Texas A M Commencement Address The students gave a standing ovation; the faculty was deathly silent
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Neal Boortz is a Texan, a lawyer, a
Texas Aggie (Texas A&M) graduate, and now a nationally syndicated
talk show host from Atlanta . His commencement address to the graduates
of a recent Texas A&M class is far different from what either the
students or the faculty expected. Whether you agree or disagree, his
views are certainly thought provoking.
"I am honored by the invitation to
address you on this august occasion. It's about time. Be warned,
however, that I am not here to impress you; you'll have enough smoke
blown up your bloomers today. And you can bet your tassels I'm not here
to impress the faculty and administration. You may not like much of what
I have to say, and that's fine. You will remember it though. Especially
after about 10 years out there in the real world. This, it goes without
saying, does not apply to those of you who will seek your careers and
your fortunes as government employees.
This gowned gaggle behind me is your
faculty. You've heard the old saying that those who can - do. Those who
can't - teach. That sounds deliciously insensitive. But there is often
raw truth in insensitivity, just as you often find feel-good falsehoods
and lies in compassion. Say good-bye to your faculty because now you are
getting ready to go out there and do. These folks behind me are going
to stay right here and teach.
By the way, just because you are
leaving this place with a diploma doesn't mean the learning is over.
When an FAA flight examiner handed me my private pilot's license many
years ago, he said, “Here, this is your ticket to learn.” The same can
be said for your diploma. Believe me, the learning has just begun.
Now, I realize that most of you
consider yourselves Liberals. In fact, you are probably very proud of
your liberal views. You care so much. You feel so much. You want to help
so much. After all, you're a compassionate and caring person, aren't
you now? Well, isn't that just so extraordinarily special. Now, at this
age, is as good a time as any to be a liberal; as good a time as any to
know absolutely everything. You have plenty of time, starting tomorrow,
for the truth to set in.
Over the next few years, as you
begin to feel the cold breath of reality down your neck, things are
going to start changing pretty fast... Including your own assessment of
just how much you really know.
So here are the first assignments
for your initial class in reality: Pay attention to the news, read
newspapers, and listen to the words and phrases that proud Liberals use
to promote their causes. Then, compare the words of the left to the
words and phrases you hear from those evil, heartless, greedy
conservatives. From the Left you will hear "I feel." From the Right you
will hear "I think." From the Liberals you will hear references to
groups -- The Blacks, the Poor, the Rich, the Disadvantaged, the Less
Fortunate. From the Right you will hear references to individuals. On
the Left you hear talk of group rights; on the Right, individual rights.
That about sums it up, really:
Liberals feel. Liberals care. They are pack animals whose identity is
tied up in group dynamics. Conservatives think -- and, setting aside the
theocracy crowd, their identity is centered on the individual.
Liberals feel that their favored
groups have enforceable rights to the property and services of
productive individuals. Conservatives, I among them I might add, think
that individuals have the right to protect their lives and their
property from the plunder of the masses.
In college you developed a group
mentality, but if you look closely at your diplomas you will see that
they have your individual names on them. Not the name of your school
mascot, or of your fraternity or sorority, but your name. Your group
identity is going away. Your recognition and appreciation of your
individual identity starts now.
If, by the time you reach the age of
30, you do not consider yourself to be a conservative, rush right back
here as quickly as you can and apply for a faculty position. These
people will welcome you with open arms. They will welcome you, that is,
so long as you haven't developed an individual identity. Once again you
will have to be willing to sign on to the group mentality you embraced
during the past four years.
Something is going to happen soon that is going to really open your eyes. You're going to actually get a full time job!
You're also going to get a lifelong
work partner. This partner isn't going to help you do your job. This
partner is just going to sit back and wait for payday. This partner
doesn't want to share in your effort, but in your earnings.
