.:
I
Eighty-three years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
off the record
In search of structure
below the void
s
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
News Phone: 764-0552
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1973
Lettuce boycott victory
THE HOUSING POLICY Board is to be
commended for its decision to con-
tinue the dormitory system's boycott of
non-union lettuce.
The residents of Alice Lloyd Hall and
other students who advocated continua-
tion of the boycott also deserve credit for
their support of striking farmworkers,
This decision is an affirmation of the
principle of backing others in their strug-
gles for freedom and self-determination,
even when a personal sacrifice is involv-
ed.
It is encouraging to know that Univer-
sity students can identify with poor Chi-
canos closely enough to contribute to the
attainment of their just goals..
The Housing Policy Board decision
should deter if not destroy the efforts of
dormitory gourmands who feel deprived
of their right to eat only scab iceberg let-
tuce. It will also reverse the University
Housing Council decision, which sanc-
tioned these students' efforts.
THE BOYCOTT'S strength in Ann Arbor
has been endangered by a recent
court ruling on the illegality of second-
ary boycotts.
It is thus doubly imperative that those
who support the farmworkers cause con-
tinue to boycott non-union produce, and
explain to others the necessity of fore-
going a bit of salad so that the people
who pick the lettuce can have safe work-
ing conditions, a living wage, and the
right of collective bargaining.
What now for Middle East?
YESTERDAY'S COLLAPSE of p e a c e
talks in the Middle East is extreme-
ly disappointing. Even though the short-
lived calm was feeble and contrived, the
shooting largely stopped for a while.
Apparently the war goes on because
none of the parties involved wants peace
badly enough to stop fighting. ,
All the worst aspects of a holy war
have combined with a seemingly never-
ending struggle for power, influence, and
ultimately oil.
.. The global superpowers have discover-
ed that they can hedge their bets by
backing both sides in the conflict. And
oil-producing nations have discovered
that they hold all the aces. Eventually the
Middle East can,' like Vietnam, look like
the far side of the moon.
t. .* .ilt t Dal
Editorial Staff
CHRISTOPHER PARKS and EUGENE ROBINSON
Co-Editors in Chief
DIANE LEVICK ...................... Arts Editor
MARTIN PORTER... ,.............. Sunday Editor
MARILYN RILEY .......Associate Managing Editor
ZACHARY SCHILLER............ Editorial Director
ERIC SCHOCH ........Editorial Director
TONY SCHWARTZ ... ....Sunday Editor
CHARLES STEIN ...... . .... . ... ....City Editor
TED STEIN ... ............. Executive Editor
ROLFE TESSEM ....... ......Managing Editor
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS: Marnie Heyn, Chuck
Wilbur, David Yalowitz
STAFF WRITERS: Prakash Aswant, Gordon Atcheson,
Dan Biddle, Penny Blank, Dan Blugerman, Howard
Brick, Dave Burhenn, Bonnie Carnes, Charles Cole-
man. Mike Duweck, Ted Evanoff, Deborah Good,
William Heenan, Cindy Hill, Jack Krost, Jean Love-
Josephine Marcotty, Cheryl Pilate, Judy Ruskin,
Ann Rauma, Bob Seidenstein, Stephen Selbst, Jeff
Sorensen, Sue aMephenson, David Stoll, Rebecca
Warner
Business Staff
HILL BLACKFORD
Business Manager
RAY CATALINO............ .. Operations Manager
SHERRY CASTLE . ...... .. ..Advertising Manager
SANDY FIENBERG ................. Finance Manager
DAVE BURLESON ................... .Sales Manager
DEPT. MGRS.: Steve LeMire, Jane Dunning, Paula
Schwach
ASSOC. MGRS.: Joan Ades. Chantal Bancilhon, Linda
Ross, Mark Sancrainte, S u a n n e Tiberio, Kevin
Trimmer
ASST. MGRS.: Marlene Katz, Bill Nealon
STAFF: Sue DeSmet, Laurie Gross, Debbie Novess,
Carol Petok, Mimi Bar-on
SALESPEOPLE: W e n d i Pohs, Tom Kettinger, Eric
Phillips, P e t e r Anders, R o b e r t Fischer, Paula
Schwach, Jack Mazzara, John Anderson
DAILY WEATHER BUREAU: William Marino and
Dennis Dismachek (forecasters)
There seems to be no alternate fu-
ture for the area as long as both Israel
and the Arab "alliance" continue their
present fight first, talk later diplomatic
stance. Henry Kissinger's batting aver-
age looks less impressive all the time.
