David+P’s+2016+Final+AmEx+Speech+2016


 * To Assume or not to Assume **

I will start my speech with a quote “Words build bridges into unexplored regions”. Now, I have to presume that one or more of you out there know the identity of the individual who once said this, however I would like to withhold that information for the end. The power of assumptions is far too great in the world and more specifically in the America that we live in today, overuse and over commitment to said assumptions leads not only to misunderstandings but in extreme cases bloodshed some of the unfortunately most common cases of said extreme being full on war. To understand how assumptions create such dire situations we must understand assumptions, to assume is to take for granted the complexity of everyday life, as well as to believe something without proof, give or take a few words placed in there to more accurately depict my take on the definition of the word. Assumptions have lead to almost every single connotation of every single word in every single nation, the most prevalent example of which is the categorization of swear words such as “Fuck” that the people of the current society have decided are too vulgar for people to use elegantly. The American people have been shaping their own form of English for a while now changing the connotations of certain words such as the word “Bad” to have a different meaning among certain groups of individuals which in most cases is the youth.

Another example of the power of assumptions can be found in the interaction between people, individuals tend to try and figure out your personality and or your emotional state by looking at the clothes that you wear, the condition of your face (meaning how you take care of it), your facial expressions, your eyes, and your body language, although not necessarily all at once. These all may give the person a glimpse of who you are, however these by no means depict the entirety of your character and or emotional state. Using a person’s clothes to try and measure up their personality is a gamble, take for example my shirt which has the logo of a movie that I haven’t even seen yet, now look at my face usually I am much too lazy to shave but if I leave it for long enough, to some people it may seem as if though I am merely growing it out. Sometimes a tired face can be mistaken to be sad as my sister has done so on multiple occasions randomly blurting out phrases such as “You look so sad!” to my half asleep soulless shell of a body which had been replenished with a measly three hours of sleep that night.

Now on to some of the most dangerous aspects of assumptions and these are usually only prevalent when a large group of people are full of negative assumptions of another group. An assumption in my book is synonymous to speculation and when a group of speculating people appear full of negative thoughts and beliefs these people open the path to tragedies. The most powerful of these people have created full scale wars while the less powerful have created a grounds for the cultivation of discrimination and racism as well as economic instability. Whether it be from the holocaust of World War II or the stock market crash of 1930 these types of assumptions have wreaked havoc around the world.

Then there are the assumptions that can put a human life at risk even in an otherwise safe environment, many easily avoidable injuries have occurred due to a friend or family member believing that you were paying attention and throwing an array of objects at you which cause incidents including but not limited to baseball to the face, soccer ball to the face, keys to the face and the list goes on, concussions have ensued. Just this school year Mrs. Carr’s father had to go to the E.R. due to being crushed and was nearly discharged without proper treatment due to nothing serious coming up on the initial x-rays, after a lot of advocating done by Mrs. Carr her father was admitted into a hospital room and was checked once again for injuries via a CAT scan and lo and behold when they checked the x-rays they found that he had a fracture on one of his lower vertebrae, and he was then fixed up as much as possible and told not to move too much even after he was discharged, god only knows what would have happened to him had Mrs. Carr not been there.

Now I don’t want all of you to believe that assumptions are nothing but trouble because they have some good uses to them. Assumptions can be a means to an end they can be used to plan better for the future or to fill in the gaps of our knowledge temporarily. It must be noted however that to use assumptions in any progressive way you must be willing to throw away or alter your own assumptions as they are not technically true as by definition there is no proof to back up the belief. The America that I want to live in is not devoid of all assumptions but instead is free from the assumptions that cause unnecessary conflict especially the assumption that humans can be easily generalized. What am I forgetting? Oh! I almost forgot, remember the quote from the beginning “Words build bridges into unexplored regions”? Yeah, that was said by Adolf Hitler. Peace! David out. *walks outside to the bathroom and comes back later*

The dark void that is David's mind http://lifehacker.com/10-surprisingly-inspirational-quotes-from-evil-people-1454328362
 * Sources **