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• • • • •_ ••••• • ••••• • ••• •• • •• • , • -THE MERCER. CLUSTERS » • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Llll THE MERCER CLUSTER March 3, 1972 No. 16 Dr. Michael Novak speaks on America Jr WL. i / V A i "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.