University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

PK-German Present 'Dreams' Friday

This Friday night P.K.-Geram
Dance Society is giving a concert in
Memorial Gymnasium featuring a
New York group "Dreams."
Friends of mine in New York who
have seen them felt their performance
at the Fillmore was one
of the best performances that they
have seen all year. Here is a good
chance to see a group that is just
beginning which will become a
top-flight band. Those who saw
"Blood, Sweat, and Tears" after
they had just formed knew that
"BST" was going to start a new
musical trend. We have the same
chance now with "Dreams." Not
only this, but if the concert goes
well we will be able to have other
such concerts on off weekends. If
you like good music and want to
see more of it in Charlottesville, go
see "Dreams" Friday night.

The wrestling team would like
to express its sincere appreciation
to the University community for its
outstanding support throughout the
season. A very special thanks is due
to all those fans who turned out
Friday evening for the crucial
Maryland match. We also wish to
thank The Cavalier Daily for its
enthusiastic support of the team.

There are two occurrences that
have prompted this letter . . . 1) the
burning of the Bank of America
Building in California during recent
student riots and 2) the appearance
of a poster bearing a quotation of
Adolph Hitler calling for "law and
order" below the photograph of a
national conservative political figure.
These occurrences to me are
indicative of a rising crisis of
conflict in America between the
leftist, student-led social reform
movement and the rightist, status quo,
reaction forces.

As for the former group, I
would like to caution that social
reform movements are often suggestible
to blinding self-righteousness
and rationalization in the
pursuit of humanitarian ideals.
When zealous support of one's
cause degenerates into mob violence,
the rationale behind such
action is forever lost. Justification
for reform and for actions leading
to reform must come from the
reasoning and logic in the argument,
not from the strength of the
voice proposing the argument.

Concerning the latter block, the
feelings of rejection and resentment
toward the actions of reformers
should not replace their good
judgement in deliberating the
merits of the new proposals or in
applying the proper legal restraints
to the usurpers of the public
tranquility.

In short, the leaders of the right
and the left should not allow the
intensity of their views to obscure
the facts of truths that must be the
basis for the resolution of any
conflict or point of issue. If the
1960's were a decade of extremism,
the 1970's must be years of reason
and compromise. Each social, political,
and economic controversy of
our times is subject to sound,
reasonable argument from both
view points. The recognition of this
fact by the proponents of the left
and the right is prerequisite to any
progress in social understanding in
America.

Four years of graduate education
need not produce the ability to
perceive intelligently, as Mr. Noller
has shown us. Apparently he is
unable to separate ends and means.
The primary befuddlement of his
letter is the confusion between the
expressed desires of the academic
community and their advocated
means. The academic community
has certainly pointed out the
disturbing incongruities of our
system. To develop understanding
and knowledge is the purpose of
education, it is said. To say the
prevailing perception is wrong is
really only to say that your
perception suffers from a different
distortion. That academicians have
made us aware does not establish
any direct causal link with the
means we employ.

Even careless reading would
reveal that the liberal academic
community has repudiated marques,
who claimed that the cause of
the left is so worthy that violence is
acceptable. A perceptive mind
would also note that political
violence has never been artificially
created - contrary to conservative
dogma - but it is the pursuit of the
inability of the political system to
respond. To the wishes of its
population, as those wishes are
expressed by groups with varying
intensities, one need only look to
Italy to see the tendency of
violence to follow, not proceed, the
breakdown of a political system. In
our system, we have a significant
constituency that holds no conventional
power, but is told by those
holding power that they must fight
a war - and possibly die - that
they do not believe in and they are
also told that they have no right to
decide it or when or whom it is
moral to kill. No political system
gives so much that it can deny one
the right to decide this basic
meaning of existence, (Expecting
consistency, I would assume that
you have joined up.).

Perhaps the most difficult point
to communicate not state to
conservatives is that they do not
conceive of any inability of the
system to respond because they are
the system. Thus they see the
system as working quite well, and
those who are frustrated by the
system are viewed as destroying it,
not as seeking a response to those
wishes. It is the very type of
thought which has led us to view
blacks, student leftists, the poor,
welfare people etc, as attacking the
system, and not seeking a response.
Thus we mistakenly view businessmen,
military men college administrators
etc as defending the political
system, when what they are really
doing is defending the response of
the system.