly bored by the anonymity and the routine of a society that expects them to wait,” the number of these persons is relatively small. Here we have a problem of scale. This boredom, not idle boredom, but profound boredom \(or utter disgust with the presfor acceptance by youth of universal conscriptive service. If the youth do not sincerely support the program, it will be doomed, regardless of the efficiency of the administering bureaucracy. I feel that the majority of our college studentsand certainly those who have dropped out of high schoolare satisfied with fitting into a motherly status quo. These persons can only stifle a program which lives on dynamism. . . . In summary, I feel that we live in a per December 25,1964 MARTIN ELFANT Sun Life of Canada 1001 Century Building Houston, Texas CA 4-0686 13 Texas Society To Abolish Capital Punishment P. 0. BOX 8134 AUSTIN, TEXAS 78712 Innocent men have been executed, and no society has developed a foolproof method to determine who is guilty. REGULAR MEMBERSHIP $2 CONTRIBUTING MEMBERSHIP $5 SUSTAINING MEMBERSHIP $10