4t~e ll llBal
Seventy-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
China Policy: A
Quaker Proposal
Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MIcH.
yevaL
NEws PHiONE: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This mus t be noted in all reprints.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1965 NIGHT EDITOR: SUSAN COLLINS
Only New Attitudes
Can Humanize society
"OW CAN MAN, living in today's deper- demned to a life of teaching. In addition,
sonalized and dehumanized society, many lack teaching talent. When any of
regain a feeling of individual accomplish- these conditions prevail, the quality and
ment and personal relevance? effectiveness of teaching declines. Teach-
The reason for today's societal deper- ing as a communications art ceases to
sonalization .is the reversal of the roles exist.
of' man and the machine. Man, instead Another great barrier to communica-
of dominating and controlling his ma- tions is sex. Nearly everybody has cultur-
chines, is often controlled and dominated ally nurtured fears about sex, regarding
by them. The assembly line economy and not only the participation in human sex-
the large bureaucratic institution are ual activities but, more important, the
the primary sources of this domination, appearance of participating. Effective
It is doubtful that any solution to the relationships between men and women
problem of man's domination by the ma- must eventually include sex as a dimen-
chine can be achieved within the realm sion of feeling and understanding. How-
of reducing the size of existing institu- ever, because of the fears involved, par-
tions. There is still a definite trend to-, ticipation in sexual activities often re-
ward larger and larger institutions, part- sults in a worsening of the overall rela-
ly due to expanding population. In addi-, tionship
tion; the advantages offered by today's
machine age culture are attractive-large ANY EFFORT to establish effective
institutions have greatly eased the bur- comniunication will require a num-
dens of man and taken over many men- ber of changed attitudes. These -altera-
lal tasks. tions must first come from parents and
the teachers because they have the first
HE ANSWER to the problem must lie access to the malleable mind of the grow-
within the area of increasing the ing child. There is, however, no one easy
uniquely human faeulties ,of empathy, cause or one easy answer.,
understanding and care. The way these " Communications training must begin
human attributes can be increased is in the cradle. New parents should recog-
through systems of more-effective inter- nize their offspring as individual human
personal communication. beings whose thoughts, even though hazy
Some may argue that the communica- and primitive, should be understood-and
tions mechanisms now possessed by man listened to.
are more effective now than they have * The education of a child must take
ever been. These mechanical devices are the form not of rote imitation of a
not however, relevant; With the growth bored and frustrated teacher but of ex-
of rapid and efficient communication de- citing transferal of ideas and concepts
vices, effective communication between between humans.
humans has broken down; any mechan- When the child reaches the age
ism is only as effective as the humans where the opinions and influence of peers
who use it. overrides that of parents the social run-
The failure of communication between " around should be discouraged rather than
people is deeply rooted in our society and pushed. A child should be encouraged
continually reinforced throughout life. to discover, grasp and become aware of
the people and the experiences around
COMMUNICATIONS FAILURE begins in him.
early childhood when a child cannot , Sex should be included inder the
get his ideas across the parental barrier. category of a mental and physical exper-
This is reinforced later in life when ience rather than assimple gratification
meaningful communication is attempted of an animal desire. It should be removed
between peers. Becpuse the capabilities from its traditional place in the gutter
for communication have not bee nurtur- and establishled as an accepted and
ed at an early age the so-called socializa- worthwhile part of living.
tion process begins; the superficial and These are not ways of implementing a
substitute communication of the high new social order. They are, rather, desir-
school dance and the country club-small able ideals and goals for correction of
talk, role playing, social conventions - social ills. Ways of implementing change
take over, cannot be spelled out-except that it will
Another aon the early break- take the desire' of the individual on a
down in communications Is the poor qual- ghand scale to effect any change.
ity of the educational establishment. Al-
though dedicated and innovative teachers IT IS POSSIBLE to defeat the domin-
do exist at the early levels they are few ance of the mahine and the mechani-
and far between. Many teachers in the cal dilemma of humanity but only
earlier years are either very young and through the now closed doors between
transient or those who feel they have people.
been, for one reason or another, con- -MICHAEL BADAMO
P i m at
Political Im11licatiolis -
Our age has had no escape
from an awareness of history.
