[song] 브로콜리 너마저 – 앵콜금지
you shouldn’t fucking with (heart thumping) this.
인용
고향을 떠나 수도원에 잠시 적을 둔 (소설 적과 흑의 주인공) Julien Sorel가 유창하게 Horace를 인용하면서 수도원장에게 강한 인상을 심어주는 장면을 기억하는가? 연인에게 너무 고민하지 말고 현재에 충실하자 (=오늘 밤 나랑 질펀하게 놀자)며 써먹는 Carpe Diem – Seize the day, 오늘을 즐겨라 – 남긴 사람이 아이러니컬하게도 로마 시인 Horace이다. 이 것이 시대와 지위를 뛰어 넘나드는 인용의 매력이다.
작가 Proust는 되도록 많은 말을 인용하라고 충고했으며 간결한 문체로 손꼽히는 Lincoln 대통령은 늘 성경을 인용하며 그 안에서 지혜의 말씀을 구했다. 성경 말씀과 좋아하는 작가의 문장을 가까이 지니는 것은 두툼한 지갑보다 마음을 든든하게 해준다. 장미가 양배추보다 향이 좋다며 장미로 수프 만들면 더 맛있을 것이라 결론 짓는 이상주의자 같이 생각의 늪에 동떨어진 세상에서 허우적 거리지 않도록 해준다.
5: Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6: In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.Proverb 3:5~6, King James
안타까운 사람들
상대방 비방하지 않기 – 설사 그 사람이 부도덕한 정치가, 살인범일지라도 죄를 미워할지라도 죄인을 미워하지 않는 것이 올해 나의 목표이다. 우리의 눈과 손가락은 흉악범과 부도덕한 자들을 지켜보고 손가락질하기 위해서 사용될 것이 아니라 약자와 아픈 자들에게 따스한 눈길을 돌리고 손길을 내밀기 위한 것이다. Amazing Grace 작사작곡한 John Newton과 연관되어 잘 알려진 William Wilberforce는 그의 믿음에 의거하여 정치가로서 두가지 목표를 세웠다: 1) 노예 제도 폐지와 2) 영국 제국의 도덕성 회복. 노예 제도는 영국 제국 팽창의 원동력이였기 때문에 좀처럼 호응을 얻을 수 없었으나 26년간 줄창 싸운 끝에 세상을 뜨기 3일 전에 폐지되는 것을 직접 보게 되는 쾌거를 이룬다.
지난 몇년간 정부, 주가 조작하는 재벌3세들과 금융 사기범들, 흉악범들의 악행에 몸서리치던 날들을 잠시 잊어버려보자. 가혹한 현실에 낙담한 나머지 자살하는 사람을 “나약한 새끼 – 어차피 도태될 유전자였던 것이지,” 치부하고 다음 기사 클릭 클릭하기보다 혹시나 주변에 그런 사람이 있는데 눈치 채지 못하고 있는 것은 아닌지 둘러보자. 너나 나와 마찬가지로 객체로서 사랑과 관심을 받아야 할 사람들 – 많은 사람들 중에서 유독 이들을 뽑은 이유는 제껴두자.
우선 나는 어린 미혼모들 이 점점 설 곳이 없다는 점이 무척 가슴 아프다. 너무나도 남의 도움이 절실한 그 나이, 그 건강 상태에 놓인 여린 아이들이 부모님, 선생님, 심지어 주변 친구들에게 낙인이 찍혀 가출과 자퇴를 하게끔 강요 받고 있다. 아이를 갖게 되는 상황에 – 섹스- 대해서 수도 없이 듣고 보고 경험한다. 두 남녀가 진실로 사랑하거나 순간적 감정에 휩싸여 판단력이 흐려져서 실수하던 간에 지금 이시간에도 수백명 수천명의 잠재적 미혼모가 될 수 있는 상황임을 부인할 수 없으니 제발 그들이 더럽다, 부도덕하다는 둥의 눈빛은 위선이다. 우리가 10명 죽였다는 연쇄 살인범 용의자에게 핏줄 올리고 헐뜯으면서 (추정) 연간 34만명을 죽이는 낙태를 강요하는 사회적 눈과 편견에 대해서 관대하다는 것은 더 큰 위선이자 모순이다. 낙태의 찬반 토론에 앞서서 낙태하지 않아도 정상적으로 아이를 키우고 정신적 문화적 경제적 풍요를 누리고 살 수 있는 사회가 조성되었다고 말할 수 있는가? 사람이 살아가면서 내린 선택 – 미혼모, 대학 낙방, 이혼, 사업 파산 -으로 인하여 어떠한 불행한 결과가 일어나더라도 이로부터 박차고 나올 구원의 손길을 뿌리치는 사회가 되어서 안된다. 창조와 혁신을 강조하는 사회가 아닌 사랑과 인애의 공동체, 정죄와 죽음의 사회가 아닌 용서와 구원의 공동체를 바라고 실천해야 한다.
그렇다고 이들을 쫓아내는 학교의 입장이 이해 안되는 것은 아니다. 요즘 사회에서 숭배하는 – 하지만 옳지 못한 – ‘고객/사용자 원하는 것을 해줘라’에 따르면 미혼모를 받아들이지 않는 것이 옳은 선택이기 때문이다. 암암, 학부모들이 가만히 있을리 없지. “자꾸 이러면 안되는 것을 알지만 마음이 그런 것을 어떡해요?” 라 말하는 학부모에게 “네, xx 어머님 안되는 것 알면 그러시지 마셔야죠.” 라고 딱 끊어서 말할 수 있는 깡 있는 선생님이 과연 몇이나 될까? 이런 아이들에게 검정고시 혹은 기타 방법을 통해서 고등학교 과정까지 대학교 그 이후까지 온전하게 갈 수 있는 방법을 마련해야 한다. 나는 명문대 들어가고 박사학위/최고 경영자가 되어 GNP 2만불의 선진국 한국 만들겠다는 엘리트들보다 이러한 아이들에 대하여 더 큰 기대와 간절한 꿈을 갖고 있어. 사회적으로 저출산이 진심으로 우려된다면 신혼 가정으로 하여금 억지로 애 낳게 해서 200만원을 지급하겠다고 약속할 것이 아니라 이미 애들을 낳고 있는/낳게 될 미혼모들에게 좀 더 사랑을 쏟아주는 것이 좀 더 현실적 방안 아닐까?
