Page 4
Thursday, March 12, 1987
Daily Nebraskan
: da tons.
a Daily i
T T
sorasican
University ol Nebraska-Lincoln
Mips
and.
ASUN election: taste, trash
M
onduy night, Tim Burke,
Eric Lambert and Andy
Ketterson announced
themselves as write-in candidal es
fortheASl'N elections under the
party name of NOFAG. They said
that homosexuality should be
prevented on campus.
Obviously, the party and its
platform is a joke and in poor
taste. Others feel the same way;
the Daily Nebraskan received
several calls. But the DN's print
ing of the article was not con
doning the party's platform. The
DN's job isn't to stop people from
offending others. It's election
time, and these people had
something to say. The DN tried
to provide accurate and equal
coverage during the election.
O A Nebraska State Student
Association flyer also is decried
in poor taste. The headline on
the flyer read, "Piss off ASUN.
. .Vote for NSSA, March 11."
Other flyers supporting NSSA
can be seen around campus and
are done more tactfully. There's
nothing wrong in seeking sup
port for an organization, but it
shouldn't be done at t he expense
of another.
O In Tuesday's editorial, "Sup
port I'nite," the following sent
ence may be interpreted incor
rectly if not read carefully. The
Letter
Memory-improvement questioned;
program participation discouraged
Boh Kittell, a Utah businessman, is
in Lincoln today through Saturday con
ducting memory-improvement semin
ars at the Clayton House. The cost is
$2." for a two-hour session, which in
cludes a 10-page workbook. While I
don't want to discourage anyone from
attending, some of Kittell's claims
made personally or in an accompanying
flyer are dubious at best and bear close
scrutiny.
The existence of Kittell's company,
Memory Improvement Systems (assum
ing the logo implies companyhood), is
suspect. No such business is listed
witii the Utah Better Business Bureau.
The testimonial of Dr. Paul Timm, a
BVl professor, about the value of Kit
tell's memory seminar, is suspect. Timm
works for Prime Learning International,
a company that organizes seminars on
memory improvement and secretarial
stress. It is probable that Kittell also
works for this company as a presenter,
. since his name and phone number are
available through them. In any even,
Timm's testimonial should be discount
ed as highly biased.
The claim that Kittell "developed"
this system of memory improvement is
suspect. Mnemonics have been around
since the time of the Greeks, and the
pen-and-ink system of enhancing short
term memory is not much younger.
Most likely, Kittell uses a variation of
methods described for free on audio-ca.-settes
or in books available in any
nujor library.
The claim that Kittell memorized a
p; e out of the phone book in four
hours using "his" system is suspect.
Assertions like this are made all the
time by genius and idiot savant alike.
While there is no sense arguing over
whether such a feat is possible (not
Jrll KixlM-itk, Editor, i?J I7(i(i
.bunt's Kd'i's. I'tlilnrial Vitc Editor
Lim- OInhi, Assot inte Xeirs Editor
Mike Krillry, Xiyht Sens Editor
Joan Urzae, ( '"' Ih'sk Chief
sentence read: "Special interest
groups including minorities
should lobby the governing body,
not be a part of it." For clarifica
tion, the sentence didn't mean
that minorities should be ex
cluded from senate, but that
spots designated for minority
groups should be. The ASUN
Senate should not be composed
of groups such as the Interfra
temity Council, Residence Hall
Association or GayLesbian Stu
dent Association.
O Older students may have
noticed that salaries for ASUN
executives was not included on
the Fund A survey on this year's
ballot. Student authorization is
needed for ASUN to recommend
allocation of money from Fund A
to organizations. For about the
past four years students have
voted down salaries for ASUN
executives. They probably felt
they didn't have much of a chance
again this year.
O The DN encourages repre
sentatives from the parties to
pick up the litter covering the
campus. Every year on election
day the campus is "trashed"
with party flyers. If students
have the time to hand out the
leaflets, they have the time to
pick them up.
knowing how many columns the page
had or how large the print was), only a
person of preternatural ability or exten
sive practice with "Kittell';s" system
could accomplish such a task. Even
then, this "impress your friends" pro
nouncement smacks of hucksterism.
Kittell's cloaking of the memory
input process in the guise of medita
tionmysticism (re the trance-like stat
entered into upon being given a number
and associated object is just plain
goofy. If the method is valid (which it
is) and easily explained (which it is),
why introduce elements of voodoo
(except to sway gullible listeners)?
Granted, these discrepancies seem
picayune for something like $25. I
acknowledge that I know very little
about this field, nor have I ever attended
Kittell's seminar. In all fairness, Prime
Learning International is a legitimate
company, Kittell is a polished per
former, and, if he's at all competent,
attendees will learn simple constructs
for vastly improving certain aspects of
recall and have fun at the same time
(forming chimeric images or scatologi
cal mnemonics can be quite humor
ous). For students averse to reading a
book or spending time in the library,
Kittell's lecture is probably the least
painful way to expand your mind (some
thing like attending a Talking Heads
concert).
For participants who learn to asso
ciate a tie with carrots (or Kittell's
permutation thereof) to help remember
what's first on the shopping list and
find this a less-than-startling revela
tion for $25, don't say you weren't
warned.