THE AGREEMENT of the U. S. and the
Soviet Union to begin peace negotia-
tions without representation from the
Palestinians casts strong doubt on the
benign motivation of American or Soviet
intervention in the Middle East.
A settlement which relegates a whole
population to the status of refugees can-
not be the basis for lasting peace and
cooperation.
Perhaps it is too much to expect that
a conflict only 25 years old has gone on
long enough, and that the combatants
would seek a negotiated settlement. The
multitude of factors involved - natural
resources, pride, religion, ideology, the
Palestinian refugees and Soviet-Ameri-
can competition, to name just a few-
complicate the situation almost beyond
comprehension.
ON THE OTHER hand, Israel, Jordan,
Syria, and Egypt and the others
might work out a trend-setting agree-
ment that sets a higher priority on real
human needs than on the aesthetics of
national boundaries.
And consumers in energy- and re-
source-gobbling nations may discover
two things: First, that they can survive
very nicely with fewer automated gad-
gets, and second, that being on the re-
ceiving end of ultimatums from coun-
tries that are capable of being manipu-
lative--militarily or otherwise-is not
much fun. The Middle Eastern countries
have known that for quite some time.
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Dan Blugerman, Della DiPietro,
Christopher Parks, Judy Ruskin, Jeff
Sorensen, Ted Stein
Editorial Poge: Marnie Heyn, Eric Schoch
Photo Technician: John Upton
By TED STEIN
" DON'T REGARD myself per
se a religious writer," a tall,
gaunt Arthur Miller was telling a
packed Trueblood Auditorium,
"however, I believe we're all deal-
ing with the same problems . . .
how to make of this world a home,
since its hostile to us in almost
every respect. A home in the sense
that we will need not violate our
consciences."
"This is putting it very badly.
But I don't have a formula for
you. This is why I'm not a teach-
er. Because you can't take notes
on what I say. It's so unformed in
that respect."
Miller definitely would h a v e
gotten an argument from his aud-
ience had they not been so busy
taking notes.
For during his week and a half
stopover here, the University's
mosthcelebrated alumnus proved
that he has quite a bit to say, and
that most of it was worth writing
down.
Though his words turned out to
be extremely notable, by the
end of his visit it was evident the
famous playwright didn't take to
the professor's life, which made
his brief stint here that much more
unique.
It was apparent in a scene at
Rackham one afternoon late in his
historic stay. It was just another
in a flurry of personal appearances.
But Miller seemed alone in a
crowd. He looked tired. White-
coated busboys in bow-ties yoked
with each other oblivious of the
famous playwright's presence.
U.S.C
By OLIVER PIUM
THEENERGY crisis alarms us:
our El Dorado's sink in value,
car-related industries like Ponder-
osa Steak House fight for their
corporate profits, and we shiver
in the damp cold of 68 degrees. If
that's frightening, the future ain't
so good either.
But with all the gaff being spleen-
ed out about the energy crisis, a
couple of crucial items have been
left untouched. Both anti-commun-
ist policy-makers and leftist ro-
manticists must confront these is-
sues soon. The Soviet Union and
Egypt didn't cause the suddenness
of the energy crisis; Saudi Ara-
bia and Libya did. Their character
and posture in the world commands
attention.
Both countries are fervently Mos-
lem and equally extreme anti-com-
munists. Atheism is an anathema.
Saudi Arabia is oil rich and as re-
actionary a country, as any around
-socially they exist happily some-
where in the middle ages. Until
a few days ago, Saudi Arabia was
safety tucked away in the U.S.'s
hip pocket: our staunch friend and
ally.
AND NOW that same ally is kick-
ing us around. Their passionate
Mohammaden beliefs demand
Graduate students shyly hung back
from disturbing him.
Above the din of rattling coffee
cups, Miller's Brooklyn twang
could be heard. "How do profes-
sors who retire survive?" he ask-
ed a bookish man next to him. "I
mean, after all that talking, sud-
denly they don't have an audience.
What do they do?
IT REALLY shouldn't have been
surprising that Miller was a lit-
tle weary after a busy week of
mini-course question-and-answer
in Trueblood and hobnobbing with
students and faculty members
around campus. Early in his visit,
he had warned, "I live a certain
kind of life, I always have, that
doesn't involve endless confronta-
tions with people all the time."
From the start Miller was out
of his true element. He is happiest
when writing plays on his farm in
Connecticut. This is the way he
feels he speaks best to people.
Not from a stage or in a confer-
ence room.
It is also the only thing that he
does, which might explain in part
his tremendous success, and why
great playwrights are in s u c h
short supply. As he put it, "There
aren't more playwrights because
we're the only ones - (Tennessee)
Williams and I - crazy enough to
make it an obsession. Not like,
'Wel, we'll try this and if it does
not work we'll do something else.'
