Tuesday, November 5, 1985
Page 4
Daily Nebraskan
La
I DONT KNOW-1 JUST ASKED IT
HOW rAVJCW MONEY VAS LEFT IN t
NX ACCOUNT AND NOW IT WON T
STOP LAUGHING.,,
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Husker fans
he ASUN Senate has asked Nebraskans to support the
university's budget quest by wearing blue to this
Saturday's football game against Iowa State.
In some ways, blue is appropriate. It represents
students and faculty reaction to the potential budget
cuts, tuition increases, course eliminations and low salaries.
But UNL is the home of the Big Red, not the Big Blue. If one
thing can unify this state, it is Husker football and the color
red.
Asking Big Red fans to wear blue breaks a tradition, and
ASUN could have trouble finding supporters willing to forgo
the ritual.
The traditional sea of red balloons in Memorial Stadium
would be violated because student government representa
tives plan to distribute 2,000 blue balloons, as well as blue
stickers that say "Save the State Support the University."
Gerard Keating, ASUN president, defended the blue plan,
saying that balloons, stickers and blue-clad students would
stand out in the red multitudes and catch peoples' attention.
They will wonder what the blue represents, and become more
interested in the plight of the university, Keating said.
If it works, that is.
Using Husker football to publicize the NU budget battle is a
smart move. Football is the most visible part of the campus,
and 76,000 people already will be gathered to support one
university program athletics.
But asking fans to wear blue is questionable. Red-to-the-core
Husker fans will be hard-pressed to turn blue, even for one
game.
A more feasible option might have been to ask the 76,000
fans to show support for the university by signing petitions
opposing the $5 million NU budget cuts.
The petitions then could be used to persuade state legisla
tors that Nebraskans do value their university and want to
support it.
Asking Husker fans to wear blue breaks a tradition. And
right now the university needs to stress its traditions and its
contributions to the state.
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Caveat emptor
n in ft
me pros aiM corns 01 cynicism
' "-'0
I have often been accused of being a
cynic (I hear those gasps of unbelief
thank you), and I must say that I
wear the monicker with pride.
It has been said that a cynic is one
who knows the price of everything and
the value of nothing. I prefer a slightly
modified metaphor. I believe that a
cynic is one who is convinced that most
things are not worth what they cost.
James
Sennett
As I see it, there are at least three
major characteristics of cynicism. Each
u. I
intentions. Cynicism must also be
tempered with a willingness to be
taken, for it is only if one will risk being
used that any good will ever be
accomplished.
Second, cynicism always questions
the opinions of the masses. The life of
the cynic is a lonely one. The minute an
idea or practice becomes popular, the
cynic must withdraw into transcendent
analysis. The cynic is aware that the
public has a horrid track record for
committing itself to things of any.
lasting value.
This becomes a real problem when
something which he has believed for
years suddenly becomes vogue. He is
immediately forced to re-examine his
attention. The cynic has admitted what
many are afraid of that most prob
lems are dealt with rather than solved;
most questions are discussed rather
than answered, and most crises are
weathered rather than overcome. The
observations you bring are but the
latest in a long dialogue that includes
much from many who have agonized
over the issues. You are not going to
circumvent that process in a single
moment of brilliant insight.
The danger here is despair. Who
wants to live in a world of open-ended
sentences? The danger is met at least
two ways. First, with a reminder that
we have solved many problems
though only through painfully slow and
thinking and often ends up abandoning costly processes. For every AIDS, there
a iormer position, realizing that it was is a polio. For every South Africa, there
not as air-tight as he thought. If it
of these is both useful and dangerous. I appeals so easily, it has most likely
oner this overview as a service to been watered down or totally perverted,
anyone just waking up to the fact that But the danger here is that very
is a Birmingham.
But we also hedge on despair with a
shift of focus that admits that questions
are keys to growth. Maturity olten
it's not all silver platters and cotton worthy causes and ideals get lost in a comes from understanding the ques-
candy clouds out there
First, a cynic takes nothing at face
value. She has been burned enough to
realize that there is almost always a
hidden agenda. Most motives are
camouflaged. Consequently, there is
little reason to believe the first think
you hear about any subject.
This brings a real danger of destroy
ing trust, and life without trust is
hideous. So, cynicism must be mixed
with naivete a surrender to the idea
that you are always ready to be surprised
by someone who is not well-attuned
enough to the system to hide his
basic mistrust of the populi Again, a
certain level of naivete is required,
because every once in a while people
come up with good ideas and worthwhile
projects, in spite of themselves.
Finally, cynicism asks more ques
tions than it offers answers. The cynic
has discovered that the path to truth is
paved with question marks and semi
colons. There is always something more
to be said. An answer that can be given
over a cup of coffee is worth about as
much as the coffee.
We live in an extremely complex
world that requires extremely complex
tions rather than hallucinating answers.
Perhaps the most useful legacy we
could leave our children is a world
where questions are not ignored or
trivialized, but faced for the dilemmas
and opportunities which they are.
The art of cynicism is in keeping the
questions in their proper place as
beasts of burden to be put to work,
rather than as game animals to be
hunted and slain.
Sennett Is a UNL graduate student in
philosophy and campus minister of the
College-Career Christian fellowship.
Is this Ronald Reagan speaking?
'Summittalk' sounds almost liberal
Pardon my egotism, but somewhere
in his recent interview with re
porters for the British Broad
casting Corp., President Reagan must
have thought of me. Knowing my pen
chant for criticizing him and consider
ate of my need for column material, the
Gipper decided to flub one for Cohen:
Richard
Cohen
"I'm not linguist, but I have been told
that in the Russian language there isn't
even a word for freedom." Nice try, Mr.
President, but it didn't work. Aside
from not knowing your Russian
(svoboda means freedom) there was
nothing in that interview to criticize.
If you had not known the BBC was
interviewing Reagan, you would be
hard pressed to identify him as the
object of all this journalistic attention.
You would know he was a high govern
ment official, but his political party
not to mention his ideology would
hardly be obvious. From the language,
it could even have been Sen. Edward
Kennedy. In his waning presidency,
Reagan seems to be slouching towards
Hyannisport.
Here, is the man who once called the
Soviet Union "the evil empire" now
saying we and they must work
together to "eliminate some of the
paranoia." We have to "reduce the
hostility, the suspicion that keeps our
two countries ... at odds with each
other." After conceding that when it
comes to political systems, East is East
and West is West and probably never
will the twain meet, the president
added, "We can have a peaceful
competition. We have to live in the
world together." There isn't "any reason
why we can't coexist ..." With that,
neoconservatives and conservatives
alike must have felt like plunging from
a very high window.
A cynical person would say the
president had lapsed into Summittalk,
the strange language of conciliation
that babbles from the lips of world
leaders when Geneva's on their mind.
Maybe. But it is the sort of language
that Reagan could not have conceivably
spoken three or more years ago. It not
only does not describe the Soviet Union
as the Darth Vader of nations, but
makes the president sound suspiciously
like the liberals and moderates he once
disdained. After all, the right says only
liberals hold out the promise of peace
ful coexistence with the Soviet Union
mushy-minded reasoning that under-
mines U.S. resolve.
" Please see COHEN on 5