Much of that history has been
hard and full of suffering. But
now we have the luxury of an
historical awareness of another
sort, of an occasion not of an-
xiety, but of promise. We may
speak without exaggeration of
this occasion as historic, since
we have come here to enact
anew the chief function of cul-
ture and humanism, to bring
man again into communication
with man.
-F. O. Matthiessen
"From the Heart
of Europe" (1948)
I WHEN I WAS seven, I began
terrorizing a smaller boy who
was five. Nothing harsh, just con-
tinuous. The reasons were com-
plex, but to my mind, they com-
pletely justified everything. One
day I was fifteen, coming home
from high school, and there was
that "little" boy, grown consider-
ably larger, waiting at the corner.
He hadn't forgotten.
I was reminded of that incident
by the events of the past week-
which now are history-and the
examination of a 68-page book by
"some" Quakers: A New China
Policy: Some Quaker Proposals.
Simple as "thee" and "thou" it
lucidly states the "facts" about
China and America's sordid rela-
tions with it and moves beyond to
viable alternatives.
This book moves from the fact
that the United States and the
People's Republic of China have
become almost completely sepa-
rated by a wall of mutual hos-
tility. There is no cultural ex-
change, no trade, no intervisita-
tioti, no diplomatic contact (ex
cept for occasional offiical en-
counters in off-the-record talks
at Warsaw).
More-there has been no settle-
ment of the Korean War, only a
cease-fire. Contact with China is
still considered "dealing with the
enemy." China views our mili-
tary installations near its borders
and our support of Taiwan as
aggression. We say they are
"justifiable defense."
America in China is pictured
daily, visually as well as orally,
as imperialist and enemy. And in
America, China is seen as the
little-boy-grown-up of my story;
something to be feared. And some-
thing that can easily be dealt
with: "Bomb their nuclear instal-
lations."
As anyone who has followed
American foreign policy for the
past twenty years should know,
incidents such as Santo Domingo
and Viet Nam are fairly predict-
able. Given bureaucratic bungling
and unfeeling judgments, that
policy which has misunderstood
countless nations, people, events-
human nature, it seems, in gen-
eral and particular-has helped to
create our present impasse. It
must be stopped.
THE QUAKERS have seen that
this mutual hostility and con-
tinued lack of communication has
brought neither C h in a nor
America security or stability. To
continue our relations on the
basis of mutual ignorance and
aggressiveness means tragedy not
just for the two nations, but as
we must surely realize now, the
entire world.
The new Quaker policy urges
reason and an end to passion-
directed diplomacy. It discusses
past and present aspects of the
Sino - American relationship and
indicates impressive alternatives.
What are the origins of the
present Chinese-American im-
passe?
The factsnow are that China
in 20 years, has truly made a
"great leap forward." Under Mao
Tse-tung's leadership, China has
externally become one of the
world's greast powers. Internally,
there has been another great
leap. China has absorbed much
modern technology. China has in-
stituted national health and edu-
cational programs, elevated the
status of women, subordinated the
Family and broken its death-grip
on development at many levels.
In short, in 20 years, after a cen-
tury of national humiliation, of
massive decline, China has re-
gained status: diplomatic, social,
economic, military.
To understand this leap, to un-
derstand what it means for a
nation of 650 million to regain
national integrity, we must un-
derstand China's past. And we
must recognize that past as dis-
tinct, though not inferior, to the
West's.
China was a civilization that at
the end of the 18th century, was
as rich aesthetically and tech-
nically, as that of the West. The
19th century saw dynastic de-
cline, economic distress, civil war,
and defeat and encroachment by
foreign powers. To be certain, the
decline was both internal and ex-
ternal-but its humilitation at the
hands of the West and the United
States cannot be denied.
