You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better. ~ Anne Lamott
It is really too bad that your liberal arts degree cannot get you a job in one of the very Fortune 500 companies you are protesting against. Surprise! You live in a world where it is not good enough to prove you can "read good" and spew a 10 000 word essay on oppressed rats in medical research. I am sure your interest in 19th century art and the history of weapons used in the Boer War makes for interesting conversation at cocktail parties and fund raisers for PETA, but let us get something straight: you were out of your fucking mind if you thought that was going to be the foundation for employment. Most of you owe your parents an apology and all that tuition money they gave to you. Same goes for all the "flash cash" you asked for so you could beer pong your way through your third year. Oh you know who you are. I spent many a Friday at the Power Plant watching you trying to replace you blood volume with alcohol so shut it.
Before you get all bent out of shape and take one of your clever protest placards to my head let us get some things straight. I started out university as an English major. In this particular matter, I am the voice of experience. I wanted to take classes that broadened my horizons, study literature written by the best of the best and have my mind blown by the debates in class. By the end of my first year, my brain had been filled with vast amounts of knowledge about history, anthropology, political science, archaeology, and Victorian English but the fact of the matter was that this was not going to pay the bills unless I taught classes on Victorian English and let's face it, that is a pretty narrow market.
What happened after that was a re-shaping of my future. I came to understand that I could always go back and study those things but what I needed to do was restructure my education so that what I learned was useful, lent itself to employable job skills, and gave me a foundation for future employment. Jane Austen and Athena would have to wait.
Along the way, I took a few courses in economics. I learned a thing or two about capitalism. One of those things is the power of the consumer's dollar. Oh you may think that the Walmarts and Chase banks of the world have all the power but the truth is, they don't. They exist because you buy from them or do business with them. Want to really protest? Hit them where it hurts: the bottom line. Do not buy from companies that fund/support/prop up things you do not like or agree with. Same goes for places that offer services you use. If you are reading this online, you can use the services provided by Lord Google, do some research and find out if that Capital One credit card is what you really want in your wallet. All you do when you destroy the property of the "1%" is give them reason to charge higher interest rates on things like loans and mortgages and give you less interest on your savings; someone has to pay for the damage and you just gave them justification for doing so. Thanks a bunch.
So all you Occupy Wherever can take your Marxist/Socialist ideals and rotate. You are where you are because of choices you made. Do not bother making your shitty choices someone else's responsibility or problem. Trust me, the "1%" do not feel guilty about where you chose to be in life. Have the balls to stand up, get a job, pay your taxes and contribute to society in a meaningful way. You say I am my brother's keeper? Well that asshole better get off his duff and get a job and I don't care if it is at a convenience store or bagging groceries at a market. No one is too good to work at these kinds of jobs. I have a hippie heart but I am tired of funding his leaderless, pointless Arab Spring field trip to Wall Street. And tell the fucker to pack up his tent, go home, and take a shower... him and his new dreds are stinking up the place.
(Originally posted on my old blog "The Domestication of a Punk Rock Foodie" on May 22, 2010)
I strongly suggest you get yourself a punk rawk anger shaman who has a wee bit of hippie dippie do to share. Ta Hank. And ta M-Dawg for showing up.
The following is the speech Rollins gave last year at the Sonoma State University commencement, on May 23, 2009. Hank spoke about it last night and I totally ripped it off the SSU site to share with you.
"It is an honor to be in front of you today as we congratulate all of our graduates and welcome their families and friends. My name is Henry Rollins and the fact that I was asked to speak briefly to you all today is one of the highest compliments and most terrifying propositions I have ever had and I only hope my words have some meaning and merit.
"I would like to thank you for going to college. I would like to thank you for taking years of your life and devoting it to study and the pursuit of knowledge. The world is in great need of people who can think, people who value ideas.
"For a moment, think of the person you were before you came here as a freshman or a freshperson if you will, and the person you are now. Of course, there was a large amount of good times, carrying on and engaging in behavior that we need not mention here. It is perhaps why the human brain is allotted such a vast amount of cells, so that it’s not a big problem when a few million fall off the back of the truck. But amidst all the fun and frivolity there were infinitely long stretches of time where you had to hit the books and work and work in order to achieve. There was no one there to tell you to keep at it but you. And you did it, and here you are. You may not need every single course you ever took to get you though life, but the focus and discipline that was required to complete the course will be invaluable tools that you will utilize and that will hopefully benefit you and those around you for the rest of your life.