Your new lifelong partner is
actually an agent; an agent representing a strange and diverse group of
people; an agent for every teenager with an illegitimate child; an agent
for a research scientist who wanted to make some cash answering the
age-old question of why monkeys grind their teeth. An agent for some
poor demented hippie who considers herself to be a meaningful and
talented artist, but who just can't manage to sell any of her artwork on
the open market.
Your new partner is an agent for
every person with limited, if any, job skills, but who wanted a job at
City Hall. An agent for tin-horn dictators in fancy military uniforms
grasping for American foreign aid. An agent for multi-million dollar
companies who want someone else to pay for their overseas advertising.
An agent for everybody who wants to use the unimaginable power of this
agent's for their personal enrichment and benefit.
That agent is our wonderful, caring,
compassionate, oppressive government. Believe me, you will be awed by
the unimaginable power this agent has. Power that you do not have. A
power that no individual has, or will have. This agent has the legal
power to use force, deadly force to accomplish its goals.
You have no choice here. Your new
friend is just going to walk up to you, introduce itself rather gruffly,
hand you a few forms to fill out, and move right on in. Say hello to
your own personal one ton gorilla. It will sleep anywhere it wants to.
Now, let me tell you, this agent is
not cheap. As you become successful it will seize about 40% of
everything you earn. And no, I'm sorry, there just isn't any way you can
fire this agent of plunder, and you can't decrease its share of your
income. That power rests with him, not you.
So, here I am saying negative things
to you about government. Well, be clear on this: It is not wrong to
distrust government. It is not wrong to fear government. In certain
cases it is not even wrong to despise government for government is
inherently evil. Yes, a necessary evil, but dangerous nonetheless,
somewhat like a drug. Just as a drug that in the proper dosage can save
your life, an overdose of government can be fatal.
Now let's address a few things that
have been crammed into your minds at this university. There are some
ideas you need to expunge as soon as possible. These ideas may work well
in academic environment, but they fail miserably out there in the real
world.
First is that favorite buzz word of
the media and academia: Diversity! You have been taught that the real
value of any group of people - be it a social group, an employee group, a
management group, whatever - is based on diversity. This is a favored
liberal ideal because diversity is based not on an individuals abilities
or character, but on a person's identity and status as a member of a
group. Yes, it's that liberal group identity thing again.
Within the great diversity movement
group identification - be it racial, gender based, or some other
minority status - means more than the individuals integrity, character
or other qualifications.
Brace yourself.
You are about to move from this academic atmosphere where diversity
rules, to a workplace and a culture where individual achievement and
excellence actually count. No matter what your professors have taught
you over the last four years, you are about to learn that diversity is
absolutely no replacement for excellence, ability, and individual hard
work. From this day on every single time you hear the word "diversity"
you can rest assured that there is someone close by who is determined to
rob you of every vestige of individuality you possess.
We also need to
address this thing you seem to have about "rights." We have witnessed an
obscene explosion of so-called "rights" in the last few decades,
usually emanating from college campuses.
You know the
mantra: You have the right to a job. The right to a place to live. The
right to a living wage. The right to health care. The right to an
education. You probably even have your own pet right - the right to a
Beemer for instance, or the right to have someone else provide for that
child you plan on downloading in a year or so.
Forget it. Forget
those rights! I'll tell you what your rights are. You have a right to
live free, and to the results of 60% -75% of your labor. I'll also tell
you have no right to any portion of the life or labor of another.
You may, for
instance, think that you have a right to health care. After all,
President Obama said so, didn't he? But you cannot receive health-care
unless some doctor or health practitioner surrenders some of his time -
his life - to you. He may be willing to do this for compensation, but
that's his choice. You have no "right" to his time or property. You have
no right to his or any other person's life or to any portion thereof.
You may also think
you have some "right" to a job; a job with a living wage, whatever that
is. Do you mean to tell me that you have a right to force your services
on another person, and then the right to demand that this person
compensate you with their money? Sorry, forget it. I am sure you would
scream if some urban outdoors men (that would be "homeless person" for
those of you who don't want to give these less fortunate people a
romantic and adventurous title) came to you and demanded his job and
your money.