노숙자에게 필요한 것은 따스한 국물과 빵과 바람 안드는 안식처이기도 하지만 인문학이라는 생각, 혹시 해보지 않았나? 목적지를 향해서 가는 배를 ‘항해’한다고 부르며 목적지를 잃고 방황하는 배를 ‘표류’한다. 항해에 앞서서 자신의 위치와 확실하게 알고 목적지에 도착할 수 있도록 갖춰야할 것이 나침반, 지도와 항해학적 지식이라면 인간의 위치와 목적지를 가르치는 것은 인문학이다는 것이 클레멘트 코스의 철학이다 – 나는 여기에 신앙을 덧붙이고 싶다. 클레멘트 코스는 노숙자들에게 철학, 문학, 역사, 예술 등 인문학의 여러 분야에 걸쳐 강의를 제공한다. 임영인 신부님과 기타 여러분의 노력으로 우리나라 성 프랜시스 대학에서도 비슷한 과정이 개설되었다. 무하마드 유누스의 마이크로 뱅킹 사례를 보더라도 그들에게 절실하게 필요한 것은 (물론 자본이 필요하지만 큰 그림으로 볼 때는) empowerment이다. Empowerment라는 단어를 영한사전으로 찾아보니 ‘권리를 부여하다’인데 그러한 법 냄새나는 사전적 의미보다 사회적/정치적/신앙적 힘 – power – 을 실어주는 것에 가깝다. Empowerment는 자아를 존중하게 되는 긍정적 효과를 불러일으킨다. 밥 세끼 먹듯이 우리의 정신과 영혼 또한 양식을 요구하는데 이 것이 채워지지 않는다면 – 일년에 책 한권 읽는다든지 일주일에 한번 교회가서 예배 1시간동안 의자만 따듯하게 뎁히고 돌아오는 – 영과 육신이 괴리되는 현상은 지속될 것이다. 어떤 의미로 노숙자뿐만 아니라 우리 모두에게 필요한 수업 아닐까 싶다.
성매매 단속 -> 효과적이지 못한 재활 -> 성매매 장소/업종 잠시 이동의 쳇바퀴는 멈추지 않고 계속 도는듯 싶다. 집이 오피스텔 즉, 주거지역이 아니다보니 주변에 성행하는 안마방, 성인 술집은 성매매를 우리 삶 깊숙히 침투하는 바람에 일부는 결혼을 합법적 성매매일 뿐이라고 말하는 상황까지 이르렀다. 그 말을 처음 들었을 때는 무척 마음이 아팠다 – 분명 결혼의 취지는 이런 뜻이 아니였는데 어찌 이지경까지 이르렀을까. 섹스의 아웃소싱은 – 성매매 – 남녀간의 그 특별한 관계, 너무나도 뜨겁고 친밀한 관계를 차디 차게, 불만족하 게끔 만들기 때문에 (한국 봐라, 눈물 난다 ㅠㅠ) 반대한다. 세상에서 가장 오래된 직업이기 때문에 인류의 역사 끝까지 동행할 것이라는 설명으로 성매매를 정당화 할 수 없다. 하지만 이를 1차원 해결방법으로 성매매 단속과 같은 1차원적 방식으로 수요를 억제하면 필히 (공급과 수요의 법칙에 의해서) 다시 균형점이 회복될 것이다. 이를 줄이려면 공급 자체를 줄여야 한다 – 즉, 왜 성매매를 시작하며 유지하는 것일까 질문 자체를 대답해야 한다. 일시적 성매매의 근원을 여자가 원해서, 정당한 직업으로서 여성의 성해방 운동으로 해석하는 분들도 꽤 많아지는 추세이지만 많은 자료와 보고서에 의하면 경제적인 이유가 압도적으로 제1 원인이다. 하지만 이쪽 업계 여성들의 8/10이 자살 충동을 느낌에도 불구하고 마치 늪과 같아서 한번 빠지면 헤어나오지 못하는 상황은 앞서 미혼모처럼 구원의 손길 내미는데 인색한 사회의 연속임을 알려준다. 다시 한번 강조하지만, 이들에게 새로운 삶을 가질 수 있도록 방안이 – 무상 교육/진료/안식처/직업- 절실하다는 것을 통계가 알려준다.
결론적으로 개인은 사회의 최소 단위이자 유일하게 노력할 가치가 있는 객체이다. 선행의 시작과 끝도 개인에서, 작은 공동체에서, 작은 직장터 (서울 이웃 린 치과) 이지 피튀기며 권력의 정점을 쟁취한 후 피라미드 밑단에게 자비로운 마음으로 나눠주겠다는 약속은 현실감이 떨어진다. 신자유주의를 비판하는 것까지는 좋은데 소위 좌파라는 집단이 – 최근 좌파의 신조는 ‘남의 돈 끌어쓰자’인듯 – 허구언 날 재산의 재분배만 외칠 뿐, 약자에게 여전히 손길가지 않는다면 그들 신자유주의와 또한 별 다를바 없다.
[commencement speech] Susan Sontag @Wellesley
Susan Sontag
Commencement Speech 1983
Be Bold! Be Bold! Be Bold!
This is my first commencement, and I think it’s a wonderful college to be having it. I liked hearing a woman chaplain give in invocation; I admire your distinguished and extraordinary President; and I agree heartily with the content of the two speeches, especially their upfront feminist sentiments, just delivered by two graduating seniors…
Graduation is one of the few genuine rites of passage left in our society. You are, individually and collectively, passing symbolically from one place to another, from an old to a new status. And, like all such rites, it is both retrospective and prospective. You are graduating (or being graduated) from college, which is the end of something. But the ceremony we are participating in is called commencement.
That necessarily seasonal, minor literary form called the “commencement address” also faces in two directions. It usually starts with an analysis of the society or the era—appropriately pessimistic. It generally concludes with a heavy dose of exhortation, in which the young graduates, after having been suitably alarmed, are nevertheless urged to be of good cheer as they go forth into the arena of struggle that is your life, and this world.
As a writer, therefore fascinated by genres, as well as an American, and therefore prone to sermonizing, I shall respect the tradition. The times we live in are indeed alarming. It is a time of the most appalling escalation of violence—violence to the environment, both “nature” and “culture;” violence to all living beings. A time in which an ideology of exterminism, institutionalized in the nuclear arms race, has gained increasing credence—threatening life itself. It is also a time of a vertiginous drop in cultural standards, of virulent anti-intellectualism, and of triumphant mediocrity—a mediocrity that characterizes the educational system that you have just passed through, or has passed you through (for all the efforts and good will of many of your teachers). Trivializing standards, using as their justification the ideal of democracy, have made the very idea of a serious humanist education virtually unintelligible to most people. A vast system of mental lobotomization has been put into operation that sets the standards to which all accede. (I am speaking, of course, of American television.)
A singularly foolish and incompetent president sets the tone for an extraordinary regression in public ideals, strengthening apathy and a sense of hopelessness before the self-destructive course of foreign policy and the arms race. The best critical impulses in our society—such as that which has give rise to feminist consciousness—are under vicious attack. An increasing propaganda for conformism in morals and in art instructs us that originality and individuality will always be defeated, and simply do not pay. There is a strengthening of the power of censors within and without. The constraints which govern us in this society have little in common with the grim normalcy of totalitarian societies. Our society does not censor as totalitarian societies do; on the contrary, our society promises liberty, self-fulfillment, and self-expression. But many features of our so-called culture have as their goal and result the reduction of our mental life, or our mental operation; and this is precisely, I would argue, what censorship is about. Censorship does not exist in order to keep secrets. The secrets that censors target, such as sex, are usually open secrets. Censorship is a formal principle. It has no predetermined subject. It exists in order to promote and defend power against the challenge of individuality. It exists in order to maintain optimism, to suppress pessimism; that is to give pessimism—which often means truthfulness—a bad conscience.
