A Little Society of Problems
In a recent issue of The PLAIN TRUTH magazine we interviewed Mr. Phillip Abbott Luce, a former member of such an organization. He had led American students to Cuba in direct defiance of the American State Department travel ban to Cuba.
He admitted to having secreted guns in New York City. Mr. Luce soon found oat that the organization he had joined was not what he thought it was. He had joined them as an altruistic young college student expecting to find the answers to the problems of the world.
But he soon found that this capsule society of demonstrators, rioters, bomb planters and shouters possesses the same cross section of social evils it so vociferously claims to be trying to correct.
One only has to read the headlines for proof of this.
Remember the shoot-out at a leading university? Two members of one organization were MURDERED by members of another. Did you read about the annual meeting of the "SDS," a leading radical student organization in June, 1969?
It was absolute pandemonium. For five days the 1,100 delegates battled in some of the bitterest "political" infighting ever seen.
The hostility was so vocal that at one time the president of the organization had to take off his sandal and bang it on the wooden lectern in order to restore "order."
Then consider racism.
Some of the very hard-core organizations among the black community or other minority groups in the United States are ostensibly organized to attack and combat racism.
And yet, as a practical statement of fact, when you see inside those organizations — you cannot find any more inflammatory, enraged, hate-filled, violent racism than in some of those same "anti-racist" organizations!
Only those who themselves are devoid of racism could claim to be the righteous judges of those who still have it. But so long as racism is the tool used to combat racism, man will find the road to a solution of this problem completely BLOCKED.
Who Will Be the Ruler?
Demonstrators are against the "establishment." They are against laws of the land. They seek to destroy the society. As one revolt leader shouted, "Student revolt is not enough. Revolt must be made to spread to workers, like it did in Paris and New York!"
Speaking of these student dissidents, J. Edgar Hoover, Chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said, "They detest (as do the Communists) the military, law enforcement, and other government agencies. They harass military recruiters on campus, heckle prominent government officials, even physically threaten the safety of visitors at their schools." (On Communism, J. Edgar Hoover, page 31)
What could be more anti-American?
The ultimate hope of the student revolt is the overthrow of the existing society. And they admit it in their writings — without fear.
"It has grown much larger," said Daniel Cohn-Bendit of the riots in France, "than we could have foreseen at the start. THE AIM IS NOW THE OVERTHROW OF THE REGIME." (The Student Revolt, edited by Herve Bourges, page 97) The aim of American student rebels is the same. They want to OVERTHROW the American establishment.
But where are Their Solutions?
These same anti-American demonstrators — although incisive in seeing the obvious problems that do exist — do not offer practical solutions to the problems facing mankind.
How would THEY end the war in Vietnam? What guarantee do they have that Communists would not then start a war in Malaya, Indonesia — AUSTRALIA?
How would they solve the racial problem? Remember, many of these organizations are racist themselves! What steps would they take to solve the monetary crises? And the threat of nuclear war — how would they end that? Stop manufacturing nuclear weapons and allow the Soviet Union to blast the United States off the map?
These students are quite unprepared to replace all the institutions they want to destroy. They are quick to discover "grievances," vague in offering solutions.
In question after question, Gene Bradley, writing for the Harvard Business Review, found student revolutionaries have no plan to govern. For example:
" 'But what would you do after you have torn down the Establishment?'
" 'We would devote resources to the communities, where needs exist.'
" 'What would you do in the way of definable programs?'
" 'No such programs could be offered.' The students could only grope for answers as if thinking through the problem-solving process for the first time. 'Perhaps the ghetto residents would start up their own construction companies to build new homes.' " (Harvard Business Review, Sept., Oct., 1968, Gene Bradley, pp. 52, 53. "What Businessmen Need to Know About the Student Left.")
But how does one "start up" a construction company? Who will finance it? Who will decide how many homes will be built where? What about supplies, skilled workers, community planning? You can be sure few student rebels have ever thought this far!
The Silent Majority
Besides the hard core of "activist" demonstrators, there are many hundreds of thousands of students who identify with the movement — depending on the issues involved.
Hundreds of thousands of other students, who may not identify with the movement, are nonetheless confused.
