WOI TV: News Clips 420

Dr. Harris I wonder if it would be fair to ask you to comment on the changing of the significance of the sexual revolution if you will as it relates to the student and his involvement with his community with his parents with the faculty members and I'll let you narrow that question any way you want to well that's a big question trying to put it into a nutshell I think perhaps one could say that the major change between the present decade and probably all previous decades is that in the past young people have rebelled against their parents against their elders it's something that's always happened but in the past they have I think more easily and more quickly gone back to the standards the traditional patterns of their parents in that of the past at the present time these these old authoritarian value systems are weakening I think there's less tendency for them to go back to an old system I think there's a greater necessity for them to work out a system for themselves a new value system which they can live by do you think that this is do you view this as an opportunity that bodes well for mankind at least as we find him here or do you feel that it is terribly fraught with dangers well I'm an incorrigible optimist I I think I think it is a good opportunity I think it will have to be taken and used as an opportunity but it seems to me that it's always a good thing when an an occasion arises and we have to think and we have to reevaluate the patterns that have come down from the past we don't have a an ideal civilization there are many dangers for our civilization I think it's a it's a tragic kind of thing that people spend so much time thinking about sexual morality and not very much time thinking about what's happening in Vietnam you see and if if if our if our young people are questioning these old values let's use every resource that we have at our disposal science, history, anthropology which is my field which of course I'm interested in getting in and religion as long as it's not the dogmatic authoritarian religion which really is being turned off as they say these days but if it's a religion which brings in the the best the greatest inspiration man has had at his highest moments the visions he's had if we can combine this with science if the knowledge we now have about human nature about the way in which personality develops all of these things I think we can work on a new value system which will be a good one I think it will challenge our young people and our old people I think we can rise to challenge I quite agree with the old lady that I know who insists on you know when a friend of hers says well in my day they didn't do that and the woman turns to her and says this is my day what would anthropology have to offer as far as making a beneficial use at this time of change there's a no I won't there's a cuneiform tablet which was dug up somewhere in the ruins of I think it was a Syria or Babylonia which talks about young people going to the dogs they don't obey their elders they don't obey the laws everything is going at a decline of course the fact is that that culture did go into decline people have been saying that for at least 3,000 years and probably for 10,000 or more who knows young people have always done things differently than their parents have it seems to me however from an anthropological point of view that we really have a great deal of knowledge now about the way value system is fit together we know that morality is something which belongs to a value system we also know that that cultures come out with different kinds of people and we can't make objective judgments scientifically we have to simply compare scientifically but as people we do have to make judgments but the information which comes out of these cultural comparisons makes it possible for us to implement the the highest vision we have of human personality you see and the highest knowledge we have about what human personality what human character what the human being is actually capable of becoming and if we put all these things together it's a tremendous opportunity as I see it I would think that one of the things that unnerves those of us who are on the other side of the generation gap is that during the time that student is in college he is learning and he's challenging and he's questioning and if he is practicing free love or any other kind this is fine this is now and whether you go in for the playboy philosophy or Dr. Ellis or anyone else along the line that's one thing as its viewed in this one group what about the dispersing of these attitudes into society and into the community in general I suppose one of the things we have to recognize is that many of the things which we think are absolutely tragic are completely destructive may actually not be perhaps we shouldn't be quite so much afraid of what's happening these kinds of things have always happened I know a college president who was fired because he this happened some years ago because he allowed too much necking in the women's dorm I know one who was fired because he didn't go to the football games well this particular man defended himself by saying that during the years in which he'd been president there hadn't been but I think three pregnancies among the unmarried college girls whereas in the previous equal period of years they'd been 13 this kind of thing's always happened you see and we ought to look at this a little bit more openly a little bit more acceptingly I'm not saying we ought to buy all these new ideas I'm suggesting we simply ought to evaluate them intelligently in evaluating them would you agree with those who say that the university or college student of today is more moral rather than less moral than his parents may have been I don't know that I'd say he's more moral I think he's a great deal more honest I think he's I think he's seeking perhaps more than his parents did I think his parents were much more ready to accept the the traditional pattern one that was handed down one one wish by the way I think was not so very good in the long run the the marriages I've seen among my own generation have not all been perfect marriages they may be very moral in the sense of everything being legal but there's been an awful lot of unhappiness among a lot of them and I think perhaps a more honest generation that looks at sex more openly that isn't afraid of sex that isn't afraid of nudity perhaps that sees the human body is something which is basically a good thing rather than a bad thing I think all of this will make them capable of of looking at sex in a way which will perhaps create a greater degree of happiness in families in the future I wonder if there it will not be increasingly different difficult for the student who rebels against his parents and the hypocrisy of their generation and the the evaluating of morality in terms of income tax forums and stopping at stop signs it would seem that the insecurity that may come just from this ruptured relationship might have rather violent implications for him yes I think this is all part of what's causing a so-called sexual revolution I think it's part of their rebellion against Authority I think I think young people a lot of people are recognizing hippies for example recognize that the the morality of their parents generation is is not a real morality it's to a large extent a false morality it's a facade and they've broken the facade I don't think they always have anything to put in place of it and I think much of their talk about love which i think is a good thing you see I think much of their talk about love is a kind of neurotic seeking of that which they're not really capable of giving but but the same for the same reason you see if we can really understand what love means and what deep personal interpersonal relationship means then perhaps we can put sex into this context and we can build a value system in which sex will have a genuine place in which enjoyment can really happen and I'm not saying now whether or not it's going to follow the same patterns or not I don't really know what patterns it's going to follow all I can suggest is that we have the responsibility of working out this value system which will make it a good thing rather than something which is which is thought to be a pleasurable thing which is what we're afraid of you see it's rather difficult to quarrel with the placards and the demonstrators who carry signs saying love right it is thank you very much for talking with us thank you the information I have from students that I've talked to who have grown up in the Israeli kibbutz is very interesting related to sex they don't have these strong taboos against premarital sex for example that we have in in this country they don't think too much about it and yet there's really very little of it I think this is tremendously significant I think perhaps one of the things which is back of this almost neurotic seeking after sex which you find in our culture sale of Playboy magazines and and all of this sort of thing the commercialization of sex that you find on the radio on TV and movies and every billboard and pornography all of this sort of thing I think perhaps this is because none of us had enough love when we were children we weren't nursed long enough we didn't have this close skin contact we didn't have the kind of support which treats us as people rather than as as things we tend to treat children as things in our culture and all of us grew up with a kind of longing a seeking after love and we get to be mature and we equate love with sex and then we go chasing after sex when sex really isn't that isn't the perspective sex plays in life is in the normal situation and perhaps the kibbutzim have managed to create a greater degree of normality in their culture than we have would this be because they were always surrounded by loving approval of a sort or I think so yes I think they they've always been surrounded by people who love them who supported them who forgave them when they did wrong who if someone scolded them somebody else they can go to and get comfort for it you see this child has to have this otherwise he grows up with a hollow inside he has to have this for self respect this also provided some reinforcement for the working mother yes I think perhaps it does it also explains why perhaps the Haganah can have men and women both as soldiers right right