Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 11. 31 May 1972

Whose Violence?

Whose Violence?

The question of the 'violence' that occurred is far more important. The important thing here is not so much who started it but the emphasis placed on borer and flour bombs as 'violent' objects. Students who like the media, get particularly upset at borer and flour bombs have, in my opinion, just about lost their sense of proportion completely. As far as I can see, and perhaps I'm callous, the flour bomb that hit George C. Prill, President of Lockheed, can hardly be called 'violent' in relation to the results of the death machines Prill's company produces. For the absolute and honest pacifist this comparison doesn't justify the harassment Prill got. But surely there is a strong element of hypocrisy in those who cry violence when they hear about Prill, but ignore punching on football fields or the bombing of North Vietnam. This hypocrisy is quite prevalent in our society. On Anzac Day, most go along to mourn New Zealand's war dead. The annual commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima on the other hand is ignored by most people as the preserve of a few cranks. Hiroshima has been rationalised away while the German people have had their war guilt advertised and emphasised for years. I'm not saying that Germany can forget the Nazi brutalities but emphasis on German war guilt just makes us more hypocritical for forgetting or rationalising away our own war guilt.

There is another important question about the emphasis on student violence during the PBEC conference. If students shrink in horror from those incidents, how will they react if the Springboks come here next year?