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Congress

The theme of Congress was Liberation, but the lessons preached were the dogma and mythology of the Social Sciences. Many already believed it and the remainder quickly found the faith. I had the pleasure of missing Jim Ritchie and Alan Webster with a little help from NAC who had assured me and others that they couldn't get us a flight to Blenheim for 24 hrs., while a flight half empty was getting ready to depart. Arrived to hear ex-Mathematician turned Economist Brian Easton talk on the New English Universities, purely descriptive, uninspiring, arranged at the last minute because someone else crapped out. Everyone (except Brian) got stuck into the keeping of files on students, however no-one was around to support the idea and so the discussion dwindled very quickly. Few ideas, little interest.

Next morning Carol Shand spoke on contraception, abortion, etc., the Catholics hadn't found their feet and big G's rep. (Jim Kebble) was sleeping soundly. However, most students managed to relate experiences where they had only just got away with it and had not had to get married. (The fact that there were 30 married couples and no obvious children apart from those of Carol Shand and Jane Ritchie of 'Child Rearing Patterns in N.Z.' fame, says something).

Husband Eric (Shand?) gave the evening talk on Political Systems. Began with the analogy of the (pseudo-) science of medicine. Claimed that Political Science was at about the stage medicine was at back in the days of trial and error and leeches. Said that Political Science should develop along lines analogous to those along which medicine has since developed. Having accepted this we had to accept that we should drop our partisan approach to politics and accept the experts as our decision-making body, he claimed. The social Scientists and others immediately saw the beauty of the analogy between Political Science and Medical Science and stretched it and discussed it. Some even managed to agree that both were examples of closed systems. One even said that the analogy was the best thing he had heard in years. So the discussion went on for the next hour and a half. No-one seeming to realise what an argument by analogy should do. No realisation that an argument by analogy is mainly useful as a means of teaching hard concepts by means of easy concepts, and hence doesn't purport to identify the analogous concepts totally. No realisation that in the particular systems discussed, one (Medicine) has clearly defined norms; getting people to live longer, and the other (Politics) has very few accepted norms, and that this is what creates the partisan approach. No discussion on what the Greeks et al had to say about the suggested political system, and what logic had prompted them to suggest it. Perhaps the Greeks only got to discuss the system because medical science wasn't so highly advanced. The whole discussion had proved to be deep and meaningless.

Next morning Tom Taylor, senior lecturer in Sculpture at Ilam and practising sculptor, probably in that order. In his need to intellectualise his art form to earn money, he probably represents the dilemma of most of NZ's Kulture-Vultures. Slept soundly.

That night a forum, many people bemoaning the fact that nothing serious was discussed, including in many people's eyes the idea of lowering of the age of consent. It got passed, but it was moved by Dr. Eric Geiringer. Perhaps I'm being charitable, perhaps they could remember their experiences as 14 year olds. Many other mountains were moved. One Bill Spring page break was in the chair, I pity Auckland's S.G.M.'s this year, not the student of Law that he's cracked up to be.

The next day was the usual trip to Ship Cove, no change from previous years despite a royal visit in the interim, not even a royal bog. However all the amenities had got a coat of regulation Parks and Reserves green. Came back sunburnt to hear Albie Orme, lawyer from Christchurch. Talked on things Maori. Got a good hearing, in an abstract sense, from the guilty audience (two out of 150 had Polynesian blood). Everyone wanted to know what the Maori was going to do about things Maori until Ritchie (chairman) told us not to. From then on everyone wanted to know what we could do for the Maori. Failure to see that economics as well as culture must play an important role in things Maori. Failure to see that so much of things Maori have been subverted by European influences already. Failure to separate out what we see as good things in Maori culture and would like in ours, and what the Maori (individually) sees as good and wants in his. The great vision of the static Maori Culture pervaded, so we called the concert the next night a Hui and slept the night together, so that we might appreciate it better. Unfortunately, as one Maoriologist pointed out, it was a great Hooley but never a Hui.

The morning before the 'concert' we heard Joe Walding, MP for P.N. He chastized students for going to the streets on matters that the Labour Party were too afraid to make any policy on, and for not going to the streets on issues that they did have policy on. Talked a lot about the economic lot of the pensioners and other economically depressed groups. Told us all to join the Labour Party, the Party for the Liberated. The schizophrenia of a sea food processor trying to liberate workers economically showed through the Labour Party manifesto, perhaps the Paua divers could write a couple more paragraphs. The discussion went on longer than the speech deserved, probably because people felt that they were confronted with someone who could really solve their frustration. The mythology of the Social Sciences strikes again.

