[University students] hated the hypocrisy of adult society, the rigidity of its political institutions, the impersonality of its b...ureaucracies. They sought to create a society that places human values before materialistic ones, that has a little less head and a little more heart, that is dominated by self-interest and loves its neighbor more. And they were persuaded that group protest of a militant nature would advance those goals.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It was a heavy burden on the conscience to know that while you sat in Music 101, some contemporary--as "worthy" of a college educa...tion as you were, but one who had been denied the opportunity because he was poor, or black, or both--was getting his head blown off in Vietnam. Many students believed that such inequity was wrong, but couldn't bring themselves to redress it personally by refusing the student deferment. It's a dreadful combination: to act for self-protection yet at the same time to loathe oneself for acting that way.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have never understood why they tried to start the revolution by taking over the universities. It should have been self-evident t...hat the net result of success would be to close the universities but leave the nation unaffected--at least, for quite a long time. Nor do I find it easy to believe that the rebels, as intelligent as most of them were, seriously expected that they could keep the universities alive as corporate bodies, once they had control of them, if they made the fundamental alterations in organization and role that they proposed to.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... there were the hangers-on, students who became involved in the movement--any movement--because it was emotionally satisfying. ...At Chicago, there are few activities in which "everybody" participates, and the lack is especially felt by the younger undergraduates. A sit-in can fuse them into a hot, steamy mass of singing, changing, touching bodies. It encourages such communal acts as sharing a blanket and eating from the same jar of peanut butter. It is not surprising that they come out of it--a few days of it, anyway--feeling that they have had something akin to a religious experience.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One learns quite easily to identify the rich person who is making a career out of dangling the carrot; of being fawned on by insti...tutions eager for his (or, more often, her) money. It is not very productive to "cultivate" them. I associated with many, and developed great compassion for rich people who suspect that they are in demand only because they are a potential source of income to some cause or institution. Whether it's true or not, their suspicions isolate them from all save a handful of old and trusted friends, turn them sour, make it difficult for them to accept new friends at face value, and leave them with little attraction other than their money.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What I often forget about students, especially undergraduates, is that surface appearances are misleading. Most of them are at bas...e as conventional as Presbyterian deacons.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »