University of Virginia Library

The Current Apathy

Not many students showed up for the
special meeting of the Student Council
Monday night, but those who did make it
over to Newcomb Hall were able to witness a
most painful session at which it became clear
that the Council, and other students, have no
real way to effectively voice their opposition
to the current escalation of the Vietnam war.
Last May students gathered in Newcomb Hall
prior to the strike to plan a protest over the
Cambodian invasion. At that meeting there
was a great deal of spirited argument, many
plans were considered, and there was a total
student involvement.

But Monday night saw only a pathetic
debate which gave us the impression that no
one on the Council or in the audience really
cared about whether or not the peace treaty
between students from the U.S., North
Vietnam, and South Vietnam was approved.
It received the support of the Council merely
because it was one way of saying that
students have not abandoned their opposition
to the war and also because there exists no
other means to express that sentiment other
than to endorse that rather pathetic treaty.

One could easily condemn the Student
Council for its apathy and lack of
imagination, but that issue is really quite
larger than this University. The National
Student Association, with which our Student
Council is affiliated, has called for a general
strike today, but how general it will be is
debatable. Students had a strike last year with
more negative results than concrete steps to
end the war. Petitions have been signed,
telegrams and letters sent, and even more
violent forms of protest have occurred, all to
no avail. Most students would like to sit back
and forget the war and believe in
Vietnamization, but it is a war which Nixon
manages to bring to our attention regularly, a
war which has been gnawing at the social
fabric of this country for a decade now and
the chances of it going away soon seem ever
more remote.

Curiously enough, it is not the dissenters
from society who take the lead in breaking
the social fabric, but elements in the
Establishment itself, although when students
react to these provocations they are blamed
for tearing the country apart. But whereas the
strikes of last May showed that students and
the rest of the country were somewhat at
odds over the war, it seems as if America is
beginning to catch up with the students.

A recent NBC news poll showed that 46
per cent of the citizens of this country believe
that there are U.S. ground troops in Laos.
NBC news never reported such a fact, this is
an indication of the trust Americans now
have in the current administration. That poll
also showed that a majority of the citizens of
this country believe that the Senate should
exercise more say in foreign affairs in
Indochina.

But even as more citizens are becoming
opposed to the war they are discovering that
no amount of outrage can permeate to the
level where changes could be made.
Americans are discovering a lesson that
students learned some months ago: that we
are engaged in a seemingly limitless war with
no way to get out that would meet the
approval of the President and his advisors.

More and more young people in this
country seem to feel that only coercion or
raw force can accomplish anything and of
course, as belief in the system erodes, it is
only pure force that does make anything
work. But force is a tool which those who
dissent against the war are reluctant to use - it
is Nixon's tool, not theirs. And so that really
only leaves apathy as an avenue of escape. In
effect by ignoring all the protests President
Nixon has quashed a great deal of the
youthful idealism he praised so highly in his
Nebraska speech.

And so there will be no strike at the
University today. We feel, however, that this
is more because it is an empty form of
protest, likely to be ignored by those to
whom it is aimed and misunderstood by those
who may hear of it in Richmond. The student
silence should not be taken the wrong way by
those making decisions in Southeast Asia, for
one of the most telling forces in producing
the political ideals of the new generation is
the contrast between their parents' ideals
(which they accept) and their parents' failure
to live these same ideals. The current crop of
students show a continuity of ideals from
childhood on and that idealism, temporarily
quashed, will no doubt persist and succeed
some day. We hope that time comes before
the fragmentation of a nation is utterly
beyond repair.