Texas A&M Commencement Address – The students gave
a standing ovation; the faculty were deathly silent!
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”
