Show elections wall will bring out U ut those cave man instincts by BAUKHAGE news analyst anil and commentator washington 1 I know you may find it hard to believe but I 1 was not greatly stirred up over the election and its outcome I 1 have a job and its as tough under party as another I 1 have no vote and between you and me I 1 am not agitating for a civil rights bill which will get me one like all ot of the citizens of the D strict of columbia I 1 share the delight tul ful irresponsibility with minors idiots and criminals who don t have a vote either thus I 1 am without political at af obligation or prejudice well sometimes I 1 do have one prejudice a race prejudice some times I 1 get awful ly prejudiced against the human race another re reason ason that I 1 am not po liti cally excited this year is that I 1 have been watch ing the washing ton vaudeville show from a good baukhage seat in the gallery press and radio gallery most of the time tor for the past three decades and although the performers have changed there baan t been to much alteration of the script A republican or a dem socratic politician to a reporter smells no sweeter by any name it Is my business to report what they do and say and of course from my standpoint the more they do and say the better let the brickbats fall where they may I 1 have observed a good ma many ny acts on the washington scene that got top billing and deserved it I 1 have also listened to a lot of pret ty sad comedians and seen a lot of hams but on the whole I 1 believe that regardless of who happens to be in the cast taking it all in all it s a pretty high class drama in tact fact I 1 think as we compare the wash ington program with most of those that are offered by the other capi cap atals of the world it s really the greatest show on earth however during campaign time I 1 must admit I 1 would rather be right where I 1 am than president on any ticket now don t think I 1 am objecting to our good old knock down drag out method of electing presidents or any other officials I 1 not only think it s a wonderful thing that we have this free for all every four years but I 1 think both parties would wither on the vine if we didn dian t in tact fact I 1 think the abandonment of our method would probably br bring mg crashing to the ground the palla daum of our republic would de tie stroy our opportunity to pursue life liberty and happ happiness mess and the weekly pay envelope and would reduce these united states to such a condition that the indians wouldn t take the property back if we offered it to them I 1 base this statement not upon mere guess but upon sound eifle studies of the question of why we behave like human beings when we do now I 1 don t know how far you will go along with the psychiatrists who claim your athlete s foot is due to a complex created when you were two years old by having your big brother drop a baseball bat on your toe nevertheless I 1 think one thing has been established by psychiatry a truism confirmed by writers and poets of all ages and which you can confirm yourself by going over some of your own inner thoughts especially when you think what you d like to do to the man who crumpled your fender while you were attending prayer meeting I 1 refer to the accepted truism that even the most benign and mild mannered air milquetoast has a caveman deep within him one has only to observe one s own angel child who on his way home from sunday school and in cooperation with the angel children of one s neighbors will tie a can to a dog s tail or engage in a doen other humane activities that would give a visiting cannibal from the south seas something to write home about we DO have a caveman within us we DO have primitive sive instincts we have the instinct to give pain to destroy to ta taie te advantage of our fellowman fellow man the early period of our lives is spert in being taught to turn these instincts to good purpose the psychologists call it sublimating I 1 them the sadistic inclination of a medical student can be transmuted under the influence of civilized society to make him the finest surgeon the desire to plunder and rob and destroy common to even the most angelic little ones can be channeled into he the ty by which the engineer moves mountains and captains of in austry push railways through the forest and thus benefit instead of harm mankind do you suppose we could put on that greatest of all exhibitions a world series game if it t for the old cave man I 1 have heard it said that base ball has become the monarch of sports because it brings into play so many of the primitive emotions first we have pursuit without which primitive man could not get the food necess necessary afy to sustain him self and his family or even a wife to raise the family then another primitive pastime used in baseball pity the poor cave man who couldn coulden t accurately heave a rock it only requires plenty of practice in a summer camp plus what was learned in the sandlot to turn that basic desire into the ability to pitch a no hit no run game take one more example As the caveman cave man progressed he learned to use a club so there it is base runner pitcher batsman primitive urges basic in democracy just as the sublimation of primi tive instinct has formed the great sport of the greatest democracy in the world so the sublimation ot some of these instincts behind an chent tribal customs has made ova our democracy itself possible in a successful democracy instincts are not repressed they are merely modified so that they fit into a human and humane society As you know by the time man had reached the point where he had organized himself into a clan it was the papa who ran things he was the chief because he had the one quality most essential in those days tor for self and group pro lection strength his term of office was not lim tied by statute some of the chiefs even ran for a fourth term but as the papa grew older if not wiser he also grew weaker but his sons were growing stronger finally they felt it was time to hold an election they had bad had their primaries of course and had picked a candidate then the campaign began it was usually quite short but very snappy both candidates were armed with good sized clubs the debate took place at some point where the non vot ing but interested electorate this was before women s suffrage could watch with as little personal danger as possible of course the best man finally won inauguration ceremonies took place immediately attended by all of the tribe except a couple who were delegated to bury the defeated candidate then the younger brothers and the females settled down to maintain peace prosperity and the pursuit of happiness let me quote one or two para graphs from the work of that very fascinating book by dr gregory mind medicine and man it Is difficult to find any fune tion of our democratic society which surpasses or even approximates an electoral campaign in intensity and blatancy ot of aggression acrimony anger hate slander venality ap pear everything except actual homicide the proverbial hd lid is lit eralia off the reservoir of patricidal drives and society hurls itsek itself on it its symbolic victim with all the en ergy of a primitive cannibal it is primitive cannibalism whether it expresses itself in campaign der whispering campaigns political maneuvering or flattery of the in m dolent who do not care A father is 13 to be killed by way of democratic ceremonial and a new one will at once be set up by way of the same ceremonial in other words we had a healthy fight in november and got it out of our systems the caveman cave man within us was satis fied we ve got ourselves a president and nobody has committed murder and there in we have an addan tage not shared by some other coun tries for here even between elec eions we allow the cave man to roar in the press over the radio and from the rostrum he can brandish his verbal club and hurl his barbed epithets in the very face of the president the congress and the town meeting and thereby likewise we prove our strength a strength which de tie rives not from the atomic bomb but from a power that can and does penetrate peacefully even through an iron curtain A married man Is a better adapt er than a single man says the american machinist he probably has learned that it is adapt or in crease fido 3 housing problem |