{ title: 'The Spectrum (Buffalo, N.Y.) 1955-current, April 27, 1979, Page 5, Image 5', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/np00130006/1979-04-27/ed-1/seq-5/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/np00130006/1979-04-27/ed-1/seq-5.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/np00130006/1979-04-27/ed-1/seq-5/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/np00130006/1979-04-27/ed-1/seq-5/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
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dayfridayfridayfridayfridavf' feedback { w To the Editor. communication within the chartered company is assumed to take place. departure). This action was taken solely for the benefit of persons who were stranded in Buffalo. Have we heard a world of praise about this? FACT: IRCB does not force anyone to use its travel service. We can only offer the quality of the carrier that we charter, at a very reduced price. IRCB does not deal in a world comprised solely of dormitory students. We must conduct business with outside firms in order to provide the services that the majority of students need. Please do not In response to a “Blundering IRCB,\ Mr. Cohen would sound infinitely more intelligent if he would research the facts before writing a letter to The FACT: If the missed stop was not a (ireyhound mistake, please explain why Greyhound provided a free bus to transport these people back to Buffalo? Although we have tried to convince Greyhound to provide transportation for free, they insist upon charging us. Greyhound will not provide tree transportation for other organizations' mistakes. FACT: IRCB only receives letters to The Spectrum . FACT: IRCB confirmed all stops on all of the buses with Grayhound’s chartering agents located in New York City FACT: The Bus Driver who said Greyhound ontacted was obviously wrong. Perhaps s chartering agents did not inform the the correct route. IRCB deals with the he company, not the drivers. A flow of was not c Spectrum when a catastrophe occurs, regardless of where the blame should be placed. Three IRCB blame IRCB for circumstances that arise that are beyond our span of control. (ireyhound drivers of agents of t officials were responsible for obtaining another Greyhound bus on May 4th (the night before John Sandmeier Business Manager. IRCB Inc Guest Opinion the crisis of students in capitalist America On by Michael Schwartz education would be different, that education would finally become fun and rewarding In elenier n t .M v deviations but wt ar arc crazy and everyone jlw.l s worrit'd that wc really Is normal. This problem er from is compounded si an t ly telling us how newspaper tc 3 express what I feel to be the crisis of would he different; in ju lior high school the teacher I would be different; in by egomaniacs who a re c ake direction rat this university. The crisis is one of her than content. The crisis is one of told you that high schoc school, college was m high great they are. They m feel even more deviant moral behav hatred. The America. lor. The crisis is one of competition and crisis is the role of students in Capitalist wonderful, f ade out to be a kin id ot he relieved 11 we in college we are told to study hard and what co ursc At this point in tin what I have said. In picked to go to college ic let high ()u i let me briefly sum up already we did basically to take in order for us b school. Our whole educ marked by competition ) get into a \good\ grac u ate bool we were us come into this University at the age of 17 or 18. We have gone to school all of our lives, some of us have worked, some have not, some of us have traveled, some have not, all of us have not Many of uttonal experience has ives were easy Another crisis is I onlinued along as we high school. On ;e we f hat of the future. We is most of us go hXPHRIHNCHD. High school was primarily a socializing process, getting us prepared for college, but not really teaching us anything that we hadn’t learned before. High school is a time of strong friendships and for many of us not too many worries. It has already been decided for us in elementary school what our future will be. IQ tests given to us as youngsters have determined whether we will be doctors or garbagemen. (Do you remember in elementary school, there was the one class, two class, three class, etc., and then in junior high school your “advisors” told you whether to go to either an academic high school or a technical high school; well these decisions were not made randomly, after looking at your IQ scores you became “tracked” at a certain level) After being “chosen” to go to an academic high school, we had to decide which college we would go to. We took SAT's and Regent Scholarship tests and sent our applications to various colleges. For most of us who go to public universities the choice was narrow. We could not afford private education so we went to a SUNY school. Around March of our senior year in high school the choice is made, some of us will go to school in our home towns, and others will go out of town and \live on their own.” The friendships that we have made in high school are we can get a job of son definitely be unenjoyabl job itself will be boring a will be unacceptable, o unsatisfactory. ue sort. The job will al to advisors win By the end le in some aspect. 1 ithe md tedious, or else the li r the second year we have a ii feel or In our pin senior years we start to Capitalist America nui e crisis that stu 1 The crisis ct dents in r perhaps the pay wil ist fee Another major crisis for many of us is that of a social life. With adulthood and \maturity” come the difficult concepts of love and death to deal with. Many of us must face marriage, indeed for many women college was supposed to be nothing more than a happy hunting ground. What is love? Must it be for one or can it be for many? What is the purpose of a life that will eventually lead to death? We all ask ourselves these questions and must come to terms with them. The crisis comes because of the uncertain position that we as students hold in the world. The contradictions of capitalism are all around us and everpresent. We lead an absurdly easy life in comparison with most of the world. Oppression is something loreign to us, it hits us in proportion to the amount that we read the New York Times. When Tom Clark wrote a letter to The Spectrum last week saying that he felt that the UB anti-apartheid club were ridiculous because they were not consistent, he was showing the naiveness and elitism that many students show in their view of the world. Instead of looking at the terrible suffering of a people in South the future; and (3) our