The first day Miller faced ques-
tioners in his "mini-course" it
was clear he was very different
from University types. His lang-
hoice. I,
harsh terms against Israel; in par-
ticular, the king wants to see Jeru-
salem return to its rightful relig-
ion - and they have good lever-
age. Curious, but wasn't the Viet-
nam War fought for the protection
of resources, for continued profits,
growth, and the maintenance of
U.S. sphere of influence? B u t
Saudi Arabia is doing so much
more, inflicting such greater 1un-
ishment, and the king is getting
away with it. A model worth not-
ing . .
Libya, the other country, is even
a more convincing model for the
Third World. Quadaffi. Libya's
youthful leader, thumbs his nose at
all, demands that women wear
veils that allow nothing exposed,
and finds the modern world and
liberal values disgusting and anti-
Moslem. And to many in the Third
World Quadaffi is a hero, because
he prances around giving all this
shit to the Big Powers - and gets
away with it.
His country possesses a lot (=f
natural resources that the biggies
want and he's using those natural
resources as instruments of policy
-to aid Uganda, to aid Philippine
Moslems trying to break the yoke
of Christian domination. His ideol-
ogy is at once reactionary and re-
volutionary: he has put his country
uage is a down-to-earth, emphatic,.
Brooklyn-hewn. You find it deliv-
ers powerfully without doing any-
thing fancy.
He says, for instance, that in his
work he's trying to "nail a few
wiggling things to the wall", and
the phrase rings true.
ALL OF THIS, however, would
have only filled Trueblood for one
mini-course if Miller didn't have
anything to say now about the way
we live.
But he does. Because what he
tapped twenty-five years ago in his
masterpiece Death of a Salesman
still resonates in us.
Through characters like Willy
Loman, who destroy themselves in
the struggle to affirm hollow val-
ues, Miller helped expose the em-
ptiness of the American Dream.
And it is this consciousness that
gnaws at us and tells us some-
thing is wrong, though we really
don't know what to docabout it.
As Miller sees the current mal-
aise, "It seems to me that stu-
dents are notall that different
from everybody else I know. There
is a feeling that there is na direc-
tion, no forward motion in society,
in the world . . . I don't think its
going to remain that way because
life doesn't ever remain where it
was."
THOUGH SUCH confusion is
rampant, Miller has held out
throughout his works the search for
form as a way of dealing with it.
While other writers have gone
so far as to celebrate the void, he
has continually looked for struc-
ture.
"I think my temperament is such
that I am compelled to seek some
kind of order," he said during a
mini-course session, "even though
I can't always discover wha: it is.
"So its a question with me, I
think, of maintaining the teasion
between the chaos of existence and
my sense that underneath it all,
is a structure, if only one were
smart enough or insightful enough
or acute enough to find it."
challenge Nixon and his ounch, to
say to them as the son does to his
father in All My Sons, "You
should have done better.'
MILLER'S VISIT succeeded be-
cause both his works and words
still have incredible bite. Thsy
force us to deal with the paradox-
es of life and our own tragic fin-
itness, and challenge us to come
up with workable solutions, not ab-
solute ones.
The contrast of Miller's empha-
tic style to that of many Univer-
sity people should remind us that
there is a finer essence to know-
ledge that often gets lost here un-
der an avalanche of theories.
You cannot say, of course, that
any of thistgoes very far toward
explaining the art of Arthur Mil-
ler, but then nothing can. After
a week of Miller, however, a
sense of where it came from most
definitely exists.
The fact that what happens when
he sits down to his typewriter is
still an unknown, was not erased
by the week. It remains something
that the rest of us can merely
marvel at.
This specialness is something
Miller has given a great deal of
thought to, and his feelings pro-
vide a striking insight into his
sensitivity.
"I think writers for the most
part are afflicted people.,They're
wounded people whose glory is
that they make of their wounds
something beautiful.
"Most people are wounded but
they make only more wounds."
Arthur Miller
Maintaining the structure is near-
ly impossible, but the search for it
is necessary. There is no other
way for us to rear up angry and
i
l
o the right or the
left?
together, he's respected, growing
in power, and has become a con-
vincing model for others to follow.
BUT WHAT Saudi Arabia and
Libya are doing, aside from ignor-
ing the machinations of the Big
Powers, aside from dismissing lib-
eral ideology and Marxist models,
is to return to harsh national in-
terest policies that serve their own
policies and programs. No more
serving others like Standard Oil
or Phillips. Natural resources be-
long to those that possess them,
and all that multinational corpor-
ate jargon is only so many wcrds
when the crunch comes.