All these students know the world has huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons — enough to kill the population of the earth many times over.
They know of the population explosion and impending famine.
They see a world of wars, of increasing crime, of social injustice and racism, of ill health, and of mental problems.
And they want solutions!
Some blame America for all these problems. But they have no alternative solutions to offer.
Teens for Decency Rally
I remember having gone to a Teens For Decency rally in Florida, near Cape Kennedy, while awaiting the launch of Apollo 10.
I watched a Congressman, the featured speaker, get upon the stand as the pop musicians were waiting their turn. All the youngsters were talking, running about, and eating popcorn.
The Congressman stood up to tell these teenagers how much he appreciated what they were doing and what they stood for — the meaning of their "teens for decency" rally.
The first words out of his mouth were, "Now, kids, I DON'T HAVE ANY ANSWERS, BUT.
And that's the whole trouble! Our young people are being exposed to a number of agonizing questions. They're being told about a world that is on the brink of nuclear insanity. They're told about a world filled with poverty, illiteracy, sickness and disease — with wars and the threat of more, with the continued crisis in the Middle East, with the emergence of a United States of Europe as a third power bloc in the world, with the war in Vietnam.
Facing such problems — and many more — they are being told that there are NO POSITIVE SOLUTIONS. Many Students simply bury their heads in studies and forget the whole thing. Some are simply confused by it all and say nothing. Others demonstrate against some issues they feel personally involved in. Thousands attack the system and blame their own country.
These latter ones lash out in any direction, seizing on the opportunity of the moment. It might be the "People's Park" at Berkeley, a chemical concern, ROTC — or whatever. It's as if they are indulging in a kind of academic tantrum to show their frustration over so many huge problems and so few solutions. Their earnest, and perhaps very sincere desire to see a CHANGE, not only in social conditions around the world, but even a change in human nature, is submerged beneath an emotional outburst against the way things are.
"We Want a Change Here"
They're demanding, in a sense, that the leaders of the academic institutions, the boards of regents, or their teachers in class suddenly create a model environment!
These student demonstrators seem to demand a model little world of their own where there is no social inequality and racism — where there is justice and equity, fairness, freedom, fun, and, significantly, no outside interference with their personal lives.
They want relevant classes, adequate facilities, plenty of fun in the sun. In short, they want an abundant and interesting life. They want life with meaning and solutions to problems.
However, they simply aren't getting what they want. And they can't understand why.
They are demanding change, and they're demanding it RIGHT NOW! The words they use are "us," and "HERE and NOW." They want something that is going to make them happy, that is going to answer all their needs — to fill a big, aching vacuum inside.
The paradox is that BOTH American and "foreign" students — that is, students in other nations — blame the American system for the problems they face. Perhaps ALL expected that America — the world's most single powerful nation, the world's wealthiest nation, the most advanced nation — should have had the resources and incisive ability to give to the world SOLUTIONS to these problems.
There are solutions to the world's ills — believe it or not! The problem is that the United States cannot give those solutions to the world nor can any other nation, as is evidenced by six thousand years of human history.
The Solution to World's Ills
The hard-core dissidents, the new left, the extremists on the right, the altruists, the idealists, the young disillusioned students simply cannot find solutions to the problems they face with the world — in the MANNER they desire.
And there is a great reason WHY! Solutions to the world's problems are coming to this earth — and soon. But they are not coming in the way and from the source that most expect!
If you want to know the REAL CAUSES for the problems of the world, and how they will be solved — then write in for our free, 96-page booklet, The Wonderful World Tomorrow — What It Will Be Like.
This booklet is sent FREE, to those who request it, as a public service by Ambassador College.
The booklet surveys the various segments of today's society. It shows HOW and WHY each has failed to bring peace, prosperity and happiness to the world. This booklet also shows how the solutions to those problems ARE COMING — very soon — in the wonderful world tomorrow. By the 21st century this earth will be the utopia people dream about.
And it's no idle dream. The booklet discusses practical solutions to each and every world problem — from pollution to peace and from economics to marital problems.
And the most interesting part is the way in which these solutions will be affected. Whether student, teacher, housewife, businessman — you cannot afford to be without this vital knowledge.