AMERICA's relations with China
have been at the expense of China.
America enjoyed special ecnomic
privileges from 1839 to 1890, as
did other powers, when China was
reduced to a semi-colony of the
West. America. excluded Chinese
as immigrants in 1880. America's
so-called "Open Door Policy" in
1890 simply re-organized the
plunder. At the beginning of the
20th century, China was hot only
humilitated, but weak and un-
ready for modern existence.
As a result of economic inter-
vention and political apathy, Chi-
nese revolutionaries in the 20's
turned to Russia. But resentment
of American policy was not limit-
ed to revolutionaries; it cut across
class, religion, economic, identi-
fications. And in 1931, it hit a
new low as we and the rest of the
W e s t. watched the Japanese
slaughter American missions in
Manchuria with American-bought
scrap iron, not unlike watching
India and Pakistan slaughter each
other with American weapons.
From the 30's until the end of
the Second World War, China
experienced national disintegra-
tion as a civilization. In the en-
suing civil war, America not only
interferred, but ended up backing
the losing side.'
hIParenthesis
By GEORGE ABBOTT WHITE
1949-1950 was a watershed.
There was on the one hand, a
feeling that our valuable advice
and our more-valuable dollars had
not only been misused, but un-
gratefully received. We were sad-
dened and angry: "We spent all
that money!" On the other hand,
we were unprepared and unable to
accept the bankruptcy and defeat
of Chiang Kai-sek or the strength
and dynamism of Mao Tse-tung.
And besides, John Foster Dulles
found out Mao was a Communist.
IN THOSE crucial years, Dulles
was ready to accept the mainland
as China. What followed, the
foundations of the way we act
now, are difficult to determine.
But we could not then, and cannot
now, see China from China's
point-of-view. I suppose that was
the one good point Japanese writ-
er Makota Oda conveyed at the
recent teach-in: another point of
view. We cannot see a better life
in China. We cannot see that
China has traded povertysfor the
20th century. "The Chinese com-
pare the Communist present with
their own past not with our pres-
ent, and their opinions are shaped
by their own reality, not ours."
Part of that reality is economic,
part is Marxist-Lenist, part is in-
tense nationalism.
So much for the past, what
about the present?
The Quakers say: China's
policy toward the U.S. (1950-
1965) has been as fruitless as
U.S. policy has been. Chinese
hositility toward the U.S. has
been fanned for purposes of
domestic control. But it is pos-
sible that China's desire for
technological development, for
more rapid modernization, and
for an accepted place in the
family of nations would produce
a more friendly response if
American policy should change.
The end of hostility and fear is
something both should want. And
friendship, as we have seen in the
cases of Germany and Japan, can
come very easily; "fascist animals"
can easily become "allies."
Given the goal of friendship,
what are the alternatives? First,
blaming obviously does zero. Cau-
tion is acceptable, but forgiveness
now, on both sides, is a necessity.
If America maintains unreal be-
liefs (i.e., Truth like Communism
is monolithic), there will be. no
progress. And if we do not take
the first steps, after ignoring
China's years ago,. progress is an
impossibility.
1) We could halt the military
threats and incursions against
the mainland by Taiwan.
Taking 1China's point - of - view,
Taiwan's incursions (not incon-
siderable) and the Seventh Fleet's
presence, might be seen as having
Long Island staffed with British
who, every evening, sail into New
York City, Newport, Hartford, and
shoot up the town. When the cops
chase them, an armada steams in
between a n d smiles. Telling
Chaing & Company to cease costs
nothing and they might even be
happy about it-more money can
be sent to Swiss banks by not
spending it on guns and gasoline.
2) We could acknowledge that
the People's Republic of China
is the government of China.