Oil resources are only the most
dramatic example of this shift.
Other resources, both naturil and
commodity, are in the process of
being reorganized to the deri-
ment of the consumers of those re-
sources. All those Third World
countries, our friends, are ganging
up on us. Brazil, another reaction-
ary friend of America, is attempt-
ing to control the sugar and cof-
fee trade - to the benefit of the
sugar and coffee producers, and
against the sugar and coffee con-
sumers.
Ideology has no meaning: more
important is for the weak to have
a united powerful position against
the buyers, the consumers. Nego-
tiating strength is the magic
phrase in the resources and com-
modity markets these dayf.
THE PRICES are forced up, the
consumers pay more, the markets
stabilize higher on third World
terms, and past exploitation of the
imperialists are remembered. The
key: reaction'is reactionary, but
angry; anti-imperialist, but anti-
liberal and anti-Marxist.
The result for the U.S. will be
the decline of rampant consumer-
ism, the begining of higher prices
for everything, and scarcity in lots
of things. The international con-
flict is not East against West, but
North against South. Mao was al-
most right: the countryside will
surround the cities; the producers
squeeze on the consumers of re-
sources.
If consumerism is in trouble, so
are our very bourgeois m i d d l e
class life styles. The fall of the
American Empire not only means
less possessions abroad, but fewer
possessions in the home. An era
of insecurity and changing values
awaits us.
The legitimacy of our govern-
ment, and the bourgeois v a l u e s
that we know and love, are all in
doubt and dissarray. Our protect-
ors in government and business are
disreputable and disgusting. They
no longer serve any purpose.
THIS VOID in legitimacy, in
values, has tremendous possibili-
ties, but also serious consequences.
Waste and Watergate, personal
conniving and elite corruption can
be replaced by real change: com-
munity, cooperation, social wel-
fare, concern and care could be
new inspirational values.
But the illiberal reaction abroad
has its manifestations at home.
The fervent faith, the strong lead-
ership, the power and severity that
Quadaffi represents, exists as a
need here. The erosion of legiti-
macy, of values we are comfort-
able with (possessions, individual-
ity, consumerism, upward mobil-
ity), and the prospect on confront-
ing a hostile and incomprehensible
world evoke$ all our redneck re-
actions.
The cry will be to discipline our-
selves, to sacrifice ourselves to a
common societalgood, to lea±'n to
bear hardships for continuing eco-
nomic growth. Severity.
We may need a strong leader,
someone to make the world, right
again, to make the world compre-
hensible to us. Bourgeois and liber-
al ideology face their strongest
challenges abroad and at home:
radicalism of the right or left may
overwhelm outmoded bourgeois
life-styles. Which? Social revolu-
tion that has a humane and egal-
itarian content, or a social re-
volution that molds us into scream-
ing zombies?
Perhaps that's why Bobby Dy-
lan is going on tour now.
Oliver Pium is a graduate stu-
dent at the University.
I
Letters to The Daily
NU BLIEVE. IN AMECA4A~g IX EU*VE nIN EALEC51)AM i 1.1A4,
W14Y'MY AMONEY 16 IN REAL e ai -EsipEWfl row
s4
44
p
7
different gripe
To The Daily:
TO AN UNKNOWN female in sec-
tion 32, row 89: I'm sorry I can't
send this letter directly to you,
but since you didn't give your
name, I'm using The Daily hoping
you'll see it. I'm refering to your
behavior at the Michigan-Ohio
State game, where you demanded
to have "your" seats. I know you
paid for them, but so did I and
thousands of others in thestudent
sections whose seats had been tak'
en over by someone else. So where
do you get off shoving people?
I really didn't mind sitting in the
aisle, and it was a great game.
As a matter of fact, only your un-
believable bitchiness kept it from
being a perfect day.
-John Feather, Grad
Nov. 26
ruling bodies
To The Daily:
DO YOU UNDERSTAND what
last Sunday's decision means? It
means that if a Big Ten team is
involved in a championship game
that will probably end in a tie,
its best chance to make the Rose
Bowl game is to seriously injure
the opposition's star player before
the game is over. A dangerous pre-
cedent has been set . . . Congrat-
ulations to Bo for his outspoken
defense of his team and his attack
on Mr. Duke and the rest of the Big
Ten amateurs. I would like to see
Mr. Fat Cat Canham take this un-
fair decision for what it is-an out-
right rejection of Michigan on pet-
precedent
To The Daily:
THE INCREDIBLE decision to
send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl
is symptomatic of something that
is terribly wrong with amateur'
athletics in this country: there are
too many 'ruling bodies' of ama-
teur sports who forget th it the
athlete is supposed to be the bene-
ficiary and not the victim of their
control. After all, who got hurt
most by the director's decision?
