...so when, you know, if you watch yourself [and] you say:
"Well, I had a particularly good day at work". And what does that mean? Well, it means that you lost your sense of time. Right? Cause when you're having not a good day at work, it's like... First it's one minute to 3 [o'clock], and then it's...
45 seconds to 3, and then it's 30 seconds. That's what school was like for me.
It was like... "click". Heh, so funny, you know. I went to...
I went to my daughter's school. I used to get in trouble for talking all the time - surprise, surprise - when I was a kid. And uh... and I was bored stiff in school. And... and so, I would misbehave upon occasion, out of pure boredom. And, about... 21 years ago, I went to my daughter's school, to sit for a class. It was about an hour long, and I was sitting there,
and the teacher had all the kids on the floor. And was having some of the kids read to the others,
and some of the kids who were reading, couldn't read. At all. And I had exactly the same experience. I was sitting there... it was like being-
it was like being seven years old again. I could see the clock going... "tick", heh. "Tick". And I thought: "You know, if I was in this classroom for three days, I would misbehave. Fif- forty years old. I would misbehave,
exactly like I did, when I was- when I was six". Y'know, well... that's no place to be, right? Because that's- You don't wanna be in a place, that's stultifying. You don't wanna be in a place, where there's no challenge. You might even quit your job, if there's no challenge. Say "Well, that's a good job.
It gives you security". And you think "God, I can't stand this. It's eating away at my soul. It's all security and no challenge". So, why do you want to challenge?
Cause that's what you're built for! That's what you're built for,
you're built to take on a maximal load. Right? Cause that's what strengthens you. And you need to be strong, because life is extraordinarily difficult. And because, the Evil King is always whittling away at the structure of the state. And you have to be awake and sharp,
to stop that from happening. So that you don't become corrupt, and so that your family doesn't become corrupt, and so that your state doesn't have to [stutter] become corrupt. You have to have your eyes open,
and your wit sharp, and your words at the ready. And you have to be educated
and you have to know about your history. And you have to know how to think,
and you have to know how to read, and you have to know how to speak,
and you have to know how to aim, and you have to be willing to hoist the troubles of the world up on your shoulders! And, what's so interesting about that, so remarkable,
and this is something that's really manifested itself to me, as I've been doing these public lectures - I've been talking about responsibility to people. Which doesn't seem to happen very often anymore.
And the audiences are dead quiet. And I lay out this idea, that life,
is tragedy tainted by malevolence. And everyone says "Yeah well, we already always suspected that, but no one has ever said it quite so bluntly. Ad it's quite a relief to hear, that I'm not the only person, who has those suspicions". And then, the second part of that, is the better part.
And it's the optimistic part, which is: Despite the fact, that life is a tragedy tainted by malevolence at every level of existence; there's something about the human spirit, that can thrive under precisely those conditions - if we allow that to occur. Because, as difficult as life is, and as horrible as we are, our capacity to deal with that catastrophe,
and to transcend that malevolent spirit, is more powerful, than- than that reality itself. And that's the fundamental issue. I think that's the fundamental issue of the judeo-christian ethic, with its emphasis on the divinity of the individual. As catastrophic as life is,
and as malevolent as people can be (and that's malevolent beyond belief, fundamentally), the- a person has, in spirit, the nobility
to set that right and to defeat evil. [stutter] More than that! And that, the antidote to the catastrophe of life,
and the suffering of life, and the tragedy of life; that can drive you down and destroy you,
is to take on exactly that responsibility. And to say: "Well, there's plenty of work to be done, and isn't that terrible. And there isn't anything so bad, that we can't make it worse - and certainly, try very hard to do so. But I have it within me, to decide,
that I'm going to stand up against that. I'm going to strive to make the world a better place. I'm going to strive to constrain the malevolence, that's in my own heart. And to set my family straight, and to work-
to work despite my tragic lot. For the betterment of anything-
of everything, that's in front of me". And the consequence of that,
the immediate consequence of that, is that when you make the decision,
to take on all of that voluntarily, (which is to stand up straight, by the way,
with your shoulders back), to take on that- all that on, voluntarily,
as soon as you make that decision... Then all the catastrophe justifies itself,
in the nobility of your striving. And THAT'S what it means to be an individual. Thank you. [applause]
