Clarissa's Blog

10 responses to “Needy at Yale”

1. 

   danmillerinpanama

   November 9, 2015

   I recall watching a demonstration from my suite on the sixth floor of Silliman College one evening in 1964 or ’65. A large group of students was demonstrating below yelling “We want Freedom!” Yalies were then among the freest people on the planet, and I can recall no explanation of what freedoms they lacked or what additional freedoms they wanted. Perhaps they sought freedom from exams, or perhaps they were just having fun.

   Another time, I watched a group of about 100 or so students crown Homer Tomlinson “King of the World” in front of the Sterling Memorial Library. Tomlinson (no relationship, I suppose, to Lilly Tomlin of the comedy show Laugh In) claimed to have ended the Korean Conflict by flying over the country. Another group was there supporting Richard Nixon, and some members had signs bragging that “nobody can lick our …” er, Richard. Perhaps they were just having fun as well.

   I haven’t been back to Yale for many years, but my impression is that we were a more conservative and fun-loving bunch then than is now the case.

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   1. 

      Dreidel

      November 9, 2015

      “Another group was there supporting Richard Nixon, and some members had signs bragging that “nobody can lick our …’ ”

      What you described has to be one of the very few pro-Nixon protest rallies ever held on a college campus! 🙂

      I was also in college in the early and mid-1960s, and the U.S. campuses then were quite peaceful, except for occasional nonsense like panty raids. Some academics at the time were actually bemoaning the fact that American college students, unlike their overseas counterparts, were blissfully, totally apolitical.

      The “serious” demonstrations that turned into campus take-overs and destructive riots began a few years later, after the Vietnam War heated up and students had serious fears of being drafted. (Yes, they became very vocal about other concerns during the radical “Free Speech” movements, but it was existential dread about the war that initially lit the fires that exploded in the late 1960s.)

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      1. 

         danmillerinpanama

         November 9, 2015

         We had no panty raids, which would have been awkward at an all-boy’s college.

         There was indeed rather an apolitical atmosphere. John Morton Blum, my favorite history professor, was a Democrat and later campaigned for Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern. He was also a liberal in the old fashioned sense of the word and his class on American political history was so popular that it had to be held in the largest available auditorium, at the law school. One day, Blum entered the auditorium with Senator Barry Goldwater — then a likely Republican presidential candidate — and his introduction was quite gracious. Goldwater got a standing ovation following his remarks.

         Bill Buckley keynoted a debate at the Yale Political Union on whether Guss Hall, head of the American Communist Party, should be permitted to address the union. It was assumed that he would be. Buckley questioned whether the union should give its imprimatur to someone whose ideology rejected any notion of free speech. Hall was not permitted to address the union.

         Blum and Buckley had kind — not nasty — senses of humor and I doubt that either Blum would be happy at most present day universities.

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         1. 

            Dreidel

            November 9, 2015

            It’s ironic that a professed Communist wasn’t allowed to speak at Yale in the early 1960s, considering the 180-degree swing a few years later that many college student bodies took in embracing radical, anti-American viewpoints.

            Chronologically, 1961 – 1970 was a single decade, but as you no doubt remember well, there were really two completely different “Sixties” during that ten-year period.

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            1. 

               Clarissa

               November 9, 2015

               I don’t know about the 1960s but in the 2000s, Yale was an extremely conservative institution with extremely conservative professors and a very apolitical student body that was interspersed with a trust fund “Marxist” here and there who quoted a lot but lived the most traditional, ultra-conservative lifestyle ever. “The Liberal Ivies” are a myth. These universities are places where rich people come to spend time together being rich and discussing their rich-people concerns. The idea that these very rich folks are into Communism or anything of the kind is just bizarre.

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               1. 

                  danmillerinpanama

                  November 9, 2015

                  I don’t know about the 2000’s, but in the early ’60s many Yale undergrads were “bursary boys.” They were there on scholarships, for which they worked in the dining halls and wherever else they could be used.

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                  1. 

                     Clarissa

                     November 9, 2015

                     That’s all dead. The kind of students I taught there thought that people who needed money should simply use their trust funds.And none of them worked in the dining halls or anywhere.

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               2. 

                  Dreidel

                  November 9, 2015

                  My statement about university views on Communism refers to the 1960s. Communism today is dead as a global political force, and everybody knows that.

                  I’m not familiar with Yale or your university specifically, but many universities today have academics and students who hold hostile views toward the United States government and the State of Israel, considering both countries to be evil colonial powers that are to be condemned and thwarted, and who give active, enthusiastic support to groups that would like to see America harmed and Israel utterly destroyed. (Note that I didn’t say ALL academics or ALL students.)

                  The widespread DBS movement is one obvious example of this.

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2. Social Justice Goon Squad | Technology as Nature

   November 9, 2015

   […] because a large part of the movement has become a thug-like good squad, ignorant of history, or standards of evidence, of basically anything but their feelings. Which feelings can’t be […]

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3. 

   Jones

   November 11, 2015

   I am now imagining Godot being hectored by the present-day Vladimir and Estragon, that he should endeavour to be present at their meetings, that on this basis they have made a home for him, that he should make ritual attendances which are in character with his place in the home they have created.

   Sadly for them, Godot has no desire to attend any of their meetings, to partake of their offerings of home and comforts, because they are illusions of situation, status, and all too much seriousness.

   Godot has been under threat before by more competent adversaries.

   Godot does not budge even an inch.

   Nothing to be done, and certainly nothing to be done on account of goons like Vladimir and Estragon.

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