Conscious Versus Conformity

1967 was a watershed year in America: Vietnam was in full-swing, The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of mixed-race marriages, and all over the country massive protests against the war were taking place on college campuses. Eric Bentley, a noted scholar, critic, and playwright, wrote in the pages of the January 1967 issue of Playboy “Conscious Versus Conformity”, an opinion piece which proposed that not only were these anti-war protests on college campus needed, but they demonstrated the vibrancy of the American ideal where democracy requires the questioning of the status quo. In many ways this article epitomized the Philosophy in speaking out against censorship and supression, both enemies of everything Bentley and Hefner held dear.