Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 6. 1966.
Letters — Jonathan Fox Comes Under Fire: Americans idealised?
Letters
Jonathan Fox Comes Under Fire: Americans idealised?
Sir,—I would like to comment on what I feel was a rather idealised view of American youth featured in the April 15 issue of Salient.
It seems, from that article, that we Americans are all intense activists who rush out for a yearned for cause and insist on having our say.
I disagree, not because the theory isn't appealing, but because that view is partially unrealistic. I feel that the vast majority of American students are not activists but in fact are quite apathetic.
From the minute we are born social pressures to conform push at us from all directions—from our parents —from the social stratification of the system itself—now from military conscription.
Understandingly then, the vast majority of us acquiesce to the status quo and work for our own benefit in it. Our attitude is—do we have to protest? Can't we Just accept things as they are?
This attitude is a rationalisation, but when we are in this pressure cooker we can't see anything else but the perfect ability of the system Because it never crosses our minds to look at it objectively. This realisation, I'm afraid, never comes to some students, in fact a large percentage.
Last semester at Cornell, for example, the Vietnam protest movement centred around a committee that had a total of six members. That's in a student population of 12,000. Activists although supported were ignored by a large percentage of the students as if they had blinkers on. The emphasis rightly or wrongly is on academics only and the majority of students conform.
New Zealand's educational system for all its criticism is a paradise for students. I find the average New Zealander more aware and excited about things other than academics than my fellow Americans. The pace is slower: There's a seeming divorce from outside pressure creating an atmosphere where an individual can develop his own mind. There's none of this high pressure policy with ft premium on conformity. Forum is a prime example to point at. All issues are discussed, nothing goes unquestioned.
Condemn it if you will, but I strongly believe that complacency is a valid tone that was completely overlooked in Salient's recent article, which incidentally, raises the point that we Americans are human and sometimes a little less perfect than we would sometimes like to think.
Charles Alexander.
(I'm a Cornell undergrad spending my Junior year abroad at Victoria.)