Eric is covering the physical aspects of the riots in Berkeley. I’d like to give a bit of attention to the moral aspects. Or How Mario Savio became a hero of the right.
In 1964, Berkeley student Mario Savio addressed his peers in a speech about the importance of the free and open discussion on college campuses. In his address, Savio argued that the university must return to it’s intended function where students are invited to explore all ideas – both radical and mainstream – freely and without fear of social or academic repercussion.
I was going to Navy ET school on Treasure Island when Savio was making his points at Berkeley in ’64. When I had liberty I used to go to the Berkeley campus to watch the fun. I had a few friends on campus. I got to hear Mario speak – live. At one demonstration I was not more than 10 ft from him. I agreed with him. Free speech is important. It should not be shut down.
Now more than ever, we need to listen to Savio’s impassioned plea for a return to a university that values a diversity of perspectives, keeping in mind that, tonight, the students who follow in the tradition of socialistic activism at UC Berkeley burned the ground on which he once spoke in the demand that the university censor speech that they found objectionable.
Tonight, Berkeley betrayed the free speech movement for which the institution is famous. The university has much work to do if it is to protect the legacy of Mario Savio and reclaim the values espoused by the Free Speech Movement of some 50 years ago.
Well yeah. It is pretty obvious who the Brown Shirts are in these days. They are the ones who would deny Free Speech. Just as they did in Germany in the 1930s. And to think the lefties are calling Trump, “Hitler”. They should be looking in a mirror if they want to find Hitler.
Comments
5 responses to “Mario Savio – Hero Of The Right?”
You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we all want to change the world.
The Left has never been committed to democratic institutions. It’s just another means to their ends, total control of everything.
Which ideas, exactly, weren’t being discussed at Berkeley in 1964? Universities were already full of liberals, leftists and Marxists by then. Wasn’t the free speech movement just another front for the KGB inspired anti war movement?
[…] the 60s I was on scene for a lot of it. I describe a little of that here. And just in case you want to really get into the zeitgeist of that era here are a couple of songs […]
[…] the 60s I was on scene for a lot of it. I describe a little of that here. And just in case you want to really get into the zeitgeist of that era here are a couple of songs […]
My mom was at Berkeley a few years earlier.
She remembers the “unwashables,” as folk like her called them, setting up in the centre of campus – 20 or so of them – waiting for the next class change. Then, when the sea of students flooding from one class to the other filled the quad, the news station would show up, and they’d get loud.
Your evening news: Sea of student protest.
Maybe by ’65 it was real. It wasn’t then. They just wanted to be able to use the campus to raise money for their commie masters.
For them, free speech was always the rope they were going to sell us so we could be hung with it.
It’s worth defending, mind. But use Alinsky’s rules.