The Mail HAPPINESS HERE

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I am happy being here. I find my students interesting and stimulating. I have learned by listening to faculty and to other students. I found studying for generals gave me an opportunity to read new material and to order it in my own fashion. Research for my thesis has forced me to deal with unfamiliar areas. The contemplative life is not indecent. We each need to save ourselves in our own fashion.

I am happy being here despite the pettiness and irrationality. Academicians are ambitious no less than other men. They have no clear objective standard upon which to evaluate their own work or that of their peers. They live in a personalistic world. The only alternative to personalism is bureaucracy and that is worse. I stopped believing in saints when I was very small. I did not expect to find them at Harvard.

I am happy being here despite requirements which seem silly or absurd. Wisdom comes from living. Learning an academic discipline is only a part of life, even for a graduate student. The knowledge provided by academic disciplines is not wisdom, but wisdom is not possible without knowledge.

I am happy being here despite the growing proclivity to regard some opinions as outside the pale, unworthy of consideration, their proponents unworthy of courteous treatment. Men are not moved by reason alone, but they are not unaffected by rational argument. There can be no argument without contrasting positions. There can be no contrast without a decent regard for the opinions of intelligent men.

I am happy being here despite my lack of illusions. Illusions kill men; every day an illusion of omnipotence places new men-black, white, and yellow-in new graves. The quest for utopia leads to death. Spare me the illusions of my fellow man.