Our, act not to recognize is based
on John Foster-Dulles' famous re-
mark on the "tentative" Commun-
ist hold: "By withholding recogni-
tion from Peiping, it (U.S.) seeks
to hasten that passing." After 20
years, . it would seem plain that
Peiping is not, John Foster Dulles'
memory to the contrary, "wither-
ing away." Besides the communi-
cation gained by, reciprocal am-
bassadors, China once again be-
comes a true nation and not an
adolescent "outlaw," devoid of and
deprived of, international respon-
sibilities.
3) We could demonstrate our
concern for the well-being of
China through economic, tech-
nical, and political exchanges.
4) We could end American
restrictions on communications
and exchange with, China.
5) We could end ouraspecial
restrictions on trade with China.
6) We could declare our read-
iness to join China in projects;
of mutual advantage and con-
cern.
"Well-being" is simply another
way of saying we will communi-
cate on problems. We will dismiss
our cute cliche' of the Bamboo
Curtain and earnestly communi-
cate on all levels with all people:
educators, businessmen, techni-
cians, 'farmers, labor union of fi-
cials, tourists (with, loud shirts
and knobby knees yet!). We will
exchange books and periodicals,
art and technical exhibits. We
will admit that the Mekong River
(2800 miles long) begins in China
and runs for 1200 miles in China.
We will work together, independ-
ently and in the United Nations,
on problems that affect the entire
world: population growth, food-
producing problems, health prob-
lems, scientific exploration.
Lest I be taken as idealistic,
let me hasten to say that there is
no guarantee that China will be-
gin all or any communication on
the other end. But then there is
no guarantee that Yahweh doesn't
hate me. And there is the chance,
small perhaps, that something
will begin. All of these alterna-
tives are not big leaps physically,
but they are psychologically.
The Quakers make two other
suggestions, both of which I find
necessary and viable: admission
to the United Nations and an end
to Taiwanese division. Their ex-
plication is lucid and revealing;
their reasoning and conclusions,
compelling.
These alternatives are exactly
that. They represent attempts to
deal with reality in the light of
relative absolutes such as justice
and world peace, in a world com-
munity. They presuppose commit-
ment to that world community.
They must be accepted tentative-
ly. Reality changes and as it does,
so must our alternatives. But in
a very real sense, these Quaker
proposals, their formulation of a
"new" China policy, are crucial
alternatives. We cannot afford to
dismiss them. We cannot afford
to deny them. We must communi-
cate. And not in .ignorance.
;#
w
"Change The Course Or I Want To Get Out:"
NATO A
h7
1*
'The Collector'
Again: Is It Entertaining?
jT IS HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT that with-
in the next several months Egyptian
President Nasser and Soviet Premier'
Kosygin may be serving as. mediators in
the current Indian-Chinese and Indian-
Pakistani border disputes.
Prime Minister Shastri has just recent-
ly called upon the United Arab Repub-
lic to extend its good offices in the for-
mer confrontation, while the Soviet Un-
ion has already offered to play host to
the latter two antagonists in Tashkent.
Should these bids at reconciliation be
realized, they contain several rather-con-
sequential implications both for the states
involved and the rest of the world.
IN THE FIRST PLACE, in the conceiv-
able event that these sets of negotia-
tions prove successful the status of each
mediator will be considerably elevated
in the eyes of the uncommitted nations.
On the other hand, another instance of
Chinese belligerence in world affairs
might prove detrimental to its relations
with the countries of Africa and Latin
America. On mainland Southeast Asia,
however, this show of force, albeit on the
Editorial Staff
Indian border, could frighten such states
as Burma, North Viet Nam and Laos into
following Cambodia in abandoning a
fence-sitting posture vis-a-vis the Sino-
Soviet rift and adopting an unqualified
pro-Peking policy.
ECONDLY, the benefits accruing to
President Nasser could not be under-
estimated. He is currently in the unenvi-
able position of having recently been dis-
paraged by Tunisian President Bourguiba
for his unconditional refusal to nego-
tiate peace with Israel, and for his en-
deavors to bring about Egyptian para-
mountcy within the Arab bloc. He has
furthermore suffered an appreciable loss
of face in the Yemen conflict.
