Intellectual symposia in 1968 routinely degenerated into physical confrontation within minutes

Evidence

A poor sound system delayed “Theater or Therapy?” for half an hour, more time than required for the proceedings to descend into what the New York Times reported as “a free-for-all that sometimes verged on physical violence.” The first panelist, Robert Brustein (who had brought the Living to Yale in September 1968 and soon regretted it) was subjected to a barrage of razzing that the lead heckler, Living member and former coffeehouse comedian Steven Ben Israel, called “a high seminar in brain damage repair.” — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1424

Categorization

• CANDY: The image of a $10-a-head intellectual symposium degenerating into Ben Israel calling heckling ‘a high seminar in brain damage repair’ is a fun, tweetable scene.