John Osborn
chemistry
X Thought
wws
I BP
Single-minded subcultures ignore standard of criticism
Athenian: Well, shall we give the
name bad now to the man who is
defeated by pain, or to him who
is defeated by pleasure as well?
Clinias: think it belongs more
properly to one who is defeated
by pleasure. And I im agine all of
us are readier to say that one
who is mastered by pleasure is
shamefully self defeated than to
say it of one who succumbs to
pain.
Plato, "Laws"
As with so much else, it seems, our
public discussions about art
and music in particular are
impoverished. The rather curious ongo
ing discussion between rock artists
and Baptists highlights the reduction
ism of both camps. As with all instan
ces of int ellectual reductionism, neither
side encompasses a reasonable ap
proximation of truth because of their
single-minded insistencies.
Now, the Baptists argue that the
words of many a rock song are quite
vulgar (which they are). The rock
artists, in turn, respond that nobody
listens to the words anyway; they listen
to the tunes. And even if they do listen
to the words, what business is it of the
Baptists anyway? Both expressions
reflect the emphases of the respective
subcultures.
For example, go to any Baptist church
(or even any evangelical church) and
one cannot help but be struck by the
severely impoverished nature of the
music. Many of the tunes would fit bet
ter in a circus arena or a sappy easy
listening music station. If a person is
Visit proves monumental failure
of sanctions against South Africa
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
This is my eighth visit to South
Africa in the past 25 years. This
time I am one of about 30 journalists
and educators on a fact-finding tour
organized and financed by the Rev. Sun
Myung Moon's World Media Association.
We will be spending two weeks talk
ing to spokesmen for just about every
imaginable position on South African
affairs, from President P.W. Botha and
U.S. Ambassador Edward Perkins to
Soweto firebrand Nthato Motlana and
Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Our
group itself boast a variety of talents
and spectrum of opinions, including as
it does former assistant secretary of
state Stefan Halper, Southern Chris
tian Leadership Conference national
tap
(ick
0
I
ft.
n
rude enough to point out the ridiculous
tunes backing up (sometimes) some of
the most majestic and noble words
ascribing greatness to the most holy
God, one is curtly told, "Well, then,
focus on the words."
Choirs become social events where
everybody is encouraged to come out,
"even if you can't sing." After all, so the
thought goes, "God doesn't care how it
sounds." Well now, if God doesn't care
how it sounds, how come all the hym
nals have notes in them?
Jim fej
Rogers T A
-
Certainly congregational singing is
not to be measured by the same stand
ard as art music. After all, all God
requires of the congregations, as the
psalmist puts it, is to "raise a joyful
noise." Now can do that. But art music
is supposed to encompass a symbolic
form which musically points to another,
higher reality. Bad artistic reproduc
tion hardly advances this cause.
When we turn to rock artists, many
defend their lyrics (since that's all the
Baptist cares about) from the assault
by arguing you can't understand them
anyway. That could be true, but then
the obvious question is: Why are any
words included instead of, say, guttural
sounds (which seems to be many a rock
singer's native tongue off the stage).
vice president John Nettles and former
Hudson Institute president Dr. Max
Singer, to mention only three of my
colleagues.
William
A.
Rusher
Not even the jet age has managed to
bring South Africa really close to Amer
ican shores. Our trip involved a seven
hour flight from Washington to London,
another five and a quarter hours en
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V
r-
7 Tfi
The real bone I have to pick with
rock artists and their genre defenders
is their insistence (be they secular or
religious) that themes are "neutral"
and that they are good or bad depend
ing only on the pleasure they evoke
from any given listener. That is, their
implicit aesthetic standard is a hedonic
standard.
Thus, Bach cantatas are supposed to
be on the same level, qua aesthetic expe
rience, as any other tune depending
on the "taste" of the listener. In this
sphere of aesthetic relativism, there is
no objective beauty or ugliness.
Vet this position hardly accounts for
the profoundly "spiritual" (for want of
another term) backdrop of this visceral
form of communication called music.
As the Athenian argued in Plato's
"Laws," "when a man tells us in music
pleasure is the standard of judgment,
we must refuse to accept his state
ment. It is not this type of music, if
indeed there could be such a type,
which we should make our serious
object, but that other which retains its
likeness to the model of the noble."
Now this is not to say that there is no
modern music (or rock music) which is
not objectively beautiful. Rather, it is
to say that there is a standard of criti
cism that can be applied. Discussion of
music is not vitiated by the bland
assertion, "You like what you like, I
like what I like." There is a common ground,
though perceived and understood only
dimly, and thus a ground for real dis
cussion and debate.
Rogers is a graduate economics and law
student and Daily Nebraskan editorial
page editor.
v
route from London to a refueling stop
on Una do Sol in the Cape Verde
Islands (where we watched a Soviet
transport plane take off for Angola with
a fresh supply of Cuban troops) and a
final eight-hour haul southeastward to
Johannesburg.
We have spent the trip's first several
days in this capital city of South Afri
can business, and naturally I seized the
opportunity to inquire what effect U.S.
economic sanctions against South
Africa, imposed by Congress over Pres
ident Reagan's veto, are having. Pre
cisely as predicted by those of us who
opposed them all along, they are having
almost every effect save the one intended
See RUSHER on 5