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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 25, No. 4. 1962.

Orientation Again

Orientation Again

Sir,—This is a heart-felt protest on behalf of the apathetic, or at least a small section of them. Mr Murray only echoes the countless pleas of numbers of the small but hardy race of organisers at Victoria. I admit that perhaps I need some organising, and to a certain extent I respond, but I also contend that organisers will go on organising when there is nothing left to organise, and to that extent I, by joining, or going, or doing, become a function of the organisers, rather than vice versa, the way it should be.

An extension of this is that the joiner becomes a function of the joined group, and immediately upon entrance solidifies into another facet, brilliant but regular, of the group facade. He may eventually become a big and lustrous facet, but he will always be just another relationship to be considered. My heresy is that I disbelieve in clubs as seedbeds of jolly good friendships. I prefer to think of them rather in terms of assignations, or vendettas, and I consider friends made in clubs in the same category as friends made when drunk.

I do heartily recommend joining for the joiners, but I suggest that those who do cleave onto one of the heartier purposive conglomerations concentrate single-mindedly on the activities offered, avoiding personal contacts which seem delightful in the chummy inebriation of the meeting-room, but seem of less solid stuff outside.

Granted, people are basically interesting, or amusing, but the sub-group university student is at first appearance uniformly horrifying, and the practice of meeting them in groups should be avoided until the individual members can be sorted out and analysed.

Yours etc..

Rob Laking.