socii come about because of tl al lives. The cri isis must hrec reasons: (1) our position in the world; (2) we were picked by corporate America to he its next leaders; and (3) the secrecy and self-centered reality of our lives. The crisis, which is our lives, cannot be resolved using the traditional tools of bourgeoise knowledge (everything you have learned to date). Only with the use of a new Knowledge can we resolve the crisis. This new Knowledge is Marxism. Marxism allows us to “see” the factors that are creating the crisis, it allows-you to escape from the crisis. You cannot understand education using bourgeois tools. You will still feel the crisis, Lducation must be looked at from outside. Marxism allows you to do this because it is not bound by ideology, it represents everyone in their lived experience. Bourgeois tools on the other hand only show a society shaded by bourgeois interests. Let me give some examples: (I) Ralph Nader’s analysis of America which he presented at 'eech two weeks ago is based on a Marxist ■ edge. Nader referred to the narrow nature of <v studies compared to what should be studied He referre his spi knuwl law st now cor each other. High school has ended B to (I to the tact that (1M wants ns to perceive Africa and saying that we should all call for friendships begin and the first major crisis in one’s life must be resolved. ‘‘What is my major going to be and what kind of courses will I take?” There are different ways you can resolve this problem. You can try to pick a major that will make you rich, you can study what would make your parents happy, you can study what would make you happy, or you can go to an advisor. Most of us go to our advisors. Now, we become tracked again, if we are male and come from a good school, we will take calculus and chemistry, if you are a woman you will take English and theater courses and if you do not come from such a good school you will take social science courses. So now at 18 we begin our college “education.” m a ( committee was taking the “in” issue consciences must be constantly mediated between our situation and the harsh and terrible realities of many of the world’s peoples. Another reason for the crisis in our lives is that we were picked by corporate America to be its next leaders. Through IQ tests, SAT’s and various other ways, we are here at UB being trained to enter the corporate labor force. We are taught that we are a little better than the working men, we are taught elitism and competition (through the guise of a high standard of education, etc., e.g., it is interesting to note that in The Spectrum's coverage of the awards that were given to certain teachers in this school, what was stressed was that UB got the sixth most amount of awards in the country. It was never mentioned what the teachers were studying in order to get the awards). We become a little uneasy about the future. Maybe 1 don’t want to work for a corporation. Maybe I don’t want to be a “success.” Maybe I just want to be a construction worker or garbageman. Our mics takes as a starling point, five percent ploytnenl; with tins kind of assumption it is clear who’s interest classical economics is representing. (3) Just think about the meaninglessness of one’s life uml&t hourgeoise ideology. Kven the most “successful” of us will work 50 week years, with two week vacations; almost all of us will work for a menial (compared to how much the Rockefellers Kennedys, Hunts, etc. make) wage for the rest of our lives. Think of the goal of bourgeoise ideology. It is to make more profits, not to make for a better world. Everything we confront has a price on it. Nothing is sacred from profits. The point being made here is that Marxism is able to understand bourgeoise Knowledge for what it is; an attempt by a class to dominate the whole society and the majority of the people of the world. Most of us will go to classes in lecture halls, some of us will sleep through them and others will not. For the most part many of us continue in college as we had gone through high school, we either go from class to class without interest, or we continue partying all day long, or we study hard without knowing why. hor many freshmen, college is nothing more than an extension of high school. But at the age of 18 it isn’t important to worry about the future. Most of us are still receiving money from our parents, or from loans, or are getting aid. We are still insulated from the world. By the second year of college we have a major and continue our education. The crisis for us occurs because when we look around we sense that something is wrong. Well, SOMETHING IS WRONG WHEN A TINY CLASS OF PEOPLE CONTROLS THE WHOLE WORLD. When we look at examples of giant plantation owners in the banana republics who give their workers menial wages and lousy working conditions we become repulsed, but in many important ways our situation is not very different than the workers on the plantations. We are wage slaves, we will have to work our whole lives (even though the technology exists for this not to be), and worst of all, we are under bourgeoise control. The final reason Mr the crisis is that we live in a secretive and self-centered reality. We very rarely let our deepest emotions loose. Many times we lie about our emotions. How many times have you tried to console somebody after something bad had happened to them, only for them to tell you that what had happened to them didn’t bother them. But you knew it bothered them, you could feel it. Most of us can’t cry or laugh. We all try to live up to some kind of superman image, the man on the football team, with a 95% average and a “beautiful” girlfriend; or the woman who is “cute” marries a doctor and raises many wonderful children. We all know we can’t live up to these images, hut we are afraid to admit it \for the next person may be able to. ” We all know that we have certain problems and By the time we become juniors and seniors the future becomes more important to us. We begin to worry about our lives and where we are going. Suddenly, what we are doing becomes important, we are not in high school anymore. This is the “period of finding oneself.” We begin to face many crises in our lives. Every student in every discipline in this University could begin to remove himself from his crisis only with a study of Marxism. We could then perhaps try to relate to each other as humans and not as commodities and could understand. The revolution must begin with ourselves because without it we ourselves will suffer. Right on. One crisis we come to terms with is the continuing deception of our education. All through our lives we were told that the next level of
