Posted on 05/28/2015 8:16:31 AM PDT by shortstop
The other night on the TV news they did a montage of commencement addresses.
Various bigwigs in various robes at various lecterns giving pretty much the same message.
At least most of them.
Live your dreams, do your best, find your joy, give back.
Stuff like that.
It was all very nice and probably very quickly forgotten by new graduates who understandably are pretty distracted.
But two snippets grabbed me, for their simplicity and their difference. In both, the speaker repeated one word three times.
It wasn’t the same word, but it was the same emphasis.
One came from television newsman Charlie Rose, and the other came from First Lady Michelle Obama. He was at Georgetown University and she was at Tuskegee University.
He advised his audience to, “Work, work, work.” And she advised hers to, “Vote, vote, vote.”
Each described his or her counsel as essential to success in life.
And therein is illustrated a fundamental difference in American cultural expectation. One view sees individual effort as the means whereby progress is achieved, and the other view sees the political process as the means whereby progress may be acquired as an entitlement from government.
One says earn yourself a future, the other says vote yourself a future.
One says earn yourself a paycheck, the other says vote yourself a bigger piece of the other guy’s paycheck.
One sees self as the source of success, the other sees government largess as the source of success.
In one world view, you earn what you get. In the other, you are given what you get.
The advice also benefits different people. Charlie Rose’s counsel to “work” empowers the one who works. Michelle Obama’s counsel to “vote” empowers the one you vote for.
One world view calls upon people to vote themselves a bigger handout, the other calls upon them to earn a better fate.
One is the advice of the strong, the other is the advice of the weak – because he who earns his own will always be stronger than he who receives a government check.
One uses individual effort as an engine of production, the other uses government power a means of redistribution.
There is another difference.
One works and the other doesn’t.
The counsel to work, to strive for self-betterment and individual success, has led countless men and women across cultures and across the globe to success. From the depths of poverty to the pinnacle of wealth, the one-size-fits-all way forward is work.
Every story of success in this life involves hard work, and every commitment to hard work in this life leads to some degree of success.
Voting has a far different record.
As she spoke – urging her audience to “vote, vote, vote” – Michelle Obama was speaking to the largely black graduating class of an historically black college.
And while her counsel was enthusiastically received, it doesn’t have a very good track record.
You can’t really look at the American experience and say that winning elections has collectively done black people any good.
African-Americans have, by voting as a bloc, scored many electoral victories up and down the ballot. But little discernible benefit to African-Americans has come from those victories.
Take the election of President Obama.
During the six-plus years we’ve had a black president, the situation of black people in America has significantly declined. Welfare rates, out-of-wedlock birth rates, incarceration rates, dropout rates, median incomes – all have gotten worse on average for African-Americans.
The election of Barack Obama may have ushered in an era of pride for black America, but it certainly didn’t usher in an era of progress.
Further, in big cities and urban counties all across America, African-Americans have long since seized political power through bloc voting. At the same time, those big cities and urban counties have seemingly rotted from the inside out. Poverty and progress in black-governed cities are no better than in white- or Latino-governed cities.
Individual African-Americans have been benefited – the elected officials and those they can squeeze into patronage jobs. But long and sad experience is that, for the average person, “vote, vote, vote” doesn’t pay off.
So I’d like to draw a conclusion.
Charlie Rose offered good advice, and Michelle Obama offered bad advice. One path leads to strength and independence, the other leads to weakness and dependence.
Yes, we all should vote. But if you think you can find the end of your rainbow in the voting booth, you’re wrong.
And those who misdirect the aspirations of black America by suggesting people bark up the wrong tree are not doing black America any favors.
True independence, security and social and economic freedom come through work, hard work.
That doesn’t matter what color you are.
Voting as a means of progress will let you legislatively expropriate more of the other guy’s money. Working as a means of progress will let you make more of your own.
And only when you make your own are you truly free.
So maybe the Tuskegee grads can watch a YouTube of the Georgetown commencement and get some more productive advice.
Yes, “vote, vote, vote.”
But the only way you or your community will ever get anywhere is by making your motto, “work, work, work.”
For the common Democrat, “Vote, Vote, Vote” is “Work, Work, Work”. It directly translates to leisure time, money for nothing and chicks for free.
That's because Moochelle has never worked a day in her life. She has always gotten by on the efforts of others.
They don’t call ‘em gibmedats for nuffin!
Many took that literally.
and yet Charlie Rose has dedicated virtually his entire career to advancing the opposing view
Great article up until “yes, we should all vote.”
No, we really shouldn’t. I’m trying to think of even one time in my life where my showing up at the polls had even the slightest impact. Can’t think of one.
Working, even at mundane tasks like stacking the dishwasher, has a direct and beneficial impact on your life. Not so with voting.
“”One view sees individual effort as the means whereby progress is achieved, and the other view sees the political process as the means whereby progress may be acquired as an entitlement from government.””
I believe the observations were the writer’s - not Rose’s. He stressed WORK WORK WORK in his commencement address and the writer took it from there. I could be wrong but no matter, the writing is excellent. It would be super if the writer could write the commencement addresses for everyone from now on! HA!
Does anyone recall the commencement address from their high school days? I certainly don’t and probably forgot its content by the next day. That’s when I went out and applied for a job at Cornell University and went to work the day after that!! It never dawned on any of us NOT TO WORK. If we didn’t plan on college it was work - for me and most of my classmates - until I was 70 years old. Can attest that it didn’t hurt a bit. Certain segments of our society ought to try it.
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