"Your education and the time you spent here must be more than merely the means to a good job and financial security. Those are certainly important concerns but I am hoping for much more out of you. To come all this way only to become content cogs in a large machine or merely indistinguishable threads in a massive tapestry is not enough. It just isn’t.
"I know you are well aware of what is happening on planet Earth in 2009. Some say that we are in tough times. I believe we are in challenging times that are in need of bold thinking, fresh ideas and new ways of going about old things. This is where you come in. The future greets you today. You are a very big part of what it will be. So, it is incumbent upon you to take all that you have learned and all that you have worked so hard to achieve and do something with it that is more than the gathering of items and the purchase of a place to put it all in. Because at the end of the day, that is a bit of a checked swing, isn’t it? You don’t want to retire into the dull roar that quickly and quietly, do you? I should hope not!
"It is interesting, the excuses people give when they tell me why they don’t read as much as they used to, don’t travel or inquire as much as they did years before. They tell me they got tired, the kids, the job, the drive to work, the grind, not enough hours in the day, they say. When someone would tell the great philosopher Seneca that there wasn’t enough hours in the day, Seneca said that the gods had been quite generous with time allotment but that many people just don’t make good use of it. Not a second of your life will you ever get back. Make every day count, or acquire a taste for regret.
"I don’t understand how a mind that has been enlightened by years of study and immersed in an environment of such frenetic intellectual activity could ever suffer the crushing blow of complacency. I hope that none of you ever suffer this self-inflicted, greatly compromised condition. Not only is it inexcusable, it is boring as hell and no fun at all.
"Your curiosity must never wane! Ever. You are, therefore you want to know, want to go, want to know more and want to go further. As college graduates, you know all too well how much there is to know and the incalculable amount of fascinating things there are to explore, from thought to geographic destination. It is your curiosity that you must enhance, strengthen and value, more and more as the years go on and on. It is your curiosity that you must guard against exhaustion, apathy and that awful plague called middle age. You are allowed occasional but brief vacations from your curiosity, DVD box sets of television shows and carbohydrate rich foods are permitted—but don’t make a career out of it! It is your curiosity that you will pass on like a genetic trait to your children, infect all those around you like a virus and inspire the anger of those who have chosen to admit defeat. One of the greatest and most powerful words in any language is: WHY.
"When you stop wanting to find out, you’re done. There are few things more unendurable than being forced to spend time with someone who is intellectually incurious. This can never be you. Ask a question. Go forth. Arrive at the answer. Catch your breath. Ask Why. And then set off again. Never relent!
"The world is in need of bright minds. Individuals who seek to spread peace and prosperity by the way conduct themselves and the value they place on the lives of others and on life itself. These people, by way of their concern and awareness, whether they know it or not—are leaders.
"You lead through kindness, generosity, tolerance, innovation, the quest for knowledge and a basic, resolved goodness that is incorruptible, inexhaustible and undefeatable.
"You do not lead by intimidation, by economic coercion, overwhelming military might or sanctions.
"Brutality, oppression and the constant threat of violence only results in brutality, oppression and actual violence. The world has more than it needs.
"A member of Ku Klux Klan doesn’t need a frying pan upside the head! He needs an Al Green record and some good books. He needs better information so he can make better decisions and reach better conclusions. He needs to be inspired. You could do that for someone else, you could do that for a lot of people. It might take a lot less and go a lot further than you think.
"If you have noticed, I keep mentioning the people and the world around you. I have been doing this because you are surrounded. You are surrounded by millions of square miles of land, billions of gallons of water and who knows how many cubic feet of air. You share all of these finite and vulnerable resources with millions of people. Everything you do, affects someone else, perhaps more than you realize. I am hoping that you understand that your responsibility to yourself and your well-being must also somehow include the planet on which you live and the people you share it with because like it or not, it does."
