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| Ben Bernanke at Princeton. R.Schultz/AP |
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| McNally at Columbia via Columbia Spectator |
I thoroughly enjoyed Terrence McNally’s keynote address at the Columbia Commencement Ceremony this year, but I think Ben
Bernanke’s Commencement Speech at Princeton where he made “Ten suggestions, or maybe just Ten Observations, about the world and your lives after Princeton” drew more laughs and had more relevance for the new graduates on the threshold of ‘real life’.
Here’s the script of Bernanke’s speech (parts highlighted are ones that had me smiling or ones that wrinkled my brow). I'd be curious to know which address would you pick....
“It's nice to be back at Princeton. I find it difficult to
believe that it's been almost 11 years since I departed these halls for
Washington. I wrote recently to inquire about the status of my leave from the
university, and the letter I got back began, "Regrettably, Princeton
receives many more qualified applicants for faculty positions than we can
accommodate."
I'll extend my best wishes to the seniors later, but first I
want to congratulate the parents and families here. As a parent myself, I know
that putting your kid through college these days is no walk in the park. Some
years ago I had a colleague who sent three kids through Princeton even though
neither he nor his wife attended this university. He and his spouse were very
proud of that accomplishment, as they should have been. But my colleague also
used to say that, from a financial perspective, the experience was like buying
a new Cadillac every year and then driving it off a cliff. I should say that he
always added that he would do it all over again in a minute. So, well done,
moms, dads, and families.
This is indeed an impressive and appropriate setting for a
commencement. I am sure that, from this lectern, any number of distinguished
spiritual leaders have ruminated on the lessons of the Ten Commandments. I
don't have that kind of confidence, and, anyway, coveting your neighbor's ox or
donkey is not the problem it used to be, so I thought I would use my few
minutes today to make Ten Suggestions, or maybe just Ten Observations, about
the world and your lives after Princeton. Please note, these points have
nothing whatsoever to do with interest rates. My qualification for making such
suggestions, or observations, besides having kindly been invited to speak today
by President Tilghman, is the same as the reason that your obnoxious brother or
sister got to go to bed later--I am older than you. All of what follows has
been road-tested in real-life situations, but past performance is no guarantee
of future results.
1. The poet Robert Burns once said something about the
best-laid plans of mice and men ganging aft agley, whatever "agley"
means. A more contemporary philosopher, Forrest Gump, said something similar
about life and boxes of chocolates and not knowing what you are going to get.
They were both right. Life is amazingly unpredictable; any 22-year-old who
thinks he or she knows where they will be in 10 years, much less in 30, is
simply lacking imagination. Look what happened to me: A dozen years ago I was
minding my own business teaching Economics 101 in Alexander Hall and trying to
think of good excuses for avoiding faculty meetings. Then I got a phone call
. . . In case you are skeptical of Forrest Gump's insight, here's a concrete
suggestion for each of the graduating seniors. Take a few minutes the first
chance you get and talk to an alum participating in his or her 25th, or 30th,
or 40th reunion--you know, somebody who was near the front of the Parade. Ask
them, back when they were graduating 25, 30, or 40 years ago, where they
expected to be today. If you can get them to open up, they will tell you that
today they are happy and satisfied in various measures, or not, and their
personal stories will be filled with highs and lows and in-betweens. But, I am
willing to bet, those life stories will in almost all cases be quite different,
in large and small ways, from what they expected when they started out. This is
a good thing, not a bad thing; who wants to know the end of a story that's only
in its early chapters? Don't be afraid to let the drama play out.
2. Does the fact that our lives are so influenced by chance
and seemingly small decisions and actions mean that there is no point to
planning, to striving? Not at all. Whatever life may have in store for you,
each of you has a grand, lifelong project, and that is the development of
yourself as a human being. Your family and friends and your time at
Princeton have given you a good start. What will you do with it? Will you keep
learning and thinking hard and critically about the most important questions?
Will you become an emotionally stronger person, more generous, more loving,
more ethical? Will you involve yourself actively and constructively in the
world? Many things will happen in your lives, pleasant and not so pleasant,
but, paraphrasing a Woodrow Wilson School adage from the time I was here,
"Wherever you go, there you are." If you are not happy with yourself,
even the loftiest achievements won't bring you much satisfaction.