Of course, the grim assessments of our era—such as I have just outlined—can themselves become a species of conformity. But only if we have too simple a sense of our lives. Whenever we speak, we tend to make matters sound simpler than they are, and than we know they are.
I have said that this rite of passage—commencement—is one that faces in two directions. Your old status and your new status. The past and the present. The present and the future. But I would urge that it is not just a description of today’s exercises but a model for how you should try to live. As if you were always graduating, ending, and, simultaneously, always beginning. And your sense of the world, and of the large amount of life before you, also should face in two directions. It is true that the macro-news—the news about the world—is bad.
It is also true that your news may not be bad; indeed, that you have a duty not to let it be as bad for you. Perhaps the main point of knowing a rule is to be an exception to it.
If your liberal arts education has meant anything, it has given you some notions of a critical opposition to the way things are (and are generally defined—for example, for you as women.) This attitude of opposition is not justified as a strategy, as a means to an end, a way of changing the world. It is, rather, the best way of being in the world.
As individuals we are never outside of some system which bestows significance. But we can become aware that our lives consist: both really and potentially, of many systems. That we always have choices, options—and that it is a failure of imagination (or fantasy) not to perceive this. The large system of significance in which we live is called “culture.” In that sense, no one is without a culture. But in a stricter sense, culture is not a given but an achievement, that we have to work at all our lives. Far from being given, culture is something we have to strive to protect against all incursions. Culture is the opposite of provinciality—the provinciality of the intellect, and the provinciality of the heart. (Far from being merely national, or local, it is properly international.) The highest culture is self-critical and makes us suspicious and critical of state power.
The liberal arts education you have received is not a luxury, as some of you may think, but a necessity- and more. For there is an intrinsic connection between a liberal arts education, by which I mean an education in the traditions and methods of “high” culture, and the very existence of liberty. Liberty means the right to diversity, to difference; the right to difficulty. It is the study of history and philosophy- it’s the love of arts, in all the non-linear complexity of their traditions- that teaches us that.
Perhaps the most useful suggestion I can make on the day when most of you are ceasing to be students, is that you go on being students- for the rest of your lives. Don’t move to a mental slum.
If you go on being students, if you do not consider you have graduated and that your schooling is done, perhaps you can at least save yourselves and thereby make a space for others, in which they too can resist the pressures to conformity, the public drone and the inner and outer censors- such as those who tell you that you belong to a “post-feminist generation.”
There are other counsels that might be useful. But if I had to restrict myself to just one, I would want to praise the virtue of obstinacy. (This is something anyone who is a writer knows a good deal about: for without obstinacy, or stubbornness, or tenacity, or pigheadedness, nothing gets written.) For whatever you want to do, if it has any quality or distinction or creativity- or, as women, if it defies sexual stereotypes- you can be sure that most people and many institutions will be devoted to encouraging you not to do it. If you want to do creative work- if you want, even though women, to lead unservile lives- there will be many obstacles. And you will have many excuses. These do not mitigate the failure. “Whatever prevents you from doing your work,” a writer once observed, “has become your work.”
All counsels of courage usually contain, at the end, a counsel of prudence. In Spenser’s The Faerie Queen, Book III, there is a place called the Castle of Busyrane, on whose outer gate is written BE BOLD, and on the second gate, BE BOLD, BE BOLD, and on the inner iron door, BE NOT TOO BOLD.
This is not the advice I am giving. I would urge you to be as imprudent as you dare. BE BOLD, BE BOLD, BE BOLD. Keep on reading. (Poetry. And novels from 1700 to 1940.) Lay off the television. And, remember when you hear yourself saying one day that you don’t have time any more to read- or listen to music, or look at painting, or go to the movies, or do whatever feeds you head now- then you’re getting old. That means they got to you, after all.
I wish you Love. Courage. And Fantasy.
[commencement speech] Jon Stewart @William & Mary
on Stewart’s (‘84) Commencement Address
I am honored to be here, I do have a confession to make before we get going that I should explain very quickly. When I am not on television, this is actually how I dress. I apologize, but there’s something very freeing about it. I congratulate the students for being able to walk even a half a mile in this non-breathable fabric in the Williamsburg heat. I am sure the environment that now exists under your robes, are the same conditions that primordial life began on this earth.
I know there were some parents that were concerned about my speech here tonight, and I want to assure you that you will not hear any language that is not common at, say, a dock workers union meeting, or Tourrett’s convention, or profanity seminar. Rest assured.
But today isn’t about how my presence here devalues this fine institution. It is about you, the graduates. I’m honored to be here to congratulate you today. Today is the day you enter into the real world, and I should give you a few pointers on what it is. It’s actually not that different from the environment here. The biggest difference is you will now be paying for things, and the real world is not surrounded by three-foot brick wall. And the real world is not a restoration. If you see people in the real world making bricks out of straw and water, those people are not colonial re-enactors—they are poor. Help them. And in the real world, there is not as much candle lighting. I don’t really know what it is about this campus and candle lighting, but I wish it would stop. We only have so much wax, people.
Lets talk about the real world for a moment. We had been discussing it earlier, and I…I wanted to bring this up to you earlier about the real world, and this is I guess as good a time as any. I don’t really know to put this, so I’ll be blunt. We broke it.
Please don’t be mad. I know we were supposed to bequeath to the next generation a world better than the one we were handed. So, sorry.
I don’t know if you’ve been following the news lately, but it just kinda got away from us. Somewhere between the gold rush of easy internet profits and an arrogant sense of endless empire, we heard kind of a pinging noise, and uh, then the damn thing just died on us. So I apologize.
But here’s the good news. You fix this thing, you’re the next greatest generation, people. You do this—and I believe you can—you win this war on terror, and Tom Brokaw’s kissing your ass from here to Tikrit, let me tell ya. And even if you don’t, you’re not gonna have much trouble surpassing my generation. If you end up getting your picture taken next to a naked guy pile of enemy prisoners and don’t give the thumbs up you’ve outdid us.
We declared war on terror. We declared war on terror—it’s not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I’m sure we’ll take on that bastard ennui.
But obviously that’s the world. What about your lives? What piece of wisdom can I impart to you about my journey that will somehow ease your transition from college back to your parents’ basement?
I know some of you are nostalgic today and filled with excitement and perhaps uncertainty at what the future holds. I know six of you are trying to figure out how to make a bong out of your caps. I believe you are members of Psi U. Hey that did work, thank you for the reference.
So I thought I’d talk a little bit about my experience here at William and Mary. It was very long ago, and if you had been to William and Mary while I was here and found out that I would be the commencement speaker 20 years later, you would be somewhat surprised, and probably somewhat angry. I came to William and Mary because as a Jewish person I wanted to explore the rich tapestry of Judaica that is Southern Virginia. Imagine my surprise when I realized “The Tribe” was not what I thought it meant.
