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Show UEJgainsUh Violence: a household word uy Jeannette Brown tJme haubecome the universal password in recent months-especially in thP n! community -rivaled onlvhv tt ,? Umversity law and order slogan Y Y the all"encoPassing eleSofS617' ,&nd rder won the national e ooused hS A ?" "leeitimate" candidates espoused that edict), but violence is the underlying Ke ThUDliJeMSpir0 T- AgMW' Vi0lence "horPhn,H" Sehld Wrd' and the University household is no exception. To many, violence is ynonymous with Students for Democratic Society (JDS) to others it is merely an SDS tool to takeover student government, the Park Bldg., the Bookstore or academic freedom. Some also believe, a la McCarthyism, that violence is an SDS ploy to divert . attention from the more important Communist conspiracy. . To clamor about SUb, SNCC, Black Panthers,' Peace and Freedom party or other change-oriented groups misses the point. This is just not "the season" to be violent. The "in group" this year is not "in" because it advocates violence. Instead, the need for violence in America is the result of certain, and very specific, casual conditions. Incompatibility Of Ideas The most specific condition: the incompatibility between the U.S. democratic ideals and its authoritarian practices. This condition is reported in a study in the American Journal of Psychiatry by John P. Spiegel, M.D., director of the Lemberg Center for the Study of Violence and professor of psychiatry at Florence Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Work, Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. From the Declaration of Independence onward, the U.S. has called itself a democracy, yet those in power set up enough restrictions in the democratic system to exclude all but an elite few. In order to be "in" the democratic process at that time one had to be white, Anglo-Saxon or closely related, Protestant, middle or upper class, male and an adult. These democratic principles obviously excluded more U.S. citizens; even at that time, than they included. Thus from "We hold these truths to be sell evident . . ." to the present law and ordei exclamations, the excluded citizens have not beer able to participate in democratic decision-making And, ever since these disenfranchised groups -(j majority) have been trying to break the inclusioi barrier. Unfortunately, because the power elite prefers to remain authoritarian, violence has ofter been the only alternative for those outside th democracy. Dr. Spiegel explained in his study that even though the excluded groups won minor victories (like women's sufferage), the powers-that-are failed u-resolve u-resolve the underlying conflict, authoritarianisn-versus authoritarianisn-versus democracy. His report also showed that when "protests break into violence, the attacks of the excluded groups are directed primarily against impersonal targets. The airr of the attack is to disrupt established law and order but not to injure or kill people." Aimed At Persons At the same time, continued Dr. Spiegel, the establishment's violence "is directly aimed at persons" and is "consistently more inflexible and sadistic than their adversaries." Violence in America is not just part of the black mentality, or youth's impatience or a Communist plot, it is a part of the continuous struggle of the. establishment against the disenfranchised. Thi violence of the establishment with power, weapons and organization, "is considered particularly deviant," stated the study. Until now, the establishment has "thrown a sop tc the pigs," federal legislation, towards some ethnk groups. For example, the Irish Catholics and Poles have been two groups co-opted, that is, made to feel a part of democracy, while the power elite still has authority. The center's study showed that these groups, who have been told they penetrated the democratic barrier, are the most violent against other disenfranchised groups. Settles For Violence In fact, Dr. Spiegel's report concluded that "as it ii now, the society can be pictured as an island o democracy floating on a sea of authoritarianism that ,' within certain limits, is more willing to settle foi violence than to attend to the social conflicts whict generate it." Dr. Spiegel asserted that violence will continue tc be a part of America's island fortress until those r disenfranchised groups share power. But as in 1 psychotherapy, the patient, i.e. America, must first admit there is a problem and have the courage to fao" 'the reality. " " """" 1 The McCarthy-like hysterics (violence, law and order) are not solutions to the reality. Th 1 powers-that-are, on campus and across the natio i must choose their alternative. |