That night Dr. Beavan spoke on Liberating N.Z. by Means of Adequate Biology Teaching. This quickly led to discussion on contraception et al. This time the Catholic minority were prepared and started to fight back, seeing suddenly (one hopes) that with an increase in knowledge on biological matters the kids would throw out some of the pseudo-biological myths of Roman Catholicism. Perhaps more important, Brian Pinder (D.O.P.E.) and his mates in the Education Dept. with their attempts to preserve the innocence of our youth got a working over.

Next morning the spokesman for N.Z. youth Tim Shadbolt arrived and spoke. Gave us the inside information on the N.Z. jails as it were. Also picked out 4 types of liberty, personal, immediate social situation, national and international. Dealty mainly with personal and immediate social situation. Suggested we should undergo some form of tension to truly appreciate life, to make us better people, and understand liberty better. Unable to tell us why the generation of the '30's became so materialistic. Suggested that Congress should become available to students who have to work during the holidays and who can't afford to pay. Suggested people cook for themselves and catch their own food. Broke a window to shock us into not killing any more babies in Vietnam. Left the spokesman for 150 less of N.Z. youth, but also left 150 people involved in rationalisation of their attitudes, well, at least some thought about it for a minute or two. For the record he said Bullshit 24 times.

That afternoon the Holyjoke telegram arrived for David Cuthbert. Recognition for the organisers. Flattery works wonders. We wonder who really put the screws in to have Woodbourne opened. Perhaps the Pentagon announcement earlier on in the week had something to do with it. It all sounded a little too shrewd a move for Holy joke and his boys. Was relieved to hear Holy joke admit it wasn't his idea. Perhaps even he was beginning to wonder what was really going on. Anyway the telegram managed to convince most of the the students it was not worth demonstrating since Woodbourne was no longer secret. Few seemed to realise that to admit foreign military bases is tantamount to admitting secret bases. Since ail real control is placed in the hands of the foreign power, all that locals can do is to throw out the base.

That night Dr. David Mummery, senior lecturer in law at Auckland. Most people remembering Shadbolt's talk on prison conditions, and having heard vague rumours about police brutality, and having an uneasy feeling about drug laws and their enforcement hoped that his lecture on The Relationship between Law and Morality might cover some of these points. The talk managed to get as far as defining morality and singling out the type of morality the law should be involved with (consensus morality). But then rational thought started to crumble as Mummery told us that intuition was required to decide which parts of consensus morality should be legislated. His constant references to Judeo-Christian mythology made one realise that what he meant by 'intuition' was 'the Christian Faith', however no-one noticed since most had managed to fall asleep. When discussion occured everybody felt as though they had been duped by this attempt to intellectualise such a complex subject. To restore it all to a less abstract plane they demanded to know what lawyers were doing about laws that appeared bad to the students. Many were surprised to hear that lawyers, like their kinsmen Magistrates, were too busy earning money from the laws to really care. The easy answers to the Relationship between Law and Morality were not forthcoming but not many people left perplexed, the answers are probably in a book somewhere.

On Sunday, following the announcement that Dr. Mummery would be having readings from the Christian Science Monitor in his room and Jim Kebble would be doing a transubstantiation in his (his only trick most of us were able to miss), Tom Poata also spoke on things Maori. Since he was in the unfortunate position of being the second speaker on the subject, we knew everything there was to know about it. However Tom saw it as an essentially economic problem with a Socialist answer, not as one of an ethnic minority striving to retain its cultural heritage; but on the other hand he didn't, the Culture was important. Maybe he even saw some of the contradictions between the two views. Not much discussion was forthcoming because people were getting tired and ready to go home, anyway Albie Orme had given us the answers hadn't he and he wasn't a Socialist.

I wonder how many people came away thinking they could now liberate N.Z. (and in particular their Brown Brothers) with the ideas they had picked up at Congress. Perhaps some were not converted to the dogma and myth of the Social Sciences and came away with that empty feeling in their stomach realising that they had just been involved in a farce that purported to answer the questions, yet had rarely started posing them. The deterioration of modern Congresses seems largely due to the increase of emphasis on the Science side, with a corresponding decrease of emphasis on the Social side.