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Show 'Auto-Anesthesia is the most pervasive disease in America' 1 r ' - rr- " " . V x 1? -- By GARY LESSER Chronicle Staff "The most pervasive disease in America" said Nat Hentoff, "is Auto-Anesthesia. The first step is to turn one's eyes away from an act of cruelty. Then the mind can erase collectively all the guilt involved." Dr. Hentoff, an associate professor of education at New York University was speaking to the Contemporary Issues class on the topic of "The Politics of Survival" as he related this disease not only to American society, but to education in general. Civing many examples of the injustices in our society, Hentoff spoke of racial and economical inequities. In 1965, he said life expectancy of Blacks in this country was seven years less than for whites. In the age group of 35-44, Blacks have a death rate 150 percent higher than whites. "The infant mortality rate in Mississippi of Blacks is on the same level as Ecuador," Dr. Hentoff related. Dr. Hentoff added that in a poll of Americans, it was found that if given orders or-ders similiar to the ones at My Lai to slaughter civilians, only 17 percent said they'd refuse to kill them. Of William F. Buckley's statement "What is it about the Vietnam experience that can make a 2()-year-old into a monster?" Dr. Hentoff said the blame is often put on things early in a person's life, Dr. Spock, or the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. ' A child, Dr. Hentoff said, comes to school full of wonder, thoughts and idea, and "we say that the only thing that counts is what the teacher knows is right." He gave this as part of the explanation for why children fail. In the school system, a child loses his sense of personal legitimacy, he doesn't feel unique, because he only tries to please authorities. A student at one high school said, "I'm only a body doing a job." When his principal was confronted with this comparison between a Chevrolet body and a human body, the principal said, "That's good. We're doing our job." Dr. Hentoff said that at NYU, "Large numbers of students we meet feel they are inadequate human beings. Previous teachers have contributed to this feelinp nf inadequacy." There is, he said, an erosion of sense of personal legitimacy. "This kind of indictment of schools is becoming increasingly familiar, he said During the same week that Nixon stepped up the bombing in Cambodia and Laos, Dr. Hentoft said the President said, "I cannot square abortion with my personal feelings and sanctity in my life." Dr. Hentoff said Nixon just uses different ways of talking about killing to suit his occasion. "It strikes me as ominous that William Renquist and Louis B. Powell appointments ap-pointments aren't even issues in this campaign because Nixon has made such assaults on our constitution and bill of rights," Dr. Hentoff said. Dr. Hentoff talked of "Our bizarre, grotesque allocat ion of our resources. Fifty-three cents of every dollar goes to the military, while only .4 percent of one dollar goes to water pollution." He called this the "New justice." Again on the subject of education, Dr. Hentoff said, "A subject is something you take, and when you take it you've had it, and when you've had it, you're immune to it " 4 NAT HENTOFF. . . ... 'turn one's eyes' |