In 1980 I was 17 years old. When I moved to Williamsburg, my hall was in the basement of Yates, which combined the cheerfulness of a bomb shelter with the prison-like comfort of the group shower. As a freshman I was quite a catch. Less than five feet tall, yet my head is the same size it is now. Didn’t even really look like a head, it looked more like a container for a head. I looked like a Peanuts character. Peanuts characters had terrible acne. But what I lacked in looks I made up for with a repugnant personality.
In 1981 I lost my virginity, only to gain it back again on appeal in 1983. You could say that my one saving grace was academics where I excelled, but I did not.
And yet now I live in the rarified air of celebrity, of mega stardom. My life a series of Hollywood orgies and Kabala center brunches with the cast of Friends. At least that’s what my handlers tell me. I’m actually too valuable to live my own life and spend most of my days in a vegetable crisper to remain fake news anchor fresh.
So I know that the decisions that I made after college worked out. But at the time I didn’t know that they would. See college is not necessarily predictive of your future success. And it’s the kind of thing where the path that I chose obviously wouldn’t work for you. For one, you’re not very funny.
So how do you know what is the right path to choose to get the result that you desire? And the honest answer is this. You won’t. And accepting that greatly eases the anxiety of your life experience.
I was not exceptional here, and am not now. I was mediocre here. And I’m not saying aim low. Not everybody can wander around in an alcoholic haze and then at 40 just, you know, decide to be president. You’ve got to really work hard to try to…I was actually referring to my father.
When I left William and Mary I was shell-shocked. Because when you’re in college it’s very clear what you have to do to succeed. And I imagine here everybody knows exactly the number of credits they needed to graduate, where they had to buckle down, which introductory psychology class would pad out the schedule. You knew what you had to do to get to this college and to graduate from it. But the unfortunate, yet truly exciting thing about your life, is that there is no core curriculum. The entire place is an elective. The paths are infinite and the results uncertain. And it can be maddening to those that go here, especially here, because your strength has always been achievement. So if there’s any real advice I can give you it’s this.
College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your own internal sense of decency which I imagine, after going through the program here, is quite strong…although I’m sure downloading illegal files…but, nah, that’s a different story.
Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. And let the chips fall where they may.
And the last thing I want to address is the idea that somehow this new generation is not as prepared for the sacrifice and the tenacity that will be needed in the difficult times ahead. I have not found this generation to be cynical or apathetic or selfish. They are as strong and as decent as any people that I have met. And I will say this, on my way down here I stopped at Bethesda Naval, and when you talk to the young kids that are there that have just been back from Iraq and Afghanistan, you don’t have the worry about the future that you hear from so many that are not a part of this generation but judging it from above.
And the other thing….that I will say is, when I spoke earlier about the world being broke, I was somewhat being facetious, because every generation has their challenge. And things change rapidly, and life gets better in an instant.
I was in New York on 9-11 when the towers came down. I lived 14 blocks from the twin towers. And when they came down, I thought that the world had ended. And I remember walking around in a daze for weeks. And Mayor Giuliani had said to the city, “You’ve got to get back to normal. We’ve got to show that things can change and get back to what they were.”
And one day I was coming out of my building, and on my stoop, was a man who was crouched over, and he appeared to be in deep thought. And as I got closer to him I realized, he was playing with himself. And that’s when I thought, “You know what, we’re gonna be OK.”
Thank you. Congratulations. I honor you. Good Night.
[commencement speech] Bono @Upenn
Because We Can, We Must
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My name is Bono and I am a rock star. Don’t get me too excited because I use four letter words when I get excited. I’d just like to say to the parents, your children are safe, your country is safe, the FCC has taught me a lesson and the only four letter word I’m going to use today is P-E-N-N. Come to think of it ‘Bono’ is a four-letter word. The whole business of obscenity–I don’t think there’s anything certainly more unseemly than the sight of a rock star in academic robes. It’s a bit like when people put their King Charles spaniels in little tartan sweats and hats. It’s not natural, and it doesn’t make the dog any smarter.
It’s true we were here before with U2 and I would like to thank them for giving me a great life, as well as you. I’ve got a great rock and roll band that normally stand in the back when I’m talking to thousands of people in a football stadium and they were here with me, I think it was seven years ago. Actually then I was with some other sartorial problems. I was wearing a mirror-ball suit at the time and I emerged from a forty-foot high revolving lemon. It was sort of a cross between a space ship, a disco and a plastic fruit.
I guess it was at that point when your Trustees decided to give me their highest honor. Doctor of Laws, wow! I know it’s an honor, and it really is an honor, but are you sure? Doctor of Law, all I can think about is the laws I’ve broken. Laws of nature, laws of physics, laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and on a memorable night in the late seventies, I think it was Newton’s law of motion…sickness. No, it’s true, my resume reads like a rap sheet. I have to come clean; I’ve broken a lot of laws, and the ones I haven’t I’ve certainly thought about. I have sinned in thought, word, and deed. God forgive me. Actually God forgave me, but why would you? I’m here getting a doctorate, getting respectable, getting in the good graces of the powers that be, I hope it sends you students a powerful message: Crime does pay.
So I humbly accept the honor, keeping in mind the words of a British playwright, John Mortimer it was, “No brilliance is needed in the law. Nothing but common sense and relatively clean fingernails.” Well at best I’ve got one of the two of those.
But no, I never went to college, I’ve slept in some strange places, but the library wasn’t one of them. I studied rock and roll and I grew up in Dublin in the ’70s, music was an alarm bell for me, it woke me up to the world. I was 17 when I first saw The Clash, and it just sounded like revolution. The Clash were like, “This is a public service announcement–with guitars.” I was the kid in the crowd who took it at face value. Later I learned that a lot of the rebels were in it for the T-shirt. They’d wear the boots but they wouldn’t march. They’d smash bottles on their heads but they wouldn’t go to something more painful like a town hall meeting. By the way I felt like that myself until recently.
I didn’t expect change to come so slow, so agonizingly slow. I didn’t realize that the biggest obstacle to political and social progress wasn’t the Free Masons, or the Establishment, or the boot heal of whatever you consider ‘the Man’ to be, it was something much more subtle. As the Provost just referred to, a combination of our own indifference and the Kafkaesque labyrinth of ‘no’s you encounter as people vanish down the corridors of bureaucracy.
So for better or worse that was my education. I came away with a clear sense of the difference music could make in my own life, in other peoples’ lives if I did my job right. Which if you’re a singer in a rock band means avoiding the obvious pitfalls like, say, a mullet hairdo. If anyone here doesn’t know what a mullet is by the way your education’s certainly not complete, I’d ask for your money back. For a lead singer like me, a mullet is, I would suggest, arguably more dangerous than a drug problem. Yes, I had a mullet in the ’80s.