By reconciling a Communist with a
non-Communist state, he could improve
his chances of becoming a key figure in
the neutralist bloc.
In effect, this striving for uncontested
leadership among the non-aligner would
offset his present political weakness
among the Arab nations. The long-range
end result, if compounded by similar en-
suing situations, may well be the primacy
of Nasser in both the Arab and Afro-Arab
blocs.
LASTLY, although the prestige of the
United Nations Security Council may
By MICHAEL JULIAR
M COUSIN was trying to tell
me that I didn't understand
why most people go to the movies.
"They go to be entertained, and
so do I," he emphatically stated
again and again. "Your criticisms
are invalid and usually inexcus-
able because they ignore the en-
tertainment value of movies"
Since I don't believe in down-
trodding my relatives, I agreed
with his first point: most people
do go to movies to be entertained.
But. I realized it would take two
evenings of continuous bulling to
make him understand why I think
my critiques are valid and, that I
always consider entertainment
values. And he and I are not that
compatible.
LUCKILY, I do have a captive
audience on campus which will
allow me to bull it for a few min-
utes because it so vehemently
disagrees with my recent opinion
of "The Collector."
First of all, any movie should
entertain, like any other creation
of man, such as Tinker Toys and
Tchaikovsky, pop art and Picasso.
They are all different brands of
a creative LSD that affect and
excite the mind. For instance, a
movie by Bergman is no less en-
tertaining than is one about James
Bond. People come away from
both movies, vehemently discuss-
ing their merits and faults. But
everyone is sure that his mind has
been excited.
Yet, like the difference between
pop art and Picasso, there is a
vast cleavage between what I call
pap film (suckling the milk of
Hollywood's generous breast) and
that singular form called "art"
film.
The difference is simply that
between diversion and stimula-
Hollywood today (as for the last
50 years) is meant to be diverting
entertainment. Once in a while.,
a Stanley Kubrick will come along
with a stimulant like "Dr. Strange-
love," a nonescapism item that
does not leave an audience with
the feeling that it has simply
been given two hours reprieve
from the rigors of everyday real-,
ity. William Wyler tries to be
stimulating in "The Collector,"
like Kubrick succeeds in doing in
"Dr. Strangelove," but he fluently
fails as always.
SECOND, "The Collector" is
meant to show the struggles of a
girl trying to escape from a men-
tally and physically impotent boy.
It is meant to depict the boy's
struggle to escape from the im-
potency and find some kind of
love, even if he has to kidnap a
female to do it. And "The Col-
lector" is meant to show the fric-
tion that develops between the
two protagonists.
Does William Wyler bring all
this off? Does the boy gain any
respect or humiliation or sym-
pathy from us? Do we physically
feel the torture the girl is under-
going in one sense and the boy is
in another? Are we, in a word,
stimulated, or are we only diverted
with entertaining events: a kid-
napping, a detention, attempted
escapes, an attempted seduction,
and the final death, appended
with the beginning of the cycle
again? Stimulating entertainment
or diverting entertainment? Which
did Wyler try to give us? The
former. Which did he give us?
Unfortunately, the latter.
However, friends of my parents,
friends of my friends and just
friends and students all say that
they were entertained, that they
enjoyed "The Collector," that it
was a fine movie.
able to draw a few pretty lines on
paper. She has no ingenuity, no
adaptive abilities that she can put
to the task of getting out of her
dungeon cell. She can feign sick-
ness, as any woman knows how to
do in time of distress. But her
warden knows at least that much
about female psychology.
