Commencement address

President Samhat, faculty and staff, honored guests, families, friends, and, most importantly, members of the Class of 2024.

Fifty-nine years ago, almost to the day, I sat with my classmates on the front lawn of Old Main, listening to the commencement speaker, and, thinking: “When will he shut up so we can go to lunch?”

While I remember his name, and that he was a prominent alumnus of the College, to this moment I cannot recall a single word he said. I am sure his message contained the customary commencement address mix of platitudes, pep-talk, and apocalyptic imagery, healthy portions of which I will throw your way today.

A half century or so from now, when one of you is up here, it won’t matter that you do not recall what is said today or who said it. What will matter is your having remembered, and applied, what you learned in these past four years from this distinguished and dedicated faculty.

I won’t keep you long because I know you are eager to celebrate with your families and friends, and embark on the next phase of your life’s journey, as you leave the comfort zone of your alma mater.

Alma mater, as you likely know, is Latin for “kindly” or “nourishing” mother. And that is precisely what Wofford has been during your time here. Wofford has nurtured you as a mother would, providing you with the tools you will need to meet the challenges of the deeply riven world outside that gate.

Your liberal arts education will serve you well as you navigate a world brimming with turmoil and uncertainty.

The British ethologist, Richard Dawkins, in a statement both obvious - and insightful, has observed regarding humans and liberal education:

“No other species has literature, music, art, mathematics and science. No other species makes books or complicated machines… No other species devotes substantial lengths of time to pursuits that don’t contribute directly to survival or reproduction.”

The capacity to communicate, to create, to think, and to adapt, are the hallmarks of the liberally educated person.

These are the skills and capacities Wofford has instilled in you. You will certainly need them as you exit this nurturing environment and enter the “real” world.

While many forces for good exist in that world, it is increasingly beset by bigotry, incivility, hostility and, by the coarsened rhetoric which attends and gives voice to those behaviors.

The New York Times columnist, David Brooks, in his essay “How America Got Mean” makes a compelling case for how this truculence feeds the corrosive effect those behaviors have on the moral fiber of our nation. And the threat they pose to our democratic institutions.

Benjamin Franklin, exhibiting the Founders’ disdain for the divisiveness wrought by political factions, likely foresaw the threat posed by this hostility in his famous colloquy with Elizabeth Powel, when, asked by her as he emerged from the constitutional convention in 1787, “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

Franklin’s reply: “A republic if you can keep it.”, bespoke his assessment of the fragility of our nascent governing form. He knew that democratic republics are dependent upon the people’s involvement and support. Involvement, in turn, requires us to treat one another with dignity and respect if we are to effect the desired goal of “keeping” our democracy.

Nearly 200 years after Franklin’s assessment, Jean Monnet, the architect of the recovery of post-World War II Europe, famously observed: “Nothing is possible without men [and women]; Nothing lasts without institutions.”

Both Franklin and Monnet were aware that democratic institutions and the Rule of Law, have been, are, and forever will be, under threat from those who seek to undermine them in their lust for power for power’s sake. We see it on the world stage in Russia, Hungary, and other former Soviet bloc nations. In our own country we see, among other things, politically inspired deceit and hostility, and dysfunctional governing bodies. Congress would qualify as Exhibit A.

Democratic institutions whether the judiciary, the free press, and even our colleges and universities are under attack. If these institutions and the others which make our nation exceptional are to “last” under Monnet’s formulation, it will be in part because an educated populace, respectful of the humanity of others, has pushed back against the forces that imperil their existence.

Your generation has the awesome responsibility of preserving, protecting, and defending both the Constitution and the Republic it created. That is a tall order, especially given the world left you by my generation and those between us.

You will, I am hopeful, be successful through your involvement, and by utilizing the tools you acquired in your educational experience both here and beyond.

You can do so by shining a light on the rampant deceit and misinformation daily delivered on cable and social media; by engaging in civil, not hostile or rancorous discourse; by listening thoughtfully to points of view that run counter to your own; by recognizing there may be virtue in those opposing points of view; and even by adopting thoughtful and cogent positions that on first impression caused you discomfort.

While you don’t necessarily have to like people whose views do not comport with your own – although that helps – you must be willing to be respectful in your dealings with them.

We can take a cue from the Latin motto of South Carolina’s flagship public university. It has many translations, but the one I prefer is: “It [education] refines the manners and does not permit one to become rude.” Would that it were universally so, and I urge you to help fulfill its promise. You can do so and still be resolute in advancing your own positions.

While you are about your task of making the world a better place, do not fall prey to what Robert Zimmer, Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Chicago, has referenced as the trap of self-deceit. The “trap”, essentially speaking, is the ease of self-delusion. Zimmer was perhaps channeling the Greek philosopher/orator, Demosthenes, who observed three thousand years earlier that, “The wish is parent to the thought, and that is why nothing is easier than self-deceit.”

In short, what a person wishes to be true, they also believe to be true. That ease of self-deceit underlies the divisiveness and unprincipled contentiousness that pervades everyday life in our country. It is self-delusion that causes people of one world-view or the other to believe everything they see and hear on their favored cable or social media information source. It is easier to succumb to this confirmation bias, than to examine and appreciate points of view not necessarily compatible with your own pre-conceptions. Overcoming self-deceit takes conscious effort and hard work. The good news is, that is precisely what your Wofford education has freed your mind to do. And a freed mind, after all, is the effect of a liberal arts education.

You can, and I am confident you will, make a positive difference. The empowerment of your education will enable you to do so.

Know too, that in addition to the forces that seek to undermine our democracy, there are those that fight to preserve it. Join them and get involved as Franklin urged. The responsibility for effecting constructive change in this world belongs to you – not to someone else. Do not abdicate that responsibility.

Remember too, the words of President Lincoln who observed in another time when our nation was deeply divided:

“We are not enemies, but friends… Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Lincoln knew in that dark and deeply divided era, that we must not allow factions to define and divide us. His prescience is borne out in today’s world where both poles of the political ideological spectrum are increasingly defined by their extremes. Although, I must add, not in equal measure. Bridging those extremes will be difficult, and doing so will require your involvement with others who do not share your views or your backgrounds. The simple act of engaging with someone who is not like you can be a lot more positive and productive than you may think.

Disdaining extremes, in all forms, some 2,500 years before Lincoln, Socrates observed: “All things in moderation, including moderation.” That’s good advice, and exhausts today’s supply of quotations from dead Greeks.

So all is not gloom and doom. As Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, observed:

“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”

He knew that our Republic for all its flaws, operates under the greatest governance model in human history.

Make no mistake, America remains great. It’s up to you to help keep it that way. Listen to Demosthenes, Franklin, Socrates, and to the voices of Lincoln’s better angels.

So whether for you, the next step is graduate school, the workforce, the military, or just some time off to travel, enjoy today with your family and friends.

You have accomplished much, and endured much in these past four years. You have been exposed to, and have survived both Covid 19, and the tedium of a seemingly endless string of Taylor Swift’s relationships. That alone should have earned you this celebratory time. Tomorrow is soon enough to begin the task of shoring up the moral compass of the world.

When you get around to doing that, never forget it was your alma mater that gave you the wherewithal to make it possible. Return often to your kindly mother and support her with your time and with your treasure.

Congratulations and GO TERRIERS!