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-THE MERCER. CLUSTERS
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THE MERCER CLUSTER March 3, 1972
No. 16
Dr. Michael Novak
speaks on America
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"Americans have a con
stitutional obligation to be
happy,” Dr. Michael Novak
said Monday morning as he
outlined the seven charac
teristics of the American
collective personality. Novak,
the university's fourth “In
sight" series lecturer, em
phasized that Americans
strongly believe that the future
will be better than the present
and are more optimistic than
any other nation on earth.
"America has been sheltered
and insulated from the nihilism
prevalent in European thought.
” Novak said v ‘‘notonly by the
oceans, but b^ consciousness.
Americans endure the present
because they believe that
someday, somewhere, a utopia
will be found. This thought is
typically American."
Novsk, associate professor of
religious studies and philosophy
at the State University of New
York, Old Westbury, said that
Americans are condemned to
"perpetual restlessness"
because the commitments
Americans strive to fulfill can
never be fulfilled. Quoting
Thomas Jefferson, Novak
claimed that America is a
"nation of i continual
revolution,” and commented
that “there never can be enough
justice, enough liberty, enough
happiness in our nation to carry
out the precepts of the
American Bill of Rights.”
A third characteristic of the
American society is the firm
base in the middle class. “This
country is different from others
in the amount of pride and self-
complacency the ’little man*
has in himself and his opinions.
This is admirable, but on the
other side of the coin, this
characteristic tends to drag
down the quality of life to the
level of the ‘little man’ ac
comodating his tastes and his
likes and dislikes,” Novak said.
Novak criticized the alleged
“Americanization of con
sciousness." "Americans,” he
said, “are taught to experience
only a middle range of
emotions, are taught to be
clock-oriented, to strive for
isolation and separatism in the
name of ‘individualism’ and are
victims of the ’politics of the
nose’ whereby natural bodily
smells and sensations have
been thought of as ‘evil’ and
‘offensive’.”
Novak sees education as the
American “religion.” In other
countries.” he said, “a child’s
confirmation or bar mitzvah
marks his entrance into
adulthood, but in America, a
child is an adult when he
receives his diploma or college
degree.” America's affluence
Novak credits to America's
marriage to machines and
technology, and since education
propagates technology,
education naturally assumes a
high—if not the highest-priority
in American thought.
Speaking again in the chapel
Tuesday, Novak said,
"Americans are enormously
discouraged by politics,” "They
are discouraged to discover that
they are not really na saintly as
they have been led to believe,”
he commented.
The noted journalist and one
of the few writers whose books
and articles have appeared in
every major western language
suggested that Americans can
ohly take politics in small doses
fevery four years.
“Americans like to believe
Senators absent:
Wayne Gullat
Bob Jackson
Biff Tillis was re-instated in
the S.G.A. Monday night by a
sixteen to six margin. The
reason for his absences ac
cording to Tillis, was that he
had been in the hospital for the
past two weeks. It was pointed
out by Doris Walters, secretary
of the S.G.A. that two of Tillis'
four abscences were unac
counted for. After a short
discussion Mr. Tillis was re
instated.
Rocky Wade reported that
President Harris granted
permission for the Circle K to
plant their dogwood trees last
Friday; unfortunately the trees
died last Thursday.
Rick Palma reported that
John Lowery’s committee on
the selection of future
presidents would meet this
week. Student Union uad no
report, but promised a report
for next week, it was also noted
that the change in the schedule
for Saturday and Wednesday
lunches would not go into effect
until the beginning of next
quartei.
that they arc pure and saintly,
and politics are aimed at ex
posing the opponent as impure
and unsaintly. This action
dispells illusions that
Americans hold dear. Many
people cannot cope with the
despair that comes with the
crushing of illusion, and thus
avoid politics as much as they
can.”
Novak criticized the
"National culture” which
dominates the American
political arena
Dr. Michael Novah discusses point from his lecture with Dr. Robert
Otto. (Photo by J. Gordy).
