Brennen+H’s+Final+AmEx+2014+Speech

=Title of Speech= "The American Hypocrisy"

=Text of Speech=

Let me just start by saying that I’ve learned something while writing this speech. It’s difficult to criticize hypocrites for being hypocrites, because most likely I’ve been a hypocrite myself at least a handful of times in my life, so in a cruel twist of bitter irony me criticizing hypocrites kind of makes me a hypocrite. That has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of my speech, but staring at my computer screen at 9:30 at night I decided it was worth pointing out.

Well, to say “absolutely” nothing is a bit of stretch. What I want to talk about is the division that so unnecessarily occurs as a result of hypocrisy. Few things irritate me more than witnessing somebody who is so narrow-minded and passionate about their own viewpoint on a given subject that they disregard, and even disrespect the opinions of everyone else. Don’t get me wrong; if you are passionate about a given subject, don’t tip-toe around it just to appease everybody else. History has made it very apparent that appeasement is neither an effective nor a prudent method when dealing with social and political conflict. Therefore, say what you mean, but phrase it in a way that is constructive, rather than destructive. When somebody tenaciously expresses a belief that conflicts with your own, the temptation is strong to retort with some witty remark or comeback. I’m as guilty of it as anybody. However, in reality this does little more than widen the gap between people and obstruct the process of healing, of compromising for the benefit of everyone.

I’m not going to give out any names, but even here at this school, I have a friend whose opinions are repeatedly singled out and scorned during socratics, not only by the class, but by also the teacher, simply because he has the misfortune of being a more conservative-minded person in a liberal environment. This is the kind of thing that I despise. Nothing discourages participation and hinders progress quite as effectively as hypocrisy.

In the America I wish to live and work in as an adult, I would like for everybody to have the capacity to think independently and objectively, unrestrained by the chains of whatever society deems popular. I would like for every individual to be able to understand the complexity of an issue, whether it is political, social, or moral, rather than to dogmatically separate everything into black-versus-white, this-versus-that, and us-versus-them arguments. Above all, though, I want to see fewer hypocrites in the world.

From what I’ve gathered, this year’s AmEx class is one of the most conflictive in a long time, and possibly the most conflictive of all time (though obviously I can’t confirm this). Toward the middle of the year, Mr. Geib and Mrs. Kindred had to completely shut down and censor two consecutive blog entries, due to an excessive exchange of uncivilized and hateful comments. I recognize that not everybody took part in this exchange, and in fact many of the blog entries I read were very civil, whether or not I agreed with them. On the other hand, even if it was only a minority of people who demonstrated close-mindedness in this class, it’s very unfortunate that it happened at all, and I have to wonder whether it’s indicative of future intolerance on a larger scale in America as my generation rises to adulthood. Mr. Geib can’t shut down and censor the world if any of us decide to make vicious comments later in life (not that I’m aware of anyway).

On a related note, am I the only one bothered by the fact that at this point, the word “politics” is pretty much synonymous with corruption and bickering? I hate the two-party system, because of the way it divides people unnecessarily. On the surface, it seems reasonable enough that most people would take one side or the other on a given argument, but in reality most issues are much more complex than that. Dividing every issue into the opposite extremes of Democrat versus Republican blatantly ignores all of the potential middle ground. This encourages immature bickering and attacks on character, as demonstrated in some of our blog posts, instead of a healthier kind of debating necessary for a democracy to thrive. In the America I live in as an adult, I want to see politicians shake hands and buy each other drinks after debates, rather than run campaigns that capitalize on hate and opposition. In the America I live in as an adult, I don’t want to have to listen to two inseparable friends suddenly fall to pieces over something as trivial as a political argument.

In the America I live in as an adult, I hope that people will acknowledge first and foremost that we’re all human, that that simple fact transcends all divisions of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and political views, and that, whether a minority or a majority, these are not traits by which any individual should be weighed (outside of extreme cases, but I think that goes without saying).

At this point I could do something cliché like quote Martin Luther King, Jr. or reference Thomas Jefferson. I could do that, but this is my speech, so instead of something intellectual, I’m going to shoehorn in a reference to one of the greatest films ever made, The Big Lebowski, that has no apparent relevance to the topic. That is, “The Dude abides”.

The bottom line of this whole thing is that you should try to not be a hypocrite. Hypocrites are bad. Oh, and one more thing. “Moderate critic”.

=Cite Your Sources= Confidential, the John Brown Blog Post