Although Mr. Boortz never really made this speech, the issues he wrote about in 1997, socialism v individualism, are even more relevant today.
Summary of the
eRumor
It is said to be a
commencement speech delivered by nationally syndicated talk show host Neil
Boortz. Among other things, he offends the faculty by saying they are the
ones who can't "do" so they stay at college and teach. Some
versions say he delivered the speech at his alma mater, Texas A M.
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The Truth
The speech is from
the pen of Neil Boortz and is posted on his website at www.boortz.com.
Boortz tells TruthOrFiction.com, however, that so far, it's never actually
been delivered at a commencement.
He says he wrote the speech about 1997 in protest of never having been
invited to give a commencement address.
It became the springboard for his first book, "The Commencement Speech
You Need To Hear."
Later he produced an audio CD of the speech complete with crowd noise and
applause, which has been aired on his radio program.
Boortz says that although Texas A M is his alma mater, it is not true
that he gave the speech there.
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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 their self 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 individual’s 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, 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”
