By: John Davis

John Davis
Thu, 25 Jun 2020 02:50:44 +0000

I was there. I was in the Mathematics Building as a graduate student in statistics when the rioters came to the building and blocked the front door. They were yelling and screaming. Most of it was unintelligible, and it seemed every other word was motherf**k this and motherf**k that. My impression was that they were totally frustrated, totally out of control, and totally mindless. I decided to leave and go home. (I commuted from Grove City), and fortunately the protesters forgot there was a back door, which I used. At the time, I surmised that many of the rioters were not students at the university.

I am not downplaying the frustrations the students had with the Vietnam war, the draft, equal rights, and racism, as well as with the University administration, the Columbus elected officials, and the police. Their frustrations were legitimate, in my opinion.

However, there are other aspects that are overlooked. I will make two points.

The first is that my impression is that many of the students grew up in a culture loaded with hypocrisy. I certainly observed it. They saw adults, including their parents, talk about equality and fairness, but then they saw them denying housing to blacks or high-paying jobs to women. They saw them say that your life is your own, but then supported the draft. Hypocrisy seemed to reign supreme.

They legitimately saw many societal things wrong but did not know what to put in their place. They saw the inevitable consequences of a bankrupt collectivist philosophy but did not know of a pro-life individualist philosophy based on reason. They wanted to tear down the pillars of a corrupt society but didn’t know what kind of society to put in its place.

So, one underlying factor, then, was the predominant collectivist philosophy. (Unfortunately, it is more predominant and more collectivist 50 years later.)

The second point is that no one forced any of them to attend The Ohio State University. Putting aside the issue of whether the state should be in the education business, the voters of Ohio had fundamentally designated the University administration to set the rules of the university, even though many were irrational (but that is not the point. If you didn’t like the rules, you didn’t have to attend. Pure and simple.

Rioting and destruction of property are not the way to create a peaceful society. Rather they will lead to a general unrest and a clamp-down of our precious liberties and freedoms.

All these thoughts I presented to the State of Ohio legislative committee investigating the riots.