Defending the Pi Eta

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I can only hope that your decision to publish yesterday's letter of Geoffrey Bok '84, of al, was not an implicit endorsement of his weakly argued, bleeding-heart, pecudo-liberal position. Mr. Bok, erroneously grouping the Pi Eta Speaker's Club with all social clubs, attempts to make a clarion call for The Crimson to "impartially explore" how clubs such as the Pi Eta stand in contradiction with independent thinking and encouragement of diversity. In the case of the Pi Eta, this accusation could not be further from the truth and suggests that Mr. Bok has but partially explored the issue.

The attitude of the Pi Eta prevents the accusation of being exclusive. The club is not founded on the assumption that the members should have the right to choose with whom they wish to socialize but rather that whoever wants to socialize with the members should be able to join. All are welcome. The essential raison d'etre for the club is to establish an economy of scale so that the socializing of members and guests can be maximized with costs minimized. The philosophy of the Pi, both economically and socially, is the more the merrier. Is this exclusive? How can this be said to "foster division" when it relies on a broad base of members to prosper?

Mr. Bok graciously warns the Harvard community of the permanent malaise that it fosters in its members through the institution of social clubs like the Pi. The fact that the warning is dubious is less offensive than the total self-right-cousness with which it was uttered. Who is this Geoffrey Bok '84, (however apparent his lineage) that he feels he must guide us through our undergraduate careers? What right has he to self-righteously trumpet and disparage the Pi Eta when he obviously knows little about it? If he is opposed to the Pi, then why does not he quietly avoid it--although it should be added that if he so wishes, even he would be welcomed to join with open arms.

The only thing the Pi Eta fosters is the rational desire to maximize pleasure (socializing) over pain (cost). We can only hope that such an attitude is carried throughout the lives of the Pi Eta's members as it has been in such luminary liberal Pi alumni as Ted Kennedy. The Pi Eta is not an exclusive final club; it is only a beginning. Douglas A. Grant '85