Now this is the point where the members of the faculty start smiling uncomfortably and thinking maybe they should have offered me the honorary bachelors degree instead of the full blown doctorate, (he should have been the bachelor’s one, he’s talking about mullets and stuff). If they’re asking what on earth I’m doing here, I think it’s a fair question. What am I doing here? More to the point: what are you doing here? Because if you don’t mind me saying so this is a strange ending to an Ivy League education. Four years in these historic halls thinking great thoughts and now you’re sitting in a stadium better suited for football listening to an Irish rock star give a speech that is so far mostly about himself. What are you doing here?
Actually I saw something in the paper last week about Kermit the Frog giving a commencement address somewhere. One of the students was complaining, “I worked my ass off for four years to be addressed by a sock?” You have worked your ass off for this. For four years you’ve been buying, trading, and selling, everything you’ve got in this marketplace of ideas. The intellectual hustle. Your pockets are full, even if your parents’ are empty, and now you’ve got to figure out what to spend it on.
Well, the going rate for change is not cheap. Big ideas are expensive. The University has had its share of big ideas. Benjamin Franklin had a few, so did Justice Brennen and in my opinion so does Judith Rodin. What a gorgeous girl. They all knew that if you’re gonna be good at your word if you’re gonna live up to your ideals and your education, its’ gonna cost you.
So my question I suppose is: What’s the big idea? What’s your big idea? What are you willing to spend your moral capital, your intellectual capital, your cash, your sweat equity in pursuing outside of the walls of the University of Pennsylvania?
There’s a truly great Irish poet his name is Brendan Kennelly, and he has this epic poem called the Book of Judas, and there’s a line in that poem that never leaves my mind, it says: “If you want to serve the age, betray it.” What does that mean to betray the age?
Well to me betraying the age means exposing its conceits, it’s foibles; it’s phony moral certitudes. It means telling the secrets of the age and facing harsher truths.
Every age has its massive moral blind spots. We might not see them, but our children will. Slavery was one of them and the people who best served that age were the ones who called it as it was–which was ungodly and inhuman. Ben Franklin called it what it was when he became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.
Segregation. There was another one. America sees this now but it took a civil rights movement to betray their age. And 50 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court betrayed the age May 17, 1954, Brown vs. Board of Education came down and put the lie to the idea that separate can ever really be equal. Amen to that.
Fast forward 50 years. May 17, 2004. What are the ideas right now worth betraying? What are the lies we tell ourselves now? What are the blind spots of our age? What’s worth spending your post-Penn lives trying to do or undo? It might be something simple.
It might be something as simple as our deep down refusal to believe that every human life has equal worth. Could that be it? Could that be it? Each of you will probably have your own answer, but for me that is it. And for me the proving ground has been Africa.
Africa makes a mockery of what we say, at least what I say, about equality and questions our pieties and our commitments because there’s no way to look at what’s happening over there and it’s effect on all of us and conclude that we actually consider Africans as our equals before God. There is no chance.
An amazing event happened here in Philadelphia in 1985–Live Aid–that whole We Are The World phenomenon the concert that happened here. Well after that concert I went to Ethiopia with my wife, Ali. We were there for a month and an extraordinary thing happened to me. We used to wake up in the morning and the mist would be lifting we’d see thousands and thousands of people who’d been walking all night to our food station were we were working. One man–I was standing outside talking to the translator–had this beautiful boy and he was saying to me in Amharic, I think it was, I said I can’t understand what he’s saying, and this nurse who spoke English and Amharic said to me, he’s saying will you take his son. He’s saying please take his son, he would be a great son for you. I was looking puzzled and he said, “You must take my son because if you don’t take my son, my son will surely die. If you take him he will go back to Ireland and get an education.” Probably like the ones we’re talking about today. I had to say no, that was the rules there and I walked away from that man, I’ve never really walked away from it. But I think about that boy and that man and that’s when I started this journey that’s brought me here into this stadium.
Because at that moment I became the worst scourge on God’s green earth, a rock star with a cause. Christ! Except it isn’t the cause. Seven thousand Africans dying every day of preventable, treatable disease like AIDS? That’s not a cause, that’s an emergency. And when the disease gets out of control because most of the population live on less than one dollar a day? That’s not a cause, that’s an emergency. And when resentment builds because of unfair trade rules and the burden of unfair debt, that are debts by the way that keep Africans poor? That’s not a cause, that’s an emergency. So–We Are The World, Live Aid, start me off it was an extraordinary thing and really that event was about charity. But 20 years on I’m not that interested in charity. I’m interested in justice. There’s a difference. Africa needs justice as much as it needs charity.
Equality for Africa is a big idea. It’s a big expensive idea. I see the Wharton graduates now getting out the math on the back of their programs, numbers are intimidating aren’t they, but not to you! But the scale of the suffering and the scope of the commitment they often numb us into a kind of indifference. Wishing for the end to AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa is like wishing that gravity didn’t make things so damn heavy. We can wish it, but what the hell can we do about it?
Well, more than we think. We can’t fix every problem–corruption, natural calamities are part of the picture here–but the ones we can we must. The debt burden, as I say, unfair trade, as I say, sharing our knowledge, the intellectual copyright for lifesaving drugs in a crisis, we can do that. And because we can, we must. Because we can, we must. Amen.
This is the straight truth, the righteous truth. It’s not a theory, it’s a fact. The fact is that this generation–yours, my generation–that can look at the poverty, we’re the first generation that can look at poverty and disease, look across the ocean to Africa and say with a straight face, we can be the first to end this sort of stupid extreme poverty, where in the world of plenty, a child can die for lack of food in it’s belly. We can be the first generation. It might take a while, but we can be that generation that says no to stupid poverty. It’s a fact, the economists confirm it. It’s an expensive fact but, cheaper than say the Marshall Plan that saved Europe from communism and fascism. And cheaper I would argue than fighting wave after wave of terrorism’s new recruits. That’s the economics department over there, very good.
It’s a fact. So why aren’t we pumping our fists in the air and cheering about it? Well probably because when we admit we can do something about it, we’ve got to do something about it. For the first time in history we have the know how, we have the cash, we have the lifesaving drugs, but do we have the will?
Yesterday, here in Philadelphia, at the Liberty Bell, I met a lot of Americans who do have the will. From arch-religious conservatives to young secular radicals, I just felt an incredible overpowering sense that this was possible. We’re calling it the ONE campaign, to put an end to AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa. They believe we can do it, so do I.
I really, really do believe it. I just want you to know, I think this is obvious, but I’m not really going in for the warm fuzzy feeling thing, I’m not a hippy, I do not have flowers in my hair, I come from punk rock, The Clash wore army boots not Birkenstocks. I believe America can do this! I believe that this generation can do this. In fact I want to hear an argument about why we shouldn’t.
I know idealism is not playing on the radio right now, you don’t see it on TV, irony is on heavy rotation, the knowingness, the smirk, the tired joke. I’ve tried them all out but I’ll tell you this, outside this campus–and even inside it–idealism is under siege beset by materialism, narcissism and all the other isms of indifference. Baggism, Shaggism. Raggism. Notism, graduationism, chismism, I don’t know. Where’s John Lennon when you need him.
