Doughnuts Uphill

It was blandly stated in your McDougall interview that to go on a crusade against illegal price fixing would be like trying to roll a doughnut uphill and that "it would probably take a considerable amount of time and effort to change the existing system."

A lecturer in another department in the university, like everyone else in Wellington except the politicians, knew that there was a substandard housing problem in Wellington. This lecturer decided that Government wasn't going to do anything to alleviate the problem, so with the help of students he conducted a survey into sub-standard housing in Wellington. The result of this survey was that more people's attention was drawn to a situation which they knew existed, and furthermore both political parties decided to include in their election platforms a plan of action to alleviate Wellington's housing problem.

Why, then did not lecturers in other departments carry out similar crusades and similar research in certain politically touchy areas, and thus attempt to change society for the better. Maybe the answer lies in the following quote from the interview "if you want research money for a particular project and you've been whacking these guys on the one side they're not going to give it to you on the other side."

So much for the University's role of being a body concerned with the independent pursuit and dissemination of knowledge.

Yours, Ralph's Brother.