You'd, y'know, slip in and then you'd bury
yourself down there for days.
I would do an enormous amount of reading.
And in fact I certainly learned more in that
semester, I read far more. I didn't have to
worry about school so I could read and think.
And basically I would read books, read books
that started to address some of the concerns
that I had. And some of the concerns that you had
is what you understand and what you saw about
you. You begin to evolve and this is very
personal for everybody but the relationship
between the real world that you saw and what
you felt to be true. The inability of say
the academics, the professors to deal with
the real world.
Why are things happening?
Professor: Well, the president made a wrong
decision.
Presidents don't make wrong decisions. Basically
if you understand and in this process, and
I don't want to give you my views, I want
to talk about how these things evolve and I read.
You read about the Russian revolution, you
read about Cuba and you read and then you really understand
and you say "What's going on? How is this
being reflected in the world I am living?"
For example right now if you want to understand
what goes on in the United States, just let's
use, and we could use 50 example, we'll use Nicaragua, you'll learn more. You don't have to go to Nicaragua, you don't have read
the good books on Nicaragua, if you want to understand
what's going on in America today, you read the New York Times.
And you read the New York Times and you'll understand why they are not talking about what's going on in Nicaragua.
Okay, that's the important story. The important
story is not Nicaragua, it's not the United
State's government's attitude towards Nicaragua
which is no different than it's been in 50 years.
The United States has the right to destroy
any government in Latin America that they
want and that's been consistent for 50-100
years. There's nothing new about that. What
is new is why when you read the New York Times,
the real truth is not being told and how that's
that's obfuscated Okay? That's what the interesting story is. So, if you want to read what goes on,
and you want to know and I was doing that.
I remember reading and beginning to read about
the Cuban revolution, in fact what I was more
impressed about is how it was being reported
in the United States and plus I was beginning
to understand that you don't always hear all
of the truth. That there are a lot of lies
that are going on in society. Okay and that
was for me, a tremendous opening. Reading
volumously as a matter of fact at that time.
The 60's, and one doesn't know, one can't
look back on the 60's the history hasn't been
written, one doesn't know. It was in many
ways a period of exhilaration I felt and a period
of a lot of pain. What began to happen is
a lot of the barriers began to fall down and
people really began to ask hard questions.
What is human life?
And what Rik was talking about was that in
the fifties, and the 70's it's pretty easy.
You go out, you go to school. Teacher tells
you something, you write it down assiduously,
take the exam. Okay? You go out, you get a
job, you get married, it's pretty easy, it's
not that hard. It's nice to have a structured
existence.
And that's pretty much what the 50's were
about and in many ways that's nice and easy.
If somebody tells you how to begin and how
to end, that's pretty easy.
But the 60's, in every area and one led to
another. Was a busting off, and some of it
very very painful and very crazy. I remember,
one time just as an example of that, a friend
of mine, a guy I knew actually, a neighbor when I was
living in New York for a while who was between
you and me not the most sane human being in
the world. And this guy would be playing this
flute or a harp and he's playing away and
it was terrible. And I'd say "God, can't you
play anything?" and he says "This is real
music. It's real, I'm expressing myself."
You know, it was terrible stuff but it was
the feeling, what's the difference between
a Beethoven Concerto and what he was doing?
It's music, y'know, it's it's expression and
y'know I think he was wrong but there was
a feeling that we, that we didn't quite know
one was rejecting old standards, old values
were being smashed asunder and people didn't
quite know how to develop new, new standards
and of course there's always that search for
new standards, but it took pace at a frenetic
pace.
You had certainly in the student movement,
what young people were saying and it developed
more strongly after I left college. People
were saying, it's crap, I don't want to learn
what you're teaching. Okay? This place is
a tough, and many painful decisions that students
had to make basically, I remember, and I remember this and in the beginning of the 60's it was more conservative
than the mid and end 60's. Sitting there and
saying.
Why? Why am i sitting here taking notes for?
This is stupid. You know? Do I really have
to suffer through all this to get the degree?
Or should I go out and do something that's meaningful now?
People were really, many people picked up
and left school. Okay?
People started what they called free universities
all over the place. Many institutions you
had The University, and the Free Version of
that University, down the street.
And in fact more exciting and important courses
were being taught at the free university,
where sometimes the faculty who had been thrown
out of the regular universities were teaching
what they felt was a lot more honest material
than was in the conventional university.
There were battles, I mean here at the University,
there was a lot of friction between the board
of trustees, regarding South Africa and the
students. In the 60's that was going on in
all areas. I remember myself, I have to modestly
admit. Writing a…an article for the Student
Newspaper at the University of Chicago. And
it was called...
