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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Student's Newspaper. Volume 31, Number 7. April 23 1968

Letters to The Editor

Letters to The Editor

Gager and Logic

Sir-We do not expect your writers to have much knowledge of human nature or the complexities of social and political relationships, but we do expect them to be aware of the criteria for what is called rational thought.

In his third successive appearance in Salient Owen Gager makes much music about the paranoia of the right wing and their obsession with property, etc., etc. He explains New Zealand's support of American policy thus:

"It merely reflects the fact that any right wing government will be anti-Communist. Any anti-Communist government will support the most powerful anti-Communist state. This is not subservience to the United States. It is typical right-wing paranoia."

If we substitute "communist" for "right-wing" and "capitalist" for "communist" in the quoted passage (also substituting either "China" or "Russia" for "the United States") we have two logically equivalent propositions—both, by the way, absurd.

Terms like "paranoia" and "obsession", when predicated of huge and abstract collective nouns, are meaningless, and best never used. When used they signify an untidy mind in their user-sometimes one to which the terms are themselves applicable.

Yours faithfully, John Medley.

[Owen Gager replies: I would agree with Mr. Medley if he is saying (is he?) that obsessive anti-capitalism is anti-Communism; indeed, if he might have noticed I was attacking both right and left for their attachment to conspiracy theories of history. My use of the word 'paranoid' may lack clinical exactitude, but if his definition of 'paranoia' is 'loose use of psychological terms' my use of the term is both more conventional and less all-embracing than is his.]

Bias

Sir-I do not question your political leaning, rather, your journalistic technique. In the two last issues of Salient, a startling number of left-handed citizens have revealed themselves. Is it that folk-singers and fencers have to be ambidextrous? Are left-handed banjos, guitars, fiddles and foils going cheap?

Might all those whose faces figure on your pages be seen to be left-handed if shown-say, writing? Has someone, perhaps boobed?

Yours etc.

Stuart Henderson.

[This is one of the problems involved in liaison with a printer 100 miles away. The lower price makes it worth while.-ed.]

Our money

Sir,-The treasurer's report published recently in Salient distresses me (removes tongue from check). Seriously though, several questions suggest themselves.

Why was the Labour Party Club granted $225, and the Pol. Science Club only $25. Were these grants made to further and encourage political thought, or to encourage Labour Party thought? Can it be that Exec. is a secret branch of the Labour Party? This political bias should disturb us more than, for example, student power.

Sports clubs collected about 4.1 times as much as the cultural clubs, spread, moreover, in larger lumps (average of $188, against $56 for cultural clubs). The highest grant to a cultural club was $225, to the Labour Club, or the Debating Society's $140, if you ignore political parties (Debating Society may be a political parly, who can fathom it?) This figure of $225 is exceeded by seven sports clubs, with the squash club taking the prize with $546. I fear that these facts mean that the Rugby, Racing and whatever-it-is attitude has crept into our Ivy (or moss) covered halls. Cultural (not political) matters seem to be sadly neglected at Vic. I know that there are groups such as the choirs, and the literary society, but they seem to have little voice compared with, say, the Swords Club.

A more basic point is suggested. Why should clubs be subsidised by all students through the Stud. Ass. fee. I cannot foresee a time when I would voluntarily give money to the squash club, or to the Labour Party club. Presumably the people who want to give money to clubs will be members of them, so let the clubs raise their own dough. I understand that the Film Society, and the Drama Club manage in this way.

Gordon A. Findlay.

Naughty

Sir-Yesterday my Uncle Jim who lives on a farm told me that people who march to Parliament with banners with things written on them are naughty. My Uncle Jim was a famous soldier in the war in the desert and he said that Hilter was bad and Sir Winston Churchill was good. Uncle Jim showed me some medals he got in the war and he said that people at university with beards are bad. I told my Uncle Jim all about Mr. Wedderspoon and he said he was good. Why can't everyone be good?

Yours very humbly,

W. E. Winter.