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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1988)
Page 2AThe Battalion/Tuesday, April 26, 1988 Opinion It is important to examine our presuppositions P While recently reading a book ti tled Propaganda by Jacques Ellul, I was struck by some powerful ob servations made in the book. Ellul maintains that there are “four great collective so ciological presup positions" in the Brian Frederick world today. They are “that man’s aim in life is happiness, that man is naturally good, that history develops in endless progress, and that everything is matter.” These presuppositions are held by every nation state that shares in modern tech nology, both East and West blocs alike. These presuppostions constitute “a collection of feelings, beliefs, and images by which one unconsciouisly judges events and things without ques tioning them, or even noticing them. This collection is shared by all who*be long to the same society or group. It draws its strength from the fact it rests on tacit agreement.” They lie deeper than political opinions and ideologies. Thus it is possible for communism and capitalism to disagree on the surface while sharing these basic assumptions on a deeper level. While Ellul’s book discusses how these presuppositions are used by prop aganda, I would like to comment on their implications for our world. Man’s aim in life is happiness. This establishes individual happiness as the supreme goal in life. In accordance with it, man judges the good of a particular action not by whether it is right but by whether he thinks it will make him happy. It gives rise to the philosophy that man should be permitted to choose to do whatever he likes as long as he does not hurt anyone else. It is opposed to other views such as Christianity, which teaches that man’s aim in life is to obey God. Man is naturally good. This presup position has great significance in the area of man’s relation to the state. Chris tianity teaches that man is fundamen tally evil, and as such, needs a divine sa vior to deliver him from his depravity. If man is good, however, he does not need a deity to deliver him from his problems. His problems do not origi nate within him but are a product of so cial structures that force him to act in certain ways. Thus, the poor are poor, not because of any defect within themselves, but be cause society exploits them or does not give them a fair chance. Criminals are not responsible for their actions for their crimes are not the product of a wicked heart but of society that cor rupted them. Man does not have to take responsiblity for his actions or answer to God for his life. Man can say, “It’s not my fault; society made me this way.” To solve the world’s problems, then, it is necessary to remold society in such a way that it will allow man’s inherent goodness to flourish, so that society will not corrupt his innocence. Government becomes man’s saviour, the tool used by reformers to remake society, and people become guinea pigs for social experi mentation. History develops in endless progress. If we pause to reflect for a moment, we shall see how thoroughly this notion sat urates our whole society. Progress holds that history is a. continual evolution. Things progress from lower to higher orders and from bad to good. Man is continually advancing and conquering new frontiers. Because we buy the myth of progress, car manufacturers at least make superfi cial changes in their car models each year. Gars must look like they are ad vancing if consumers are to buy them. Everything from toothpaste to laundry detergent comes out in “new and im proved” formulas, and the consumer feels obligated to purchase the new brand in order to keep up with pro gress. In the face of the myth of progress, everything that is of the past must be re placed by that which is new. The old is good only temporarily and is to be promptly discarded when the new ar rives. By definition the new is always better than the old. Thus we see many movements whose aim is to deliver us from some vestige of the past. Everything is matter. Man is merely a collection of chemicals that has evolved over millions of years to reach this pre sent level of development. Reality con sists only of what man can perceive with his five senses. The spiritual realm has no existence of its own, but is only a fig ment of man’s imagination. God is merely primitive man’s invention to ex plain natural phenomena that he did not understand. Man has no eternal spirit; he is an intelligent animal who has no existence after death. Man has no master but himself; he answers to no higher being. These presuppostitions have been widely accepted for the past century. Nearly all the organized action we see in the modern world depends on them. That these myths underlie everything we do is not immediately apparent for they are accepted subconsciously. They hold our minds so securely as if they were sacred truth that anyone who ques tions them publicly is mocked or ig nored. To act upon false assumptions pro duces disastrous results. There is plenty of evidence that suggests that these as sumptions may not be true, if one is will ing to consider such evidence.j sider it we should, lest actinguponii presuppositions perpetratehotn.,] upon mankind. One may legitimately queiJ whether happiness should be highest aim. History gives at le much support to the position thai'J is evil as it does to the pc man’s cruel deeds are a productoh) conditions. One can ask whet gress is real, necessary or even c And science, which has limitedHft] definition to dealing only will w hie h may be known throughthesc is unequipped to determine win there is a higher realm. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the great sian novelist, lived in theerawheri presuppositions came to be wid ceptecl, and men began to try toi them to society. Of such men be» “They aim at justice, but, dem Christ, they will end by floodin;i world with blood ...” 