3. The concept of success leads me to consider so-called
meritocracies and their implications. We have been taught that meritocratic
institutions and societies are fair. Putting aside the reality that no system,
including our own, is really entirely meritocratic, meritocracies may be fairer
and more efficient than some alternatives. But fair in an absolute sense? Think
about it. A meritocracy is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in
their health and genetic endowment; luckiest in terms of family support,
encouragement, and, probably, income; luckiest in their educational and career
opportunities; and luckiest in so many other ways difficult to enumerate--these
are the folks who reap the largest rewards. The only way for even a putative
meritocracy to hope to pass ethical muster, to be considered fair, is if those
who are the luckiest in all of those respects also have the greatest responsibility
to work hard, to contribute to the betterment of the world, and to share their
luck with others. As the Gospel of Luke says (and I am sure my rabbi will
forgive me for quoting the New Testament in a good cause): "From everyone
to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom
much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded" (Luke 12:48, New
Revised Standard Version Bible). Kind of grading on the curve, you might say.
4. Who is worthy of admiration? The admonition from
Luke--which is shared by most ethical and philosophical traditions, by the
way--helps with this question as well. Those most worthy of admiration are
those who have made the best use of their advantages or, alternatively, coped
most courageously with their adversities. I think most of us would agree
that people who have, say, little formal schooling but labor honestly and
diligently to help feed, clothe, and educate their families are deserving of
greater respect--and help, if necessary--than many people who are superficially
more successful. They're more fun to have a beer with, too. That's all that
I know about sociology.
5. Since I have covered what I know about sociology, I might
as well say something about political science as well. In regard to politics, I
have always liked Lily Tomlin's line, in paraphrase: "I try to be cynical,
but I just can't keep up." We all feel that way sometime. Actually, having
been in Washington now for almost 11 years, as I mentioned, I feel that way
quite a bit. Ultimately, though, cynicism is a poor substitute for critical
thought and constructive action. Sure, interests and money and ideology all
matter, as you learned in political science. But my experience is that most of
our politicians and policymakers are trying to do the right thing, according to
their own views and consciences, most of the time. If you think that the bad or
indifferent results that too often come out of Washington are due to base
motives and bad intentions, you are giving politicians and policymakers way too
much credit for being effective. Honest error in the face of complex and
possibly intractable problems is a far more important source of bad results
than are bad motives. For these reasons, the greatest forces in Washington
are ideas, and people prepared to act on those ideas. Public service isn't
easy. But, in the end, if you are inclined in that direction, it is a worthy
and challenging pursuit.
6. Having taken a stab at sociology and political science,
let me wrap up economics while I'm at it. Economics is a highly
sophisticated field of thought that is superb at explaining to policymakers
precisely why the choices they made in the past were wrong. About the future,
not so much. However, careful economic analysis does have one important benefit,
which is that it can help kill ideas that are completely logically inconsistent
or wildly at variance with the data. This insight covers at least 90 percent of
proposed economic policies.
7. I'm not going to tell you that money doesn't matter,
because you wouldn't believe me anyway. In fact, for too many people around the
world, money is literally a life-or-death proposition. But if you are part of
the lucky minority with the ability to choose, remember that money is a means,
not an end. A career decision based only on money and not on love of the work
or a desire to make a difference is a recipe for unhappiness.
8. Nobody likes to fail but failure is an essential part
of life and of learning. If your uniform isn't dirty, you haven't been in the
game.
9. I spoke earlier about definitions of personal success
in an unpredictable world. I hope that as you develop your own definition of
success, you will be able to do so, if you wish, with a close companion on
your journey. In making that choice, remember that physical beauty is
evolution's way of assuring us that the other person doesn't have too many
intestinal parasites. Don't get me wrong, I am all for beauty, romance,
and sexual attraction--where would Hollywood and Madison Avenue be without
them? But while important, those are not the only things to look for in a
partner. The two of you will have a long trip together, I hope, and you will
need each other's support and sympathy more times than you can count. Speaking
as somebody who has been happily married for 35 years, I can't imagine any
choice more consequential for a lifelong journey than the choice of a traveling
companion.
10. Call your mom and dad once in a while. A time will
come when you will want your own grown-up, busy, hyper-successful children to
call you. Also, remember who paid your tuition to Princeton.
Those are my suggestions. They're probably worth exactly
what you paid for them. But they come from someone who shares your affection
for this great institution and who wishes you the best for the future.
Congratulations, graduates. Give 'em hell”
Courtesy Federal Reserve
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