{"id":765,"date":"2014-09-17T10:13:30","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T14:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/?p=765"},"modified":"2014-09-17T10:36:51","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T14:36:51","slug":"convocation-address-by-emmett-omalley-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/2014\/09\/17\/convocation-address-by-emmett-omalley-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Convocation Address by Emmett O’Malley ’15"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Welcome to convocation. This speech is divided into three sections\u2014the three S’s if you will\u2014Socrates, “Success,” and Summing Up.<\/p>\n

Part One: Socrates<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since it\u2019s the start of another academic year, it\u2019s probably appropriate that we engage with the big Socratic question right off the bat. That is: What course of life is best? A question that Socrates directed toward Calacles, a sophist \u2013 a person not in pursuit of virtue \u2014 in Plato’s masterpiece, “The Republic.”<\/p>\n

From my humble perspective, the answer to that existential question \u2014 What course of life is best? \u2014 is that we acknowledge the convergence between our own personal pursuits and the moral obligations that we owe to others for our privileged positions as members of the Williston community. That convergence between our personal and moral obligations is, at least for me, where the answer to the question \u2013 What course of life is best? \u2014 lies. In addition, our answer to the essential Socratic question inculcates us with \u2014 as Mr. Hill likes to remind us \u2014 purpose, passion, and integrity.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Of course, it is fair to infer that humans aren\u2019t going to universally agree about the correct answer to the great question: What course of life is best? With that said, I want to examine our more personal hopes, the ones that will propel us and thus engage the better angels of our respective natures to\u2014hopefully\u2014 move our community forward. Forward in the sense of justice and mercy to all humans, regardless of where they live or how intimately we know them.<\/p>\n

One caveat: Please don\u2019t conflate personal pursuits and narcissistic ones\u2014something that is done all too often in our egotistical world. When pursuing some goal or passion in a way that benefits us, it is imperative, as Immanuel Kant taught us, to \u201cact in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part Two: “Success”<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, everyone here has a sense of hope towards a very personal goal. That goal is \u201csuccess.\u201d This is an assumption, but as far as assumptions go I think it\u2019s a pretty safe one. We crave \u201csuccess,\u201d oftentimes in a material sense. But this is not enough\u2014particularly in a world full of racism, economic inequality, sexism, gut-wrenching poverty, homophobia, catastrophic climate change, Ferguson, and Gaza. In short, we need a sense of empathy to answer the question: What course of life is best?<\/p>\n

I stand before you today not to tell you how to specifically answer the big Socratic question, or to how to be \u201csuccessful,\u201d but to encourage us to be skeptical of what traditional \u201csuccess\u201d even is. Let\u2019s be honest: We attend the Williston-Northampton School, a New England prep school where educational opportunity, material abundance, and physical safety are the norm. Yep, we\u2019re the one percent. Many people\u2014parents, staff, faculty, and alumni\u2014have sacrificed to make this place very special, and many of us are frighteningly good at doing what we\u2019re supposed to do to achieve \u201csuccess,\u201d but we don\u2019t understand WHY we\u2019re doing it. We\u2019ve become very good at doing a variety of things \u2013 sports, academics, service\u2014without really knowing why we\u2019re doing any of them. We have a tendency to confine ourselves to a herd of our privileged peers, matriculating in a school of conformity in pursuit of indirect self-acceptance.<\/p>\n

William Deresiewicz calls those of us who achieve stereotypical success by not wrestling with the great Socratic question, and thus confining ourselves to materialistic pursuits, excellent sheep. We must rally against simply becoming just another member of the conforming herd, grazing on a commodified field that\u2019s been laid for us, and never digging deeper than the surface\u2014stuck in one place, and solipsistically pretending it\u2019s all that exists. This is a scary idea, and for many of us \u2014including me\u2014a jarring one. One that makes us feel uncomfortable. That\u2019s because it\u2019s a tough realization for many of us who have been merely following orders.<\/p>\n

Of course, at this stage in our lives, conformity has its own rewards. If we focus on our trivial pursuits and neither think about what\u2019s going on around us, nor take into account other peoples\u2019 perspectives and feelings, we may achieve great material success. Unfortunately, as Christopher Lasch, author of \u201cThe Culture of Narcissism,\u201d warned us, \u201cthe appeal of toys comes to lie not in their use, but in their status as possessions.\u201d Thus, it\u2019s time to put aside our toys \u2013 that car we must own, that game we must win, that college we must attend, and that GPA we must maintain and focus on the great question, What course of life is best?<\/p>\n

For as the writer G.K. Chesterson admonished us: \u201cThe self is more distant than any star.\u201d Indeed, our ultimate goal, at least from my humble vantage point, is that we give virtuous voice to our perspectival answer to the Socratic question: What course of life is best?<\/p>\n

Part Three: Summing Up<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what\u2019s left? What\u2019s left when we don\u2019t obsess about our own ego-driven pursuits, and decide to reflect and engage life on a more humanistic level. What\u2019s left is what matters. What remains when we defy the preconceived notions of \u201csuccess\u201d and instead enhance the amazing world we live in today? What remains is life. So pick up trash, treasure what you have, try not to complain, recognize our privileges, give until it hurts, maintain multiple perspectives, be funny, be kind, listen, help others, and care about more than mere \u201csuccess.\u201d Oh, and also pursue with alacrity the Big Three: Meaningful work, loving relationships, and a comprehensive worldview.<\/p>\n

Thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to convocation. This speech is divided into three sections\u2014the three S’s if you will\u2014Socrates, “Success,” and Summing Up. Part One: Socrates Since it\u2019s the start of another academic year, it\u2019s probably appropriate that we engage with the big Socratic question right off the bat. That is: What course of life is best? A question … Continue reading Convocation Address by Emmett O’Malley ’15<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,16],"tags":[216],"class_list":["post-765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-convocation-address","category-student-speaker","tag-emmett-omalley-15"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":775,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions\/775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}