The people who
have been telling you about all the rights you have are simply
exercising one of theirs - the right to be imbeciles. Their being
imbeciles didn't cost anyone else either property or time. It's their
right, and they exercise it brilliantly.
By the way, did
you catch my use of the phrase "less fortunate" a bit ago when I was
talking about the urban outdoors men? That phrase is a favorite of the
Left. Think about it, and you'll understand why.
To imply that one
person is homeless, destitute, dirty, drunk, spaced out on drugs,
unemployable, and generally miserable because he is "less fortunate" is
to imply that a successful person - one with a job, a home and a future -
is in that position because he or she was "fortunate." The dictionary
says that fortunate means "having derived good from an unexpected
place." There is nothing unexpected about deriving good from hard work.
There is also nothing unexpected about deriving misery from choosing
drugs, alcohol, and the street.
If the Liberal
Left can create the common perception that success and failure are
simple matters of "fortune" or "luck," then it is easy to promote and
justify their various income redistribution schemes. After all, we are
just evening out the odds a little bit. This "success equals luck" idea
the liberals like to push is seen everywhere. Former Democratic
presidential candidate Richard Gephardt refers to high-achievers as
"people who have won life's lottery." He wants you to believe they are
making the big bucks because they are lucky. It's not luck, my friends.
It's choice. One of the greatest lessons I ever learned was in a book by
Og Mandino, entitled, "The Greatest Secret in the World." The lesson?
Very simple: "Use wisely your power of choice."
That bum sitting
on a heating grate, smelling like a wharf rat? He's there by choice. He
is there because of the sum total of the choices he has made in his
life. This truism is absolutely the hardest thing for some people to
accept, especially those who consider themselves to be victims of
something or other - victims of discrimination, bad luck, the system,
capitalism, whatever. After all, nobody really wants to accept the blame
for his or her position in life. Not when it is so much easier to point
and say, "Look! He did this to me!" than it is to look into a mirror
and say, "You S. O. B.! You did this to me!"
The key to
accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact that your
choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to either success
or failure, however you define those terms.
Some of the
choices are obvious: Whether or not to stay in school. Whether or not to
get pregnant. Whether or not to hit the bottle. Whether or not to keep
this job you hate until you get another better-paying job. Whether or
not to save some of your money, or saddle yourself with huge payments
for that new car.
Some of the
choices are seemingly insignificant: Whom to go to the movies with.
Whose car to ride home in. Whether to watch the tube tonight, or read a
book on investing. But, and you can be sure of this, each choice counts.
Each choice is a building block - some large, some small. But each one
is a part of the structure of your life. If you make the right choices,
or if you make more right choices than wrong ones, something absolutely
terrible may happen to you. Something unthinkable. You, my friend, could
become one of the hated, the evil, the ugly, the feared, the filthy,
the successful, the rich.
The rich basically
serve two purposes in this country. First, they provide the
investments, the investment capital, and the brains for the formation of
new businesses. Businesses that hire people. Businesses that send
millions of paychecks home each week to the un-rich.
Second, the rich
are a wonderful object of ridicule, distrust, and hatred. Few things are
more valuable to a politician than the envy most Americans feel for the
evil rich.
Envy is a powerful
emotion. Even more powerful than the emotional minefield that
surrounded Bill Clinton when he reviewed his last batch of White House
interns. Politicians use envy to get votes and power. And they keep that
power by promising the envious that the envied will be punished: "The
rich will pay their fair share of taxes if I have anything to do with
it." The truth is that the top 10% of income earners in this country
pays almost 50% of all income taxes collected. I shudder to think what
these job producers would be paying if our tax system were any more
"fair."