The answer is obvious: the Michi-
gan players, especially the thirty
seniors. Suppose the deciison had
gone in Michigan's favor, would
the Ohio State players have been
hurt in the same way? The answer
to that is no, because they knew
they didn'tdeserve to go. Despite
the score, they knew they were
the losers on Saturday.
But the directors don't recognize
this, and in their haste to aid the
conference (by supposedlysecuring
a Rose Bowl victory), they forget
that it is for the players they exist.
If there were no athletes, they
would need no one to rule them.
This situation is not limited to
the Big Ten; it is found at every
level, from the Little League who
won't let girls play, to the US
Olympic Committee whose foul-ups
in Munich are legendary.
The situation of Oklahoma Uni-
versity is similar and provides a
possible answer. The football team
couldn't go to a bowl, not because
of something they did, but because
of something a University official
did. But, once again, who get.; hurt
most - the players, only this time
it is the NCAA at fault. Nov what
if Michigan, in defiance of the Big
Ten and the NCAA, decided that
send Ohio State to the Rose Bowl
as the representative of the Big
Ten I was absolutely shocked. Af-
ter having sat through 60 minutes
of emotionally draining football in
Michigan Stadium there was no
doubt in my mind that Michigan
had played Ohio State better than
the 10-10 score indicated.
The decision by the Big T e n
athletic directors cannot be con-
strued any other way than politi-
cal. The fact that Dennis Frank-
lin was injured should not have
taken away from the magnificent
team effort that went into the
game. At this point one c a n n o t
really know in what shape Dennis
would be in for the Rose Bowl.
Some people heal faster than
others and besides, it seems totally
unjust to penalize an entire team
because of one individual. There
is a lot of pride involved with the
Michigan team and the decisiontof
the directors has basically slap-
ped the whole team in the face be-
cause of an unfortunate circum-
stance.
The Big Ten has been worried
about its image for the past couple
of years because of successive de-
feats at the Rose Bowl. Yet it
seems to me that the image is
even more tainted because of the
decisioin to send Ohio State. The
image may become even worse
next year if Ohio State wins the
conference championship outright.
Under the current rules 0 h i o
State will be ineligible to go -
no team can go three years run-
ning. Thus it is conceivable that
Ohio State could field the number
one team in the country next year
and be ineligible under the current
rules.
rand Duke':,Gay.
but superficitalart
By JIM KENTCH
Light-hearted gaiety and spectacle are the trademarks of the
current production of The Grand Duke by the University's Gilbert
and Sullivan Society in Mendelssohn Theater. The ,production
conveys the effects inherent in the operetta, but not much else.
Gilbert and Sullivan's work delights immensely but does not
instruct; there is entertainment but no edification, sentiment but
no emotion. When an actress is sentimental it is funny, but
when she sings her supposedly heartfelt sorrow it is difficult to
take her seriously. This art has little redeeming moral value;
it is superficial and hollow but nevertheless amusing.
The action spins crazily around the farcial politics involved
in gaining and reaping the benefits of the Grand Duchy in, the
never-never land of Pfennig Halbpfennig. The Grand Duke is
toppled by his loss in a bloodless "statutory duel" and his
power is usurped by Ludwig, an actor in a theatrical company.
Ludwig ends up having three wives by his victory. He is saved
from marrying a fourth time by the restoration, ex machina, of
the disposed duke by the diligent notary. And - what else? -
everyone marries and lives happily ever after.
The choreoghaphy by Jim Posante stands out in this produc-
tion. The stage is constantly being filled by swirling motion. The
final routine juxtaposes a chorus line, a minuet, and mad but
precise whirlings.
The costumes also add to the spectacle. Although it seemed
as though there weren't enough Austrian peasant costumes to
go around, the togas and outlandish costumes of the "second-
hand" nobles of the second act were very colorful.
The technical aspects of the play displayed mixed quality.
The set for the first act depicted the public square of a small
Austrian town and was mediocre. The set for the second act,
however, was a hall in the Grand Ducal Palace and was com-
pletely apropos to the togas. The lighting was very unimaginative
and several entrances and exits were rather clumsy.
The quality of the singing also varied. Karen Lundgran's ver-
satility and German accent made her stand out in the role of
iiia .iidwi msecond wife. Chris Granentine as Ernest Dunb-
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