COLUMN: Obligations as we leave Penn

From Shiraz Allidina's, "Asian Hil Lizard," Fall '97 From Shiraz Allidina's, "Asian Hil Lizard," Fall '97Don't smoke, don't do drugs, be good to each other." I'm not sharing this intimate detail from my personal life in order to bore you with my mama's-boy outlook. Nor am I about to jump on a soap box and repent my dalliance with a Churchill Havana. It's just that recent circumstances have compelled me to reminisce about my upbringing. After all, I am -- we are -- graduating. As such, it is our prerogative to look back and remember the path we took to arrive at this point. And as the wind sits in the shoulder of our sail, like Laertes we can't help but linger a bit before tentatively venturing onward. So here I find myself, about to become a fully-functioning member of society, and pondering the obligation I have to king and country. (Whoops, I suppose in the United States one would say to Bubba and country.) A quick glance at the newspapers informs me as to what the leadership wishes of me. "Don't smoke, don't do drugs, be good to each other." This is the sum total of the President's substantive (I use that word very loosely) policy initiatives since the dust has settled from the election circus. I'm touched -- I didn't know he cared. For good measure, Mr. Gingrich hastily adds, "Do as we say, not as we do." This is inspiration worthy of de Tocqueville or Lord Acton. (Whoops, the state LCE -- Literary Control Enforcement authority -- has just cited me for reckless use of sarcasm. I'm glad the University invited them on campus to police my writing. After all, it's for my own good.) So where do we stand as educated members of society, as future leaders? It seems to me the best we can do is uphold the ethics and standards of the University -- that is, to think for ourselves. It is fashionable these days to emphasize common ground rather than difference, unity rather than heterogeneity, and consensus rather than conflict. A university, as our fearless leader Judith Rodin pointed out in January, is no place for such faddish cloying consensus. We are here to embrace ideas. Inevitably, competing ideas occasion debate, and I should add this is a very good thing. Not only do we learn from discussion of conflicting viewpoints, but such conflict allows us to properly embrace truth and reject falsehood. As Mill pointed out, unless a truth is debated, it becomes merely a dead dogma, inherited rather than understood. As educated members of society, it is our obligation to join such debate, to challenge established truths and, above all, to think critically and independently. This allows us to explode flawed, undisciplined logic which sometimes characterizes the thinking of politicians, University administrators and, yes, ourselves. However, we should join such a debate not only for ourselves, for our own minds, but also for the greater good. History teaches us that whenever a people rejects debate and critical thinking, terrible crimes ensue. Over 100 million people were killed in this century alone, partly because anti-intellectualism stifled dissent and because people were encouraged not to think about the ideas which formed the basis of policies. Independent thinking and the conflict of opposing ideas serve to preserve the conditions which foster a prosperous, free society. As graduating students, we should be proud to consciously engage in such debate. Furthermore, we must commit ourselves to the ultimate in environmental preservation: the safeguarding of the conditions which allow debate to occur. We must be prepared to defend the rights of racists, Holocaust deniers and other purveyors of falsehood. Such a stance is one of self-preservation -- preservation of the belief in the truth of our own ideas and the value of our own thinking. Armed with such an attitude, we can harness the power of ideas to do tremendous good in the world. And coupled with an appreciation of a true diversity of viewpoints, we can cherish the value of those who do not conform to what is considered normal. Of all my peers, my favorites are ones who are eccentric, who are adventurous and who are willing to try new, scary things in order to better themselves and the world around them. If allowing those freaks to exist causes pundits to lament the Balkanization of society, then so be it. This column is written for the Class of 1997. It is also a warning to those who seek to stifle thought and debate, for whatever noble reason. (Welcome back, Professor Hackney.) But it is also written for my sister, who will shortly enter four wonderful years of college. However, she doesn't need to hear this, since she was taught long ago the critical importance of thinking for one's self.