Trudeau Warns Seniors Not to Dwell on the '60s

Speaking before an enthusiastic Class Day audience, Doonesbury cartoon creator Garry Trudeau yesterday called members of the Class of 1983 part of the "disco preppy generation."

But he reassured the graduating seniors whose generation has often been characterized as apathetic that their commitment is no less fervent than that of Trudeau's contemporaries, "the generation that took to the street."

"It's no wonder that you've turned inward," remarked the cartoonist, noting that today's youth has stood in the shadow of the more politically active generation of the '60s left to weather the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate.

In an address which some observers termed more political than they had expected the Pulitzer Prize winning Trudeau who is now on a sabbatical from drawing his strip covered a range of topics, attacking the Reagan Administration for its policies and cautioning Harvard students against overemphasizing the importance of success.

Trudeau's remarks to the Tercentenary Theater crowd followed addresses by three graduating seniors, who delivered the traditional Harvard, Radcliffe, and humorous Ivy orations.

Parallels

Observing the tendency to look upon the generation of the '60s as the "reference point of youth" and the resulting despair among today's students "of having missed something, of having been born too late for the golden generation of the students," Trudeau offered his view that generations alternate between activity and inactivity.

Like the "suburban generation" of the Eisenhower years and the "lost generation" of the '20s, the period of the '80s is inactive by comparison to the age of Walter Lippmann and the "revolution" of the '60s, Trudeau said. He added that the periods of inactivity are necessary rest periods which society uses to regenerate itself.

But unlike the prosperity of the '20s and '50s, Trudeau continued, the '80s are beset by economics problems unheard of in earlier eras, remaining his audience of the right job market they will soon confront.

Launching onto an attack of the economic policies of the Reagan Administration. Trudeau's hatangue ran the gamut from quips about the integrity of Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan to Administration efforts to out back on school lunch programs.

George Bush once remarked that he wanted to restore the stars to the eyes of the third graders. I think the third graders might prefer to have their lunches restored." Trudeau told the receptive crowd which interrupted the cartoonist several times with applause.

As an example of the commitment shown by the generation of the '80s. Trubeau applauded a series of recent student efforts nationwide to keep figures such as U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick off companies which sought to honor her. To critics of these protests--who believe that such oustings of public officials is a violation of the freedom of speech--he countered. "When she was hosted from the stage at Berkeley this year, she was experiencing an expression of a free open society.

Trudeau's presence set the lone for the afternoon's program in which all three student speakers sprinkled their remarks with references to the characters of his Doonesbury strip. Like Trudeau the student speakers also referred to the supposed apathy among today's youth toward everything but personal fulfillment.

At one point Trudeau illustrated this theme with references to the Crimson implying that the paper's intricate Merrarctal structure--which accords all staff members the title of editor--served little more than the desire among students for "massive resume padding."

During a brief visit in the newspaper's Plympton St. offices after his address. Trudeau padded The Crimson's Comment Book with a sketch of his cartoon's namesake. Mike Doonesbury, who has been out of public view since Trudeau began his 18-months break in January.

In the Harvard Oration, James Kent Walker '83 observed that two cultural pillars of his generation stopped this year--the television series "M*A*S*H," and Doonesbury Walker remarked that the main characters in both series set an example for commitment "to make the world better." And for the Class of 1983. Walker added, "nothing says this commitment has to be political."

In a speech aimed at Radcliffe students, Radcliffe Orator Kathleen I Kouril '83 cautioned her classmates against placing too great a value on success, or at least the success defined by men's standards. Today's Radcliffe graduates, she said, should not be concerned" not with how to make it in a man's world, but how to make the world.

Michael Ferris '83's Ivy Oration poked fun at the stereotype of the Harvard student concerned only with success. The Lampoon editor addressed his remarks to "fellow classmates, alumni and future employers," in a last paced speech virtually punctuated by continuous laughter from the audience.

You don't have to succeed at everything to be a success any more than you have to fail everything to be a miserable failure," he quipped.

Ferris dispelled any traces of ambition with his final remark. "Look for me among the crowd of doctors and lawyers. I'll be the one pushing the broom