I’ll probably get thrown in the Eternal Cynics Club for this, but most adults have never contemplated their core values, nor will they. Of the graduating seniors who are listening to such speeches, the ones who think they “have it all figured” are living in idealism will later find themselves attached to other guiding principles.

The last thing we need is another wave of kids ready to “change the world.” Where we DO agree is that people should take an approach to life that is appropriate to them. My advice not only saves the vast majority from a future moment of disconnect and disillusionment, it actually ends up changing the world on the scale of the individual.

Everyone wants someone else to change the course of the climate, yet I have to pay to change the oil in my car. It’s the classic battle of the ideal and the pragmatic.

I think the best advice, certainly what I would give, is for each individual young person to get a good look into themselves and work out what they’re about, what their true values are underneath any conditioning and surface social influence, and what would make them feel fulfilled and ‘doing the right thing’ by their own lights. Which may be ‘changing THE world’, ‘changing THEIR world’, or something else, it doesn’t really matter, as long as they are not co-opted into or out of an approach to life that is not actually appropriate to their real self.

It may be true that many individuals who have tried to change the world have had “much pain, much suffering”, but it is not necessarily the case that they did not have fulfilment, unless you define that as “mild contentment brought by conforming to rather than challenging contemporary/local norms and keeping one’s head down”, which obviously they didn’t. They were motivated to try and change things more fundamentally, so that was what fulfilled them, whatever their fate and treatment. And considering so many GOOD aspects of our world originated with such people I for one deeply respect and celebrate their choice of life.

Corporate communicator and blogger Ike Pigott has penned a graduation speech he hopes to one day give, and it sounds almost nothing like the typical commencement address….

I agree with the premise that our conceptions of how to ‘change the world’ are probably too limited to do the good we are hoping for. But, working to make changes in our own lives, or those around us, can make a big difference on a smaller scale.

When we think about changing the world, it’s with a grand notion that the lives of millions of people will be improved and that we will see the fruits of our labor and be vindicated.

Compassion for the individual gets lost in that line of thinking. And, if you ask me, that’s what it’s really all about. Making a difference in the life of one person is valuable. When we start thinking of the value we can bring to a specific individual, we are more likely to get concrete results.

And, as Cooper said, if we can affect each other as individuals at a local level, then we can work together to bring about those larger changes.

I like the way you phrased it, “I’m not here to bury idealism, just to match it up with the realism that will give us results.”

I also hate the people who do nothing but blame their leaders, the government or the business people for their poverty. We all talk a lot, we often see other’s mistakes but we seldom see or perhaps never acknowledge that we have our own shortcomings.

I’m glad you’re around.

Not at school of course, but from my parents.

I realized that in order to make any I’d
have to at least appear qualified to make that change, thus a change of plans in regards to grad school.

I feel in some cases a larger noise must be made in order for those who can make change to hear, and to provoke those who can effect change take to take the reins,, and sometimes they need a hand.

As is the case with many causes, Darfur in particular, we are still waiting for the change to occur from the bottom up - one day maybe.

If everyone did something in their neighborhood, community, city or state to affect change what amazing difference we would see.

They do not teach that though, at least not in any great depth, in most parts of this country, and it needs to be taught very early, and examples need to be set.

You should take that speech on the road.

As astute as your observations always are…and as mellifluous as you always seem to deliver them with such flowing sentences and word choice…I’d have to say that we’ve not entirely contextualized. There are entire countries — and legions of youth — not to mention, say, the young of Iran, in which over 50% of the population is under 30…imagine telling these oppressed youth that the world isn’t their oyster. I don’t know…somehow, it doesn’t exactly square.

Nothing beats consistency, nothing beats dogged nose to the grindstone type of behaviour, but our young people out here need to be catalyzed. This, to them, would be painful — don’t you realize how they look to their leadership to the West to gain their daily inspiration?

Just a thought…

@Sarah - I honestly didn’t even think of non-profits as I wrote it. But you’re right on the money. (…and being out of the non-profit world yourself, you’re finally with the money.)

@Paul - You have a point, but it would also apply to the standard dose of Vitamin-D Rays that any other speaker would project. Maybe we can send it as mandatory SMS messages to all the kids as they’re at their most sober - driving to the beach.

@Drew - And exactly where would you find a male valedictorian?

@Michael - I don’t think there’s a high school that would want me to give this as a speech. Glad you like it - and I’m sure it will evolve and emerge in some other size or format down the road. Although I feel I have a better chance finding a school that will allow the address than a publishing house that would print “Occam: The Book!”

But your thesis is amazing. Think about flushing it out in print (seriously).