Choose One of Five | Andrew Scott | Figures of Speech

okay this is one take one you graduates have every right to expect penetrating words of profound wisdom unfortunately though I'm going to have to disappoint you and present you with a multiple-choice test the only consolation I can offer you in presenting this test are that you may consult texts freely the test is self scoring and you have a lifetime at your disposal to complete it this exam will be proctored though the Proctor's will be to the community in which you live and hardest task master of all your inner self the question what do you do with your education now that you have it and now that it is beginning to become obsolete even as you sit here choose one of five possible answers choice one put your diploma in a convenient drawer and close the drawer put whatever textbooks you've accumulated in a bookcase and close the bookcase put your mind to the day leanness of earning a satisfactory livelihood and close your mind I should warn you that it will take a bit of doing to follow this course with the rigor that it deserves you will have to take care not to read anything except in the case of men the sports pages or in the case of women columns of household hints you'll have to choose your friends with extreme care to make sure that you don't rub up against any stimulating personalities you'll have to build your own defenses against a world of complex realities that will insist on trying to intrude on you at the most inconvenient times but it can be done I've known graduates who have achieved it they've wrapped themselves up in an apathy so thick that they are in a position to say in all truth no opinion to any pollster who might question them on any subject it's a choice that's available to choice one choice to go forth into that waiting world carefully assess the prevailing opinions and then conform forget this theoretical nonsense that they've been feeding you here you have your degree that's certifies that your education let it go that you can scan the whole of the daily newspaper as long as you make sure that it's a newspaper that agrees with you and all other right-thinking citizens on all critical issues you are even permitted if you take this choice to buy two books a year as long as you make sure that there are bestsellers reading the books is optional you don't have to be nearly as selective in making your friends if you go this route instead of the first one after all about 80 perhaps 85% of the people with whom you'll come in contact fit nicely into this choice to category it isn't thought they're particularly talented art blending into the background they are at the background you too can be a pillar of society conformist no strain no pain well almost no pain the anguish of those moments in your middle age when you lie sleepless at 2:00 a.m. or 3 a.m. and wonder what ever happened to all your bright ambitions that anguish those moments don't count too much most of the time you can be comfortable with choice too but who could ask for more the little just tree refused to relax into the common or forms of conformity find yourself instead a click of the Elise an in-group and conform yourself to it you might imagine from that very description of this choice that this would be a difficult thing it isn't at all there are just two requisites first you must have a speciality of your own some field or better part of a field in which your expert might be something in the arts music before Vivaldi or the epic poetry of Afghanistan on the whole though it's better if your speciality is a little more practical intellectual but money-making then to the speciality whatever it is you add a dedication to everything that is advanced guard and an amused contempt for everything else that isn't you mustn't read the daily papers or at a minimum you mustn't admit it if you do know bestsellers of course that goes without saying although you should read enough to be able to say it nauseated you so much you couldn't finish it choice for choice for though offers an alternative for those who cannot raise their political social economic consciousness join an extremist group there's real effort involved in this at the very beginning you have to study the various groups that present themselves and make your initial commitment the beauty of this choice though is that once you've made it you can turn off your thinking and let yourself be carried by the or word surge of what is obviously a significant movement say you linked yourself to the far-right your enemies are immediately identified for you they're all people who don't agree with you you know immediately what to oppose income tax is a to foreign nations movements for mental health and any squeamishness about dropping nuclear bombs at will or whim say you link yourself to the far left your enemies are immediately identified for you they're all the people who don't agree with you you know immediately what to oppose or Business Corporations no exceptions all deviation Asur revisionists all efforts to help establish government's resist communist revolt and then finally there's choice 5 it's hard to state this one about as close as I can come to is this hang loose but stay vibrantly alive this one's strenuous this one's demanding choice five would demand of you that you consider today's graduation no more than a pause to catch your breath before continuing the lifelong job of Education it would demand of you that you be your own unique best self and there is no higher demand than that choice 5 entails wide-ranging reading and deep probing thoughts it calls for a contradictory thing a mind that is constantly open to new facts that dictate change but at the same time is resolutely committed to what seems best at any given point of time it calls for human involvement a compassionate concern for everyone on this fast shrinking little planet of ours and for the generations to come it calls for the resolution of all stereotypes and insists on the thoughtful examination of even the most widely held assumptions that are too easily taken for granted if only choice 5 involved only one thing or the other thought or action it would be ever so much easier it doesn't though it involves both and if that weren't bad enough this choice usually brings with it a certain amount of inner ache because this way is a lonely way those who make choice 5 are never fully comfortable they are nog das by the realization that they could be wrong they're prodded by the recognition that there still is so much to learn and even more than us to understand they're made Restless by their knowledge that no matter how much they do there's still ever so much more to be done choice 5 people have to live constantly with an acceptance of the fact that there are no simple answers in this world because there are no simple questions this makes life exciting for them challenging at least intermittently rewarding but comfortable no I would not urge choice five any of you graduates it asks so much of you any of the other four will see you through to age 60 or 65 retirement and a modest pension there might easily do better than that and make you rich in dollars that is five is there though one of the multiple choices on the test if any of you in this class makes that fifth choice I wish you let me know about it you I'd like to know better you you

Channel: Almeida Theatre

Views: 329,201

Rating: 4.9674606 out of 5

Keywords: andrew scott, edith sampson, actor monologue, hot priest, actor speech, theatre monologue, fleabag actor, Commencement Address, North Central College, Naperville, Illinois, diploma speech, education speech, education monologue

Id: wM_-O8GREGA

Length: 13min 20sec (800 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 19 2018