But I don’t want to make you cop to idealism, not in front of your parents, or your younger siblings. But what about Americanism? Will you cop to that at least? It’s not everywhere in fashion these days, Americanism. Not very big in Europe, truth be told. No less on Ivy League college campuses. But it all depends on your definition of Americanism.
Me, I’m in love with this country called America. I’m a huge fan of America, I’m one of those annoying fans, you know the ones that read the CD notes and follow you into bathrooms and ask you all kinds of annoying questions about why you didn’t live up to that�.
I’m that kind of fan. I read the Declaration of Independence and I’ve read the Constitution of the United States, and they are some liner notes, dude. As I said yesterday I made my pilgrimage to Independence Hall, and I love America because America is not just a country, it’s an idea. You see my country, Ireland, is a great country, but it’s not an idea. America is an idea, but it’s an idea that brings with it some baggage, like power brings responsibility. It’s an idea that brings with it equality, but equality even though it’s the highest calling, is the hardest to reach. The idea that anything is possible, that’s one of the reasons why I’m a fan of America. It’s like hey, look there’s the moon up there, lets take a walk on it, bring back a piece of it. That’s the kind of America that I’m a fan of.
In 1771 your founder Mr. Franklin spent three months in Ireland and Scotland to look at the relationship they had with England to see if this could be a model for America, whether America should follow their example and remain a part of the British Empire.
Franklin was deeply, deeply distressed by what he saw. In Ireland he saw how England had put a stranglehold on Irish trade, how absentee English landlords exploited Irish tenant farmers and how those farmers in Franklin’s words “lived in retched hovels of mud and straw, were clothed in rags and subsisted chiefly on potatoes.” Not exactly the American dream…
So instead of Ireland becoming a model for America, America became a model for Ireland in our own struggle for independence.
When the potatoes ran out, millions of Irish men, women and children packed their bags got on a boat and showed up right here. And we’re still doing it. We’re not even starving anymore, loads of potatoes. In fact if there’s any Irish out there, I’ve breaking news from Dublin, the potato famine is over you can come home now. But why are we still showing up? Because we love the idea of America.
We love the crackle and the hustle, we love the spirit that gives the finger to fate, the spirit that says there’s no hurdle we can’t clear and no problem we can’t fix. (sound of helicopter) Oh, here comes the Brits, only joking. No problem we can’t fix. So what’s the problem that we want to apply all this energy and intellect to?
Every era has its defining struggle and the fate of Africa is one of ours. It’s not the only one, but in the history books it’s easily going to make the top five, what we did or what we did not do. It’s a proving ground, as I said earlier, for the idea of equality. But whether it’s this or something else, I hope you’ll pick a fight and get in it. Get your boots dirty, get rough, steel your courage with a final drink there at Smoky Joe’s, one last primal scream and go.
Sing the melody line you hear in your own head, remember, you don’t owe anybody any explanations, you don’t owe your parents any explanations, you don’t owe your professors any explanations. You know I used to think the future was solid or fixed, something you inherited like an old building that you move into when the previous generation moves out or gets chased out.
But it’s not. The future is not fixed, it’s fluid. You can build your own building, or hut or condo, whatever; this is the metaphor part of the speech by the way.
But my point is that the world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape. Now if I were a folksinger I’d immediately launch into “If I Had a Hammer” right now get you all singing and swaying. But as I say I come from punk rock, so I’d rather have the bloody hammer right here in my fist.
That’s what this degree of yours is, a blunt instrument. So go forth and build something with it. Remember what John Adams said about Ben Franklin, “He does not hesitate at our boldest Measures but rather seems to think us too irresolute.”
Well this is the time for bold measures. This is the country, and you are the generation. Thank you.
Posted 5/19/04
[commencement speech] Gloria Steinem @Tuft University
Mr. President–at last I can say that with pleasure–and administrators of the university and all its schools–their family, friends and significant others–
Faculty with tenure. Faculty without tenure–
Parents and families of graduates. Step parents and chosen family of graduates–and anyone else who helped pay the bills.
Friends and lovers of graduates–(you know who you are).
Also student[s] who someday will graduate, returning graduates, and people who just stopped by to watch because, like me, you are commencement junkies–
Staff members who house, feed and maintain all of the above, as well as preparing this ceremony.
And most of all, graduates, co-conspirators and subversives–Those who were born before June 1, 1965, and those born after–
Those who lived uphill, or downhill, or met in the Pagoda–
Fletcher graduates, who have the revolutionary idea that law might have a relationship to justice, and diplomacy to the truth–
Graduates who will build buildings that last longer than we do, or teeth that last as long as we do–a new event in human history–
Those who will cure illness, promote wellness, and save our environment, and who will extend a helping hand to the other living creatures on this Spaceship Earth–
In short, to everyone who shares this day as the celebration of one journey and the beginning of another, I say thank you for letting me share it with you. Because I confess that I am terminally sentimental about graduations. They are more individual than weddings. More conscious than christenings, or bar mitzvahs or bat mitzvahs. They are almost as much a step into the unknown as funerals–though I assure you, there is life after graduation.
In fact, ceremonies like these get to me every time.
And today is all the more momentous for the extraordinary group with whom I share honorary degrees. Please read about their work and lives and be as instructed as I have been.
As someone who tried (unsuccessfully) to dance her way out of Toledo, Ohio, and into the hearts of Americans, I have always wanted to meet Katherine Dunham. She brought dance out of its artsy ghetto, just as Natalie Davis had the revolutionary idea that ordinary people should be part of history–and vice versa.
I thank David McCord for being a rare man who loves both children and poetry. And I thank the spirit of the late Danny Kaye, who made us laugh with, never at, each other.
Dr. Callow has helped our bodies through his craft and our minds through his aid to this university.
Claude Shannon seems to me a kind of Zeus from whose forehead springs technology fullblown, communicative and user-friendly.
Winston Lord bridges worlds through diplomacy, just as C. S. Ioh combines art with commerce and business with conscience.
I thank Dr. Ames for managing to rescue both people from cancer and animals from pain.
It is an extraordinary group.
But I especially want to thank Supreme Court Justice Blackmun, who extended a U.S. Constitution written for, by and about white males to protect the reproductive freedom of women of all races. Because a fervent minority of Americans still disagree with women’s rights and ability to make a conscientious decision about abortion, Justice Blackmun continues to live under hurtful attacks.
So I would like to publicly thank him on behalf of the more than 70 percent of Americans who agree with the decision he authored, who believe that a woman’s life is also a human life, and who know that the majority decision he wrote may have saved the lives and health of more women in this country than any other single act in history.
One day soon, reproductive freedom–that is, the freedom to have or not have children, without government interference–will be recognized as a basic human right, like freedom of speech or assembly. Then, history will also thank Justice Blackmun.