Areopagitica to be shown
on APB Television series
Boffo! Socko! Hotsy! APB-
TV presents “Areopagitica, or
Great Seconds in Television”
beginning March 7. on this
campus. For the first time in
America, television reflects on
itself with a flowing, stream-of-
consciousness montage of
commercials, programs, and
criticism that reveals all the
absurdities of the medium that
has become the myth-maker of
our time.
"Areopagitica, or Great
Seconds in Television” will be
shown on Tuesday and Thur
sday, March 7 & 9 in Room 314,
CSC at 7 p.m. Admission is free.
Quick flashes of insight into
what television is and what it
has done to Americans are
prodded by David Susskind,
critic Nat Hentoff, radical FCC
Commissioner Nicholas
Johnson, and “Great American
Dream Machine” producer
A.H. Perlmutter. Nick Johnson
sums up their attitude when he
says, ’Television is not an
entertainment medium, it’s not
an educational medium, it’s not
an information medium. It’s a
sales medium.”
For an audience of college
students who do not remember
a time before television,
"Areopagitica" touches the
subconscious by replaying
many of the plasvc com
mercials of the Fifties and
Sixties. The Texaco men sing
the “We are the men of Texaco”
opening from the Milton Berle
Show. Cartoon elves sing about
"Ajax (boom boom) the
foaming cleanser." A baggy-
suited keen-teen rides off to the
prom in Dad’s spiffy new 1958
Chevy convertible.
In addition, part of an episode
of the 1953 situation comedy
series “My Hero" with Robert
Cummings is included. Cum
mings plays Bob Be^nblossom
in a bumbling sequence on a
golf course that illustrates how
far television has not come in
twenty years. You may have
seen the same thing this week
on “The Lucy Show.”
All this is part of a barrage of
fast-paced cuts that capture the
essence of today’s television: a
young girl screaming about bad
breath; game shows in which
contestants debase themselves
for big bucks; a montage of
deceptive advertisements; and
a college of every conceivable
variety of violence.
•Areopagitica” is a program
that audiences can see again
and again, because its hun
dreds of elements weave a web
of suggestion about the medium
that transmits the ideals of the
American ethos of con
sumerism. On first viewing, it is
hectic and hilarious, but its
deeper message concerns the
horrendous waste of one of the
people’s most valuable
resources-the public airwaves.
Commentary editor
to speak in chapel
Dr. john I Durham will speak
at the Mercer Worship Service
Friday the 10th at 10 a.m.
Not long ago, he found himself
at the center of a storm-the
first volume of a new Biblical
commentary, which he had
edited, was ordered withdrawn
from the bookstores and
rewritten to be less "liberal.”
Conservative Southern Baptist
churchmen forced the move at a
national convention.
Ironically, the author of the
offending material on Genesis
had directed Durham’s Ph D.
work at Oxford University,
England, a few years ago. G.
Henton Davies, a British
Baptist, is a scholar with a
world-wide reputation in Old
Testament Studies.
Durham himself is a native
North Carolinean. Now
Associate Professor of Old
Testament Interpretation at
Southeastern Seminary, he has
also been a pastor and college
teacher. While still in his *20’s
he served as Academic Dean for
the Seminary.
Still well short of 40, he is an
active scholar with books and
articles published in England
and America.
He also has a keen sense of
humor, ana an appreciation for
the absordities of life in general,
and the scholarly life in par
ticular.
Durham will speak Friday on
“The Vison of God and the
Shape of the Future.” The
Mercer Choir will sing.
For those who'd like an in
sider's view of the Fuss over the
Broadman Commentary, he has
agreed to discuss the issues, the
Future of Biblical studies and of
freedom of interpretation
among Baptists at a noon-hour
luncheon in the Student Center.
Interested students and
Faculty may bring their trays
up to the Trustees Dining Ro^m
at 12.
Durham will be available at a
table set up in the lobby from 11-
12 and 1-2:30 to discuss
Southeastern Seminary, or
theological education in
general, with individuals.