University of Virginia Library

The Heretic

On A Fascist Group

"In our opinion, the CIA recruitment
does not meet the usual
criterion of being in the interests
of the university or students, or
conducive to education." Bill Gerson,
SDS spokesman.

The Students for a Democratic
Society are for no such thing. They
are for a fascist society.

SDS, like the American Nazi
party and its more infamous
predecessor, is possessed by the
notion that it has a monopoly
on truth and virtue. Its goals are
so right that it is entitled to impose
them on society even if the
overwhelming majority of that
society "dissents."

Take, for instance, one of the
major activities by which SDS has
made its name: the blockading, imprisoning
and other harassment of
representatives of Dow Chemical
Company. Dow manufactures napalm,
a weapon SDS disapproves
of, for a war SDS disapproves
of. Therefore SDS decides Dow is
not entitled to recruit personnel
on college campuses where SDS
is strong enough to prevent it.
Whether the university or the
majority of its students like it or
not.

In fact, Dow is not even allowed
to defend itself-its spokesmen
are prevented from speaking,
or at least being heard. Well-known
incidents involving members
of the President's cabinet reveal
the same thing. SDS is hostile
to any point of view but its own
and indifferent to the wishes of
others to hear it.

Like the Brown Shirts, SDS
comes at a time when many people
are profoundly uneasy about the
course of society. In the current
case, many more people than belong
to SDS are upset by napalm,
by the war itself, by the CIA.
But they oppose these things within
the framework of traditional
American rights and liberties.

No doubt there are higher goods
than the survival of American
society or its principle achievements,
its civil liberties. If the
members of SDS choose to believe
that in the eyes of God or history
or the family of nations or whatever
they hold dear, they can be
judged righteous only if they oppose
the war or the CIA with
every means at their disposal and
in violation of principles of majority
rule and free speech, that is
a right they have. But they and
everyone else should know what
that means and whose company
it places them in.

They are in there with the fascist
and communists, and the older
religiously-sanctioned dictatorships
and theocracies. They are
on the side of the elitists, the
minority - rule partisans, those
who believe that they have been
"chosen" and should tell the
damned what to do. They are in
there with Bull Conner, not Martin
Luther King-with Hitler, not
Bonhoeffer.

They are against those who believe
in the greatest possible individual
freedom consistent with
societal survival, against those who
believe that democracy is the best
means of achieving that goal and
free speech its greatest guarantor.
And they forfeit any right
to scream "fascist" at those who
disagree with them, or to claim
their civil liberties are being
violated by the existence of the
opposition.

Now that we have the ground-rules
straight........