But just in case the honor of this company and this occasion might endanger my humility, here is a note of reality: I don’t remember one single thing my own commencement speaker said. I was consumed with concern about how my friends would get on with my family, and vice versa; about how I was going to pack four years of possessions into one car; and about how I was not going to get married to the very tempting man I was then engaged to–(In the ’50s, everybody got married or engaged before or right after graduation–but I wanted to go off to India instead).
Furthermore, I conducted a small survey in preparation for today. Half of my sample couldn’t remember who their commencement speaker was.
So instead of pursuing one theme that might exclude many people, I’m going to be diverse in the hope of leaving a sentence or two that might be useful to more people. All these thoughts come under the general heading of “what I know now that I wish I’d known then.” One other organizing principle I will leave to the end–and I defy you to guess what it is. I’ve also tried to follow Henny Youngman’s wisdom–he always told one-liners because longer jokes weren’t, as he put it, “worth the trip”–by keeping each thought short.
For instance:
Thought 1: A person who has experienced something is almost always far more expert on it than are the experts. A corollary is that any process including only experts, with no contribution from those with personal experience, will probably go wrong. An extension is that our educational system is long on book learning, but short on apprenticeship. A further extension is that our social policy is long on theorists, and short on organizers.
A national example: The poverty programs of the Johnson Administration were less successful than the Depression projects of the Roosevelt Administration in part because the first were mostly designed by Washington poverticians, while the second were mostly local initiatives that were given government support.
For a personal example: I wish someone had warned me that book learning, as valuable and irreplaceable as it may be, can also make you self-critical, reverential and otherwise fearful of acting. (Of course, this is especially true if you are female, or a different race or ethnicity, and nobody in the books looks like you–but I hope you have had more inclusive textbooks than I did).
So whatever you want to do, just do it. Don’t worry about making a damn fool of yourself. Making a damn fool of yourself is absolutely essential. And you will have a great time.
Thought 2: When I was a student, we used to sit around discussing whether a particular end justified a particular means. On the assumption of everyone from Marx or Machiavelli, I thought that was the question.
It took me twenty years to figure out that the means are the ends–and vice versa. Whatever means you use become an organic part of the ends you achieve.
For example: Groups rarely benefit from revolutions if they haven’t been an organic part of that revolution. Even if they are given certain paper rights at the end of the process, they may remain too weak to use them. Strength comes from process. Process is all.
Thought 3: If you have to choose character or intelligence–in a friend or in a candidate–choose character. Intelligence without character is dangerous, but character without intelligence only slows down a good result.
Thought 4: Politics is not just what goes on in the electoral system, or in Washington. Politics is any power relationship in our daily lives. Anytime one human being is habitually powerful over another, or one group over another, not because of talent or experience, but just because of race, or sex or class, that’s politics. So when we look at the fields of your state and mind, and see that one color of human beings owns them, and another color works on them as migrant labor, that’s politics. When we find a hundred of one kind of human being in the typing pool, and a few of another in the boardroom, that’s politics. When children have only their father’s name, that’s politics. When most men have only one job, while most women have two–one inside the home and one outside it–that’s politics, too. And when students of color are still in smaller proportion than are people of color in the population, or women are a lesser percentage of dentists and engineers, or men a lesser proportion of physical therapists and nutritionists, that’s politics.
Forget old definitions. They were based on the idea that what happened to men was politics, and what happened to women was culture. That division was just a way of keeping certain parts of life immune to change. In fact, the personal is very often political. And revolutions, like houses, get built from the bottom up, not the top down.
Thought 5: As Margaret Mead once said, “Marriage worked well in the 19th Century because people only lived to be fifty.”
Because life expectancy has increased about thirty years since 1900, there are bound to be different ways of living. Some people will marry and raise children young, then go off amicably for another life of a different accomplishment. Some will marry late–after their work lives are well under way–and have children later or not at all. Some will not marry, or will love and live with a partner of the same gender. Others will raise their children among a chosen family of friends, or find colleagues in work and shared ideals who are their spiritual family.
As the prison of form diminishes, we can pay more attention to content. That means equal power between partners and thus the possibility of free choice. That means commitment out of decision, not desperation or pressure. That means kindness, empathy and nurturing–because those of us who are not parents can help those who are. We can have children as friends.
If that sounds Pollyanna-ish, consider that the foreshadowings of such a change are with us now. Women in the paid workforce–and hopefully men who are real parents, too–are finally beginning to bring the reality of children’s lives into the public sphere. This is long overdue: The United States is the only industrialized democracy in the world that behaves as if children didn’t exist until the age of six.
Furthermore, the divorce rate has begun to decline, an event that feminists have always predicted. When people used to say to me, “Feminism is the cause of divorce,” I always said, “No, marriage is the cause of divorce.” Forcing all people to believe they had to live one way was the cause of many bad marriages, just as forcing all people to believe they had to be parents was the cause of many bad parents and unhappy children. No one way of living can be right for all people.
So the message is: Don’t worry if your life doesn’t look like a Dick-and-Jane primer. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look like the Yuppie opposite of a Dick-and-Jane primer. The point is less what we choose, than that we have the power to make a choice.
Thought 6: Remember the ’50s and ’60s? Then, women were supposed to marry what we wanted to become–as in, “Marry a doctor, don’t be one.” In the ’70s and ’80s, some women started to say, “We are becoming the men we wanted to marry.” But in the ’90s, more men must become the women they wanted to marry.
I’ll know we’re getting someplace when as many young men as young women ask, “How can I combine career and family?”
And men will be getting someplace, too. They won’t be strangers to their children anymore. They won’t be suppressing qualities in themselves that are human but not stereotypically masculine. They will even be living longer, since the pressures of having to win, or even be aggressive or violent, all lead to the clear conclusion that the prison of the so-called masculine role is the killer of many men.
This isn’t a role exchange–it’s a humanization of both roles. For both women and men, progress probably lies in the direction we haven’t been. For women, it may lie in becoming more active in public life. For men, it may lie in playing a real part of private life. But for both, the pleasure and reward is becoming a whole human being.
I wish I had realized this earlier. It means progress is not always a straight line, in which we must defeat or outstrip others and there is only one winner. Progress is a circle in which we strive to use all our talents and complete ourselves. Potentially, we are all winners.
Thought 7: Don’t forget to give at least ten percent of everything you earn to social change. It’s the best investment you’ll ever make. Possessions can be lost, broken or begin to possess you. Indeed, if you’re really happy in your life and work, you won’t have that much time to shop and buy and re-buy and repair anyway. The money you save may not be worth that much tomorrow. Insurance companies may cancel your policies. Tithing is the pioneer example and the religious example. Helping others is the only way to be sure there will be someone there to help you.
Finally, the last thought and an organizing principle of this list of I-wish-I-had-knowns: the reason why acting on such thoughts is timely and vital right now.
Economists are warning, and politicians are fearing, that this nation is at the end of its economic expansionist period. There are now other countries that can compete or even outstrip us in productivity. For the first time, 80 percent of Americans have not increased their real buying power in the last ten years, and many young people will not do as well in conventional economic terms as their parents.
