Graduating Yalies in silly hats heard a presidential appeal to elevate the nation’s sometimes “bizarre,” idiotic political discourse.
They heard that pitch from two presidents, actually.
One was a former president: Bill Clinton. He was the featured speaker at “Class Day” — aka part one of the three-day annual downtown-gridlock extravaganza known as Yale graduation.
The other was Yale President Rick Levin. Levin spoke to the graduating class Saturday when he delivered his annual baccalaureate address at Woolsey Hall.
Levin called on the students to “create a national and global dialogue that transcends … oversimplification and parochialism.” To “raise the level of debate.” Basically, to talk about national and international issues at a level above cable TV and blogosphere sniping.
While mass media has the potential to raise the level of public debate in the Internet age, it also has “increase[d] the opportunity to sway voters by appeal to simple formulations,” in part because of the dominance of special-interest groups with the money to saturate the airwaves with simplistic messages, Levin argued.
As a result, “contemporary political discussion is too often dominated by oversimplified ideologies with superficial appeal to voters,” he said. And we then fail to “deal intelligently with important problems.”
He cited an example: U.S. government efforts to reform health care. (Click on the play arrow to watch his full address.)
“After months of stalemate, Congress enacted a health care bill that extends care to millions of uncovered individuals and families, but takes only the most tentative steps toward containing costs that will create an unsustainable burden of public debt within the next decade of two,” Levin said. He blamed in part the success of anti-reform groups in labeling cost-containment efforts “death panels.” They also “defeated the creation of a new public vehicle for providing health insurance by insisting that ‘we keep government out of the health care business,’ when in fact Medicare, Medicaid, and the Veterans Administration already pay nearly 40 percent of the nation’s health care bill.”
“I am not taking sides here,” Levin added, “only pointing to the fact that intelligent debate on these subjects was crowded out by ideological distortion.”
Former President Clinton (pictured) also called on the graduating class to rise above the sewage of contemporary political discourse. He made the remarks during a Sunday afternoon address on the Old Campus, where graduates organized a traditional humorous-hats theme.
Like Levin, Clinton spoke of the great potential of the Internet and other technological advances to educate people, to “break through the barriers of information” — and of the flip side that “can empower you to build bombs” and make the world unstable.
Amid the explosion of websites and cable channels now publishing information around the clock, “we only want to be around people who agree with us,” Clinton observed.
That results, he said, in “some very bizarre consequences,” such as the persistent canard that President Obama was secretly born in Kenya.
“Hawaii, the state where President Obama was born, has done everything they can to debunk this myth that he wasn’t born in America,” Clinton noted. “They’ve done everything but blow up his birth certificate, put it in neon lights, and hang it on the dome in the Capitol.”
Yet 45 percent of the country’s Republicans still tell pollsters that Obama was born abroad. Why? Because too many people tune in only to sources of information that will confirm their preconceptions, Clinton argued.
“I force myself to listen to people who disagree with me and get in a fact-based mode,” he said. He urged the students to do the same as they tackle the great challenges posed by climate change and global poverty.
Click on the play arrow at the top of this story to watch Clinton’s full address. Click here to read Carole Bass’s take on Clinton’s science outlook, in the 06520 blog. And click here to learn about Clinton’s bumpy ride to New Haven Sunday.
Paul Bass Photo
Yale’s graduation concludes Monday morning at 10 a.m. with the actual commencement exercises on the Old Campus.
No word on whether there’ll be more funny hats.
Don't Be Knuckleheads? I don't think so!
Definition of knucklehead: an offensive term that deliberately insults somebody's intelligence or consideration for others (slang insult); a stupid person; these words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence.
'Don't Be Knuckleheads' is reportedly the charge to Yale graduates this weekend delivered by two presidents. In fact, unless the author thinks there is an implied message to knuckleheads at large, the presidents' messages were right on point and were directed at the highly regarded Yale graduates.
President Levin challenged the "superbly educated leaders of your (the graduates) generation to rise above ideology and faction to bring to bear your intelligence and powers of critical thinking to elevate public discourse." The charge to the graduates, but also to the larger community is a very serious one and is very appropriate for our time.
How refreshing it was to hear Yale President Richard Levin calling on these Yale graduates to "create a national and global dialogue that transcends ... oversimplification and parochialism." He not only ask them to be leaders in helping to raise the level of our national debate and discourse, but he told them there is an ethical imperative to think beyond their personal self interests.
This is exactly the message that needs to be instilled in our students from elementary school. Had more of us learn to think critically, and to elevate public discourse, participate as citizens and answer the call to service, it is less likely that our level of political discourse today would be so debased and our political landscape would be so dominated by narrow, partisan interests.
I cannot help but wonder - was this speech really directed at Yale graduates, or was the Yale graduation just a platform to deliver a much needed message to the broader national community? Of course, very few Yale graduates really needed this speech. After four years at this venerable institution we believe that most of the graduates are fully equipped to "deal intelligently with important problems." Of course, it never hurts to be reminded to stay focused on the essential issues such as the golden rule.
The larger challenge seems to be to the rest of us to avoid participating in the type of contemporary political discussion that is too often dominated by oversimplified ideologies and with superficial appeal to the uninformed voter and citizen. President Levin ended with a slightly modified version of President Obama's "yes we can." It was a treat to be able to listen to Dr. Levin's words and read a report of the graduation activities. Again, the NHI has proved its worth to this reader.