When tied up in the bathroom
while a neighbor welcomes her
kidnapper to the neighborhood,
all she can do is to try to flood
the mansion withwater to attract
the old man's attention. Make
noise girl! -Stamp those two free
feet on the floor! If she can
stretch one out to the bathtub
faucet, revealing about ten feet
of beautiful leg, she can at least
think of using them some other
way. Sure, she's under stress, pan-
icky half the time, and the rest
of the time simply unable to un-
derstand her warden. But if the
director can't help us to forget
all the chances and possibilities of
escape that she misses, why should
we try to forget them by our-
selves? In other words, where is
the suspense?
I will not dwell on the acting
here even though every soul on
campus has his own staunch opin-
ion about it. Judging acting is too
often like trying to explain why
you are in love-it is next to im-
possible.
IN MAKING "The Collector,"
Wyler gave himself a very tough
technical problem to solve because:
most of the action takes place in
Miranda's cell, on the steps lead-
ing to it and on the ground floor
of the house, He did not solve the
problem of constrictive action ef-
fectively. He blocked his scenes
like a stage director, setting them
up as if they were being created
under a proscenium arch. The only
thing he shows a character doing
action takes place, how can such
a large and lavish dungeon con-
vey- to us any sense of Miranda's
imprisonment? Of course, it is
laid out for her comfort, but that
is the jailer's conception. It is not
Miranda's. If this is meant to be
a paradox or a symbol of the two
antithetical outlooks the two char-
acters have, Wyler never works
with it. He just lets it wallow on
the screen as a fact while it grates,
our imaginations and becomes
annoying.
THE KEYSTONE of "The Col-
lector," as any movie, is the direc-
tor. Wyler's work is lax and sterile.
For example, if an audience has to
laugh at dramatic points in the
film, as it did when I saw it, the
director is at fault, rarely the
actors. If he lets his camera
dwell on a face and no feeling is
conveyed to the audience, it is
the director's shortcoming, along
with that of the man who helped
him to edit the picture. As the
cinematic parlance goes, no "non-
existent feelings" were created'.
The famous Russian director
Pudovkin describes what I mean:
"Kuleshov (his teacher), and I
made an interesting experiment.
We took from some film or other
several closeups of the well-
known Russian actor Mosjukhin.
We chose close-ups which were
static and which did not express
any feeling at all-quiet close-ups.
We joined these close-ups, which
were all similar, with other bits
of film in three different com-
binations. In the first combina-
tion the close-up of Mosjukhin
was immediately followed by a
shot of a plate of soup- standing
on a table.
"It was obvious and certain that
Mosjukhin was looking at this
soup. In the second combination
the face of Mosjukhin was joined
to hn c .hrd x .rnffin in which
admired the light, happy smile,
with which he surveyed the girl
at play. But we knew that in all
three cases the face was exactly
the same."
THIS WAS NOT a "trick" by
two Russians, but the application
of a basic cinematic technique.
In "The Collector," Wyler tried to
do roughly the same thing when
Miranda realizes how abberrant
her captor is or when she begins
to realize that she will never
escape and at other points in the
.film. But a bowl of soup or a
child isn't shown on the screen in
juxtaposition with a close-up of
Miss Eggar's face. A verbal, pure-
ly aurol connection is made. The
"collector" says something and
then the close-up of Miss Eggar's
face fills the screen-a distortion
of the "non-existent feeling" idea
that sometimes works elsewhere,
but fails here. No emotion can be
engendered in the viewer because
the aural-visual combination that
Mr. Wyler presents us with is not
'strong enough.
Still, many people came 'to be-
lieve that they had seen fine act-
ing and expressive delineation of
emotion. But they were only mis-
led-not as the Russians misled
their audience,-but as a common
popular culture has been mislead-
ing its mass audience for years.
The audience was indoctrinated
through advertising, gossip col-
umns, magazine articles and sev-
eral laudatory reviews to expect
good acting in "The Collector."
Then, when people saw Wyler's
camera dwelling on Miss Eggar's
face, they exploded their expec-
tations into visual emotion exist-
ence.
These people may have em-
pathized with the characters. They
may have honestly felt that "The
I