1 maintari the twentieth century has bornej gnant witness to the truth ofhisp ecy, for it has witnessed the blood-letting and barbarism themj has ever known. It woidd perhaps, behoove 12I check our premises before any farther along our presentcountl Hr inn Frederick is a senior teena Russian major and a co/u/nnistfai Battalion. learninj Hifficuli langua^ Whai Shen s: guage, jistinct traphs, ideate languaf, iietic al Ivord is |vhat it i “Chii bet,” S Chinese wore bust 1< jounce represe i At 11 Rhen s. Boo Cl vhich < tabular Wanted: government fink 1 don’t like see ing anyone out of work, but I didn’t lapse into a funk when Larry Speakes was dumped from his $250,000 job as a front man for a New York bank ing house. Technically, Speakes resigned. Mike Royko But he left because Merrill Lynch shoved him out the door. They were un comfortable having an admitted liar and fink as their public relations man. Speakes has always thought of him self as a clever fellow. Watching him perform as the White House press sec retary, you could almost see him oozing self-satisfaction. Although he had never been a re porter, preferring a career as a flunky for Washington politicians, he obviously felt superior to those who earn their liv ing by asking questions. And to demonstrate his his mental nimbleness, as he now admits, he hoked up phony lines and told the press that Reagan had actually said them. Actually, the lines weren’t especially memorable. On a slow day, Jesse Jack- son can come up with a dozen that are better and make them rhyme, too. But Speakes was proud of them. So proud, in fact, that when he recently put out a book about his White House spokesman days, he couldn’t resist brag ging about putting words in Reagan’s mouth. This became news, although I don’t know why. There’s nothing new about flunkies composing sentences for poli ticians. Most politicians use hired speech writers. Some pay others to write entire books on which they slap their names. Before becoming president, John F. Kennedy won a Pulitzer Prize for a his tory book without having to tap a single typewriter key. For that matter, Speakes wasn’t liter ate enough to write his own fink book. He paid someone to put his words into understandable, although banal, form. About the only thing that made his disclosure interesting was that Reagan said he wasn’t aware that Speakes had been making up quotes. That meant Reagan either didn’t know what he had said or, when he read his words in the newspapers, he thought that he had said them. Or maybe it meant that he simply didn’t pay any at tention to what the press said he said. This, to some Washington observers, was evidence that Reagan might be “out of touch” with what is happening around him. There’s nothing shocking about that. Only recently, we were told that when Reagan meets with visiting dignitaries, aides give him little cue cards so he’ll re- member to say “Good morning, George,” or “Welcome to the White House,” or “Nice to meet you, too.” Almost from the beginning of his presidency, Reagan has been hailed as one of the most out-ofitouch presidents in our history. ThatH been one of the se crets of his success. In a world that is too complicated, the majority of Americans choose to be out of touch with reality. Some use drugs or booze to disconnect. Others fade into their TV sets. And with their votes, or lack of them, they said they preferred an out-of-touch leader. Being a clever fellow, though, Speakes figured that by finking about how out of touch Reagan was, and how he, Speakes, could put words in Rea gan’s mouth, the book would get oodles of free publicity that would help sales. And I’m sure it has. But it turns out that Speakes is surprisingly dopey for someone so clever. It didn’t occur to him that an image conscious outfit like Merrill Lynch might say: “Holy bottom line, we’re pay ing this guy $250,000 a year to be our spokesman. And now he’s telling the world that he’s a liar and a tattle-tale fink. If he’ll fink on a president, how do we know he won’t fink on us? Tell him to turn in his key to the executive wash room. And change the lock.” So now the clever fellow is out of work. The quick-fix publicity will sub side, and in a week or two his book will start gathering dust in the bookstores. And Speakes will discover that $250,000-a-year jobs aren’t that easy to come by. It’s one thing to walk out of the White House with a lot of political clout and a reputation for being able to think fast on your feet. It’s something else when the most recent item on your re sume is that you were sacked by Merrill Lynch. I suppose he can take out an ad. It could say something like: “Position wanted. Top-level experi ence as congressional aide, White House press officer and corporate spokesman. Advanced training in finkery, back-stab bing and ingratitute.” Lots of luck. But he’d be wise to check the location of his nearest unemploy ment comp office. Copyright 1987, Tribune Media Services, Inc. AUS' ck, nc Monda - | state ed jflirr Te ams t | The istrict e cur tionally wealth < 1 fundinj Monda lonal, 1 Eliminate the tradition A criminal offense EDITOR: Many Americans were shocked by the recent outbursts of racial violence accompanying minor “intrusions” into all-white communities like Howard Beach and Forsyth County. Such incidents are even more disturbing when they occur at universities, ostensibly centers of learning. The erection of an anti-apartheid shanty was all that was necssary to stir up deep-seated racist sentiments on the Texas A&M campus. The outrageous display of fear and ignorance created by Mr. Reed and Mr. Nelson cannot be ignored by the University administration. The University has obviously failed in its education of these two seniors. If the administration is as committed to education as it is to football, it will take this incident as a call to action and start a special program to teach students about racism. The SAA shanty may do little to improve the lives of black South Africans, but it may have done a great service to the university by revealing the presence of social attitudes that are unacceptable in an academic environment. If students and administrators care about this university, they will see to it that the tradition of racism is eliminated at Texas A&M. Adam Bangs, grad student EDITOR: All of the students here have undoubtably noticed “computer access fee” which we have no choice about paying. Doesn’t this mean that the computers on catn^ are our RIGHT to use, not just a privilege? My computer account has been locked off fortht^ month. The reason is that I allegedly logged on loans 15 account and played a game. Personally, l donotseetkt I great crime in this. I know two student employees at the CSC who# | accused, fired and then arrested for this dastardly^I Meanwhile another GSG employee physically attack^ I friend of mine in a crowded computer room.This employee is still working at the CSC. So, if you have an account on the University’s r computer system, don’t play any garnesoryouniigb 1 '' | up in jail tomorrow. From this example, you may find f better luck in beating up innocent bystanders. Michael Denison ’91 Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The d serves the right to edit letters for style and length, hut will mihre f I maintain the author's intent. Each letter must he signed and must* sification, address and telephone number of the writer. \ IN a e o The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board i, Sue Krenek, Editor Daniel A. LaBry, Managing Editor Mark Nair, Opinion Page Editor Amy Couvillon, City Editor Robbyn L. Lister and Becky Weisenfels, News Editors Loyd Brumfield, Sports Editor Jay Janner, Photo Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspa per operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-College Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editorial board or the author, and do not necessarily rep resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac ulty or the Board of Regents. 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