I had one semester of college French. So one of the few French sayings I know is Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. “The more it changes, the more it is the same thing.”
That was the thought I had after I found my 1966 graduation speech at Woodlake Union High School (go Tigers!) in central California yesterday. My wife and I just had our carpets replaced, so everything had to be taken out of drawers and cabinets. Then replaced.
When I was putting an unorganized pile of my early writings in a somewhat more organized state before returning them to a cabinet, I came across a copy of the graduation speech that I’d given as the class salutatorian. There I am in a yearbook page, my face partially obscured by the cap of Susan Edmiston, the guy in the back row who wore glasses.
.
My divorced mother — I only spent one hour with my father aside from my infant years — was a deeply conservative Republican. She hated my graduation speech. She tried to talk me into choosing a different subject. I resisted. So my mother didn’t go to my high school graduation. That hurt me. But I would have been hurt more by not being able to speak about what I wanted to say.
I thought I’d lost my 1966 graduation speech. Finding it, I was struck by how much it describes the United States today, 60 years later. It isn’t very long. Give it a read and see if you agree that while a lot has changed in our country, a lot has stayed the same. Sadly.
The Corruption of Despair
by Brian Hines“The Corruption of Despair” is a phrase coined by John Fischer, the editor of Harper’s Magazine. At first glance, this phrase may appear to be strange or even purely ridiculous, for who has ever heard of despair being called a corruption? I hope that it is within my power tonight to show all of you, students and adults alike, my interpretation of the meaning, and the warning that the statement “The Corruption of Despair” holds for all of us.
Most of the graduates you see behind me will be attending a college next year. Inevitably, they will become involved, at least in some small part, with the group of students who are concerned with the values that our nation, and especially the elder generation, possesses. Some of these students may even become leaders of these organizations, organizations which are often thought of as being run by a lunatic, radical fringe. I agree that many student movements are extreme with their demands and repulsive in their means, but there are also a great many that are not.
These moderate groups are composed of students who are seriously concerned with the attitude of the elder generations. They feel that a blanket of complacency has drifted over the values of much of our nation. Where is the American concern with the evils of discrimination and injustice? To many young people, it has been partially buried under the weight of corruption.
Corruption is a strong word, but is widely used, and perhaps rightly so, to explain why our nation often appears seemingly blind to the evils that exist in its midst. It may indeed be possible that many of the elder members of our country have become corrupted by the affluence of our present-day society. Perhaps concern with human rights and personal values has become sublimated by the desire to attain wealth and security. It is for this reason that many students have fears that they too will become corrupted by the selfish demands of an opulent society. Their desire to remain free of insidious influences is certainly to be admired.
However, I must disagree with the student emphasis on the corruption of one’s morals and social values. I do not seriously think that those “over thirty,” as the Free Speech Movement puts it, have become corrupted to the degree that they are morally unsound and concerned only with their own welfare. I am sure that no adult in the audience feels that he is corrupted in this manner, and he is probably right.
However, I do believe that a corruption of a different sort is evident in much of our society. This corruption? “The Corruption of Despair.” The generation preceding ours has lived through a terrible Second World War and is continually facing a third, and probably what would be the final war to end all wars. It has seen many of its programs to achieve peace and prosperity for all go awry and become useless. Notwithstanding its efforts, this elder generation has seen communism grow from a feeble power to an ever-present menace to our way of life.
Is it any wonder that a feeling of despair may have entered the hearts of many of the citizens of our great nation?
However, the present is certainly no time to become despairing and fearful that any action taken may fail. I believe that it is this silent, perhaps sub-conscious feeling of despair that is being protested in student demonstrations today. For instance, although efforts in the past to achieve lasting peace have failed, we must never cease striving to bring about an end to the evils of war.
In our rapidly changing world, we cannot afford to refrain from action because of memories of past mistakes. The time is past when the world waited for society to catch up with it; society must now adapt as rapidly as possible or be overrun by the inevitable forces of change.
It is succumbing to despair and the fear of failure through change that we students must be wary of. For although there has been opportunity in the past for older generations to become overly cautious of making mistakes, this is not so true now. A step not taken quickly and decisively could unhappily decide the fate of the world. It is for this reason that the only corruption that we graduates really need to fear is the corruption of despair.
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