You have heard, no
doubt, that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Interestingly
enough, our government's own numbers show that many of the poor actually
get richer, and that quite a few of the rich actually get poorer. But
for the rich who do actually get richer, and the poor who remain poor ..
there's an explanation -- a reason. The rich, you see, keep doing the
things that make them rich; while the poor keep doing the things that
make them poor.
Speaking of the
poor, during your adult life you are going to hear an endless string of
politicians bemoaning the plight of the poor. So, you need to know that
under our government's definition of "poor" you can have a $5 million
net worth, a $300,000 home and a new $90,000 Mercedes, all completely
paid for. You can also have a maid, cook, and valet, and a million in
your checking account, and you can still be officially defined by our
government as "living in poverty." Now there's something you haven't
seen on the evening news.
How does the
government pull this one off? Very simple, really. To determine whether
or not some poor soul is "living in poverty," the government measures
one thing -- just one thing. Income.
It doesn't matter
one bit how much you have, how much you own, how many cars you drive or
how big they are, whether or not your pool is heated, whether you winter
in Aspen and spend the summers in the Bahamas, or how much is in your
savings account. It only matters how much income you claim in that
particular year. This means that if you take a one-year leave of absence
from your high-paying job and decide to live off the money in your
savings and checking accounts while you write the next great American
novel, the government says you are living in poverty."
This isn't exactly
what you had in mind when you heard these gloomy statistics, is it? Do
you need more convincing? Try this. The government's own statistics show
that people who are said to be "living in poverty" spend more than
$1.50 for each dollar of income they claim. Something is a bit fishy
here. Just remember all this the next time Charles Gibson tells you
about some hideous new poverty statistics.
Why has the
government concocted this phony poverty scam? Because the government
needs an excuse to grow and to expand its social welfare programs, which
translates into an expansion of its power. If the government can
convince you, in all your compassion, that the number of "poor" is
increasing, it will have all the excuse it needs to sway an electorate
suffering from the advanced stages of Obsessive-Compulsive Compassion
Disorder.
I'm about to be
stoned by the faculty here. They've already changed their minds about
that honorary degree I was going to get. That's OK, though. I still have
my PhD. in Insensitivity from the Neal Boortz Institute for
Insensitivity Training. I learned that, in short, sensitivity sucks.
It's a trap. Think about it - the truth knows no sensitivity. Life can
be insensitive. Wallow too much in sensitivity and you'll be unable to
deal with life, or the truth, so get over it.
Now, before the dean has me shackled and hauled off, I have a few random thoughts.
* You need to
register to vote, unless you are on welfare. If you are living off the
efforts of others, please do us the favor of sitting down and shutting
up until you are on your own again.
* When you do
vote, your votes for the House and the Senate are more important than
your vote for President. The House controls the purse strings, so
concentrate your awareness there.
* Liars cannot be
trusted, even when the liar is the President of the country. If someone
can't deal honestly with you, send them packing.
* Don't bow to the
temptation to use the government as an instrument of plunder. If it is
wrong for you to take money from someone else who earned it -- to take
their money by force for your own needs -- then it is certainly just as
wrong for you to demand that the government step forward and do this
dirty work for you.
* Don't look in
other people's pockets. You have no business there. What they earn is
theirs. What you earn is yours. Keep it that way. Nobody owes you
anything, except to respect your privacy and your rights, and leave you
the hell alone.
* Speaking of
earning, the revered 40-hour workweek is for losers. Forty hours should
be considered the minimum, not the maximum. You don't see highly
successful people clocking out of the office every afternoon at five.
The losers are the ones caught up in that afternoon rush hour. The
winners drive home in the dark.
* Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by definition, needs no protection.
* Finally (and aren't you glad to hear that word), as Og Mandino wrote,
1. Proclaim your rarity. Each of you is a rare and unique human being.
2. Use wisely your power of choice.
3. Go the extra mile, drive home in the dark.
Oh, and put off
buying a television set as long as you can. Now, if you have any idea at
all what's good for you, you will get out of here and never come back.
Class dismissed"
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