Most authorities see this as a time of danger–and that is true. Energies deflected from earning more and buying more could cause us to fly apart politically.
But this is also an opportunity to make real changes in our lives and in our country.
It is time for America to become known for the quality of life as well as the quantity of goods.
It is time to carry out the greatest mission and legacy of our culture: that we are the world’s biggest experiment in multi-cultural and multi-racial living. Our fragile planet needs to learn exactly this lesson of cherishing each other’s differences. This campus is imperfect, but it is far better than the world outside it, and the world could be much more like it–with politicians as open to visitors as are the deans in the hall I face; women heading newspapers and governments as they do here, and commitment to mutual support and non-violence.
Bigger is not better. America’s military might is not our best legacy.
Equality is the best insurance against the political upheaval that authorities fear. More than 70 percent of Americans say they are willing to change their standard of living in conventional economic terms–providing this so-called “sacrifice” is evenly spread.
This is a turning point in history–and your challenge. Our hearts go with you. Our heads and hands are here to help you. The brotherhood of man and the sisterhood of women–the humanity of people–is “not so wild a dream as those who profit by delaying it would have us believe.”
One more point. This is the last period of time that will seem lengthy to you at only 3 or 4 years. From now on, time will pass without artificial academic measure. It will go by like the wind.
Whatever you want to do, do it now. For life is time, and time is all there is.
한限
Richard Wagner가 예술을 통해 세상을 뒤흔들고 제도로부터 자유로운 사랑, 용기, 영웅을 통해 완성되 가는 인류의 모습을 그렸듯이 이 시대에 만족치 못하는 내가 바라는 인간상, 초인의 조건은 무엇일까? 독일 신화에 기반 두었던 R. Wagner를 비롯하여 F. Nietzche, B. Shaw가 그리던 초인을 여과 없이 적용하기에는 어려움이 있을터 (또는 초인은 국경과 시대마저 초월할까?), 그렇다면 우리나라 환경과 역사에서 ‘걸맞는’ 초인의 모습은 어떠할까? 아니, 사회 중심적인 동양 특성상 초인이라는 개인적 개념이 과연 유효하기나 할까? 요순시대와 같은 이상적 사회를 그려야하지는 않을까?
우연찮게도 우리나라 건국이념이자 교육이념은 홍익인간 – 인간세상을 널리 이롭게 함 – 이다. 이 짧은 말에도 여러가지 인간상이 함축되어있다. 예를 들어서, 널리 이롭기 위해서는 기회주의적 소시민이 설 곳이 없음을 암시한다. 하지만 인간을 이롭게 한다는 인본주의적 사상은 아브라함이 하나님의 뜻에 순종하여 아들 이삭을 제물로 삼기 요구했던 사례와 같이 종교적 믿음과 충돌을 일으킬 여지가 있기도 하다. 특히나 한국적 인간상을 말할 때 빼놓을 수 없는 요소: 한限은 어찌할 것인가? 미국인을 가장 잘 나타내는 단어로 개척자 (또는 약탈자) 를 꼽는다면 나는 한국인의 한限을 꼽는다. 고구려 이후로는 항상 강대국 틈 바구니에 끼어 등 터지는 새우 통일신라, 고려, 조선, 일제 식민지 시대, 6.25, 4.19 혁명, 유신정권, 5.18 민주항쟁, IMF 등등 늘상 바람 앞의 촛불처럼 위태위태하며 당당해보지 못한 우리나라의 역사는 고난의 연속이였다고 평한다면 조상들이 섭섭해할 수도 있으나 영역 확장과 같은 능동적 파이 늘리기 보다는 좁은 국토 안에서 수동적 점유율 싸움에 좀 더 초점을 맞쳐왔다는 것이 김사실 최트루.
‘빛의 파동과 입자의 이중적 성격을 띄운다’와 같은 모순적 내용을 물리학과 3학년 때 너무나도 쉽게 받아들였던 것이 생각난다. 마치 진도 얼른 빼자고 보채는 남자친구마냥 양자역학 가르치는 교수님의 강요 – 빛의 이중성을 그저 받아들이라는 – 에 미약하게 끌려가기도 했지만 설사 시간이 주워졌더라도 이 모순을 진심으로 어찌 껴안아야할지 몰랐을 것이다. 물리야 책 덮으면 잊을 수 있겠지만, 양쪽 의견이 대립할 때 느끼는 이 감정, 이 고뇌를 어찌할 것인가? 이마저 물리책 싹 덮고 잊어버렸듯이 넘길 것인가? 그 것은 이웃, 국가, 인류에 대한 희망을 잃는 것일테다.
한을 극복해내는 초인의 조건을 찾자.
Update:
아일랜드라는 국가가 한이 많은 나라 중 하나 아닐까 – 이 나라의 예술을 좀 더 알아보자.
원이 엄마 편지
원이 아버지께
당신 언제나 나에게 “둘이 머리 희어
지도록 살다가 함께 죽자”고 하셨지요.
그런데 어찌 나를 두고 당신 먼저 가십니까?
나와 어린 아이는 누구의 말을 듣고 어떻게
살라고 다 버리고 당신 먼저 가십니까?
당신 나에게 어떻게 마음을 가져왔고,
나는 당신에게 어떻게 마음을 가져왔었나요?
함께 누우면 언제나 나는
당신에게 말하곤 했지요.
“여보, 다른 사람들도 우리처럼
서로 어여삐 여기고 사랑할까요?
남들도 정말 우리 같을까요?”
어찌 그런 일들 생각하지도 않고
나를 버리고 먼저 가시는 가요.
당신을 여의고는 아무리 해도
나는 살수 없어요.
빨리 당신에게 가고 싶어요.
나를 데려가 주세요.
당신을 향한 마음을 이승에서
잊을 수 없고, 서러운 뜻 한이 없습니다.
내 마음 어디에 두고
자식 데리고 당신을 그리워하며
살 수 있을까 생각합니다.
이내 편지 보시고 내 꿈에 와서
자세히 말해 주세요.
당신 말을 자세히 듣고 싶어서
이렇게 글을 써서 넣어 드립니다.
자세히 보시고 나에게 말해 주세요
당신 내 뱃속의 자식 낳으면
보고 말할 것 있다 하고 그렇게 가시니,
뱃속의 자식 낳으면 누구를 아버지라
하라시는 거지요?
아무리 한들 내 마음 같겠습니까?
이런 슬픈 일이 또 있겠습니까?
당신은 한갖 그 곳에 가 계실 뿐이지만,
아무리 한들 내 마음 같이 서럽겠습니까?
한도 없고 끝도 없어 다 못 쓰고 대강만 적습니다.
이 편지 자세히 보시고 내 꿈에 와서
당신 모습 자세히 보여 주시고
또 말해 주세요.
나는 꿈에는 당신을 볼 수
있다고 믿고 있습니다.
몰래 와서 보여 주세요
하고 싶은 말, 끝이 없어 이만 적습니다.
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