Robert Greifeld's Commencement Address

Brad College at Simon's Rock
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
May 19, 2007

It is my great pleasure to be here today and I extend my thanks to President Leon Botstein, Provost Mary Marcy, Chairwoman Emily Fisher, members of the board, faculty, and administration for the opportunity to address the 2007 graduating class of Simon’s Rock College of Bard.

As we are gathered here today in the bucolic splendor of this campus, in a state whose passage of universal healthcare has preempted the national debate, it is not hard to see Jefferson’s vision of this country in practice. Jefferson rejoiced in pastoral pleasures and had a deep distrust of nonagrarian commerce and the centralization of power to the federal government. One hundred and twenty miles to the south of here, and only two and one half hours on the train from Wassaic, is the center of commerce, built upon the institutional pillars that Hamilton envisioned, simultaneously and in direct conflict to Jefferson’s vision for our fledging country.

The political method exhibited by our founding fathers, in trying to advance their vision for this country, would have made many a headline in today’s tabloid newspaper or provided much material for Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.  In the absence of a monarchy, a dictator, or one party rule, this country has bridged bitter differences through a culture of compromise. This culture of compromise includes our relationship to the past. Our society looks forward to a new day, ready to compromise with past positions or actions.

I was born in 1957 and became aware of the wider world in 1977, and have witnessed many momentous events over the past thirty years. The Fall of Saigon, the Oil Embargo, the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Middle Eastern Wars are some of the events that come first to mind. During my time, I have also witnessed a tremendous increase in the standard of living in this country. In the 1970s young people, if they had a car, it was not reliable, did not pay more than twenty cents for a cup of coffee, drank water from the tap, and never flew on airplanes, and upscale dining was Wendy’s.

In the annals of humanity, we stand at the apex of material wealth. Most of us live lives of material wealth greater than that of kings and queens from the recent past. It is impossible to debate the fact that the material achievement of this country, this society, at this precise moment in time could be an accident or a random event. The institutions of this country, this society, first advanced by our founding fathers, and perfected through centuries of contentious compromise, have delivered us to this point.

The role of youth is to look at the world and society they will inherit with new eyes and see what is wrong and what can be improved. As a society built and advanced on compromise of bitter differences, this continual rebuke from the young is vital. This does not mean automatic acceptance by those responsible for the current state of affairs.  It also does not mean that just because you have new eyes and a fresh perspective that your insights have particular merit. The most important and informed comment on what needs to be changed and improved in this society will be developed by those who have a deep understanding of what is right and what works in this world and our society.

As we evaluate and examine how we arrived at this apex, we gain an appreciation of the great generations that have come before, and we also gain an informed and insightful view of the large and intractable problems that will be left to the generations of graduates that sit among us today. Our present successes have certainly created our future problems. Over the past thirty years, we have witnessed the dropping of trade barriers between countries; the globalization of societies, cultures, and economies; and the near simultaneous entry of China, Russia, and India into the developed world’s economic system. As a country of 300 million citizens, it is hard to overstate the impact of 2.5 billion consumers and producers entering the world’s economic stage.  Their effect will reverberate for centuries to come.

This expansion of markets, through either free trade agreements or an increase in the number of participants, has fueled a global economic expansion. The standard of living has risen in almost all corners of the globe.  This rising tide has lifted almost all boats. At the same time, the gap between rich and poor has widened in the United States, and, in many countries, the income gap is more pronounced than in the United States. It is a global phenomenon and a global problem. Stability and continued success of societies are dependent on an assumed sense of fairness underlying all activities.

Growing income equality is a challenge that will not be resolved by previous generations. It is a challenge we will leave to this generation of graduates. This global economic expansion has been achieved with an almost reckless disregard for the environmental cost. Perception of this problem has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past eighteen months. It is exciting to witness the public, private, local, and global initiatives to tackle this big issue. Venture capital’s single biggest investment focus is alternative energy. Decades of abuse and neglect will take decades of focus and investment.

Shutting down our carbon-based economy is the fastest but most impractical route. The harder pragmatic challenge is to balance economic growth and prosperity with environmental sustainability. Sustainability is a challenge that will not be resolved by previous generations. It is a challenge we will leave to this generation of graduates.

I have to admit that during my daily activities I am primarily in contact with people, from various parts of the planet, who are the beneficiaries of free trade and globalization. As a result of this daily experience, I had not spent much time thinking of those who had not benefited from free trade and globalization. My first direct experience with the protestors of this globalization trend occurred in January of 2004.

I was invited to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The World Economic Forum is an independent organization that is committed to bringing together leaders from all walks of life to help achieve its broad mission of improving the state of the world. Attendance at this annual affair is an honor and I was as excited as my car left the airport at Zurich to climb the mountains to the isolated village of Davos. With only 1,000 attendees, I realized that I was likely to run into many of the participants over the next four days. What would I say to Tony Blair? Would I tell Jacques Chirac that I only ate freedom fries! Should I ask Bono for his autograph? The passing snow-covered Swiss countryside and the jet lag from the overnight flight lulled me to a state of semiconscious relaxation, when I was jarred by the incongruous site of a fully armed squad of military men, with their automatic weapons in the ready position. Thirty yards away I saw the reasons for the security detail—a group of protestors waving signs and yelling about the ravages of globalization. As I sat in the back of my warm car, watching these frozen protestors shouting at my car and their thought of who I was, I became quite uncomfortable.

The simple fact that people are angrily shouting directly at you is discomforting, but I was not bothered by the content of their message. My initial reaction was quite the opposite; I thought if they were interested in communicating effectively, instead of drawing attention to themselves, their message would have been better served by writing an op-ed in the New York Times.  My discomfort was the realization that as a young man I had assumed I would always be the protestor, and I had become the protestee without any known decision on my part. This thought was eclipsed by the realization that if I encountered one more delay, I would be late for Bill Clinton’s speech.

Over the months that followed, I did spend time to gain a more balanced view of the full impact of free trade and globalization. Wordsworth’s phrase, “the child is father to the man,” continuously circulated in my mind and I wondered if my path of life, unrhymed and unmatched, had become broken as the child grew from protestor to protestee and gave birth to the man.

As a teenager, I was distinctly out of touch with my times. I was enthralled by the power of the written word. My world changed when I heard Dylan’s “Visions of Johanna,” which lead me to the poets and writers of the Beat Generation, which lead to Whitman, Verlaine, and Rimbaud. The experience I describe may have been somewhat typical if the year was 1965, but I graduated high school in 1975. As Dylan was the generation that followed the beats, I saw myself as the generation that followed Dylan and the flower children of the sixties. As I prepared to leave my home in eastern Long Island to attend college in the fall of 1975,walking through the Sears store at the local mall, I saw a kiosk that would allow you to customize a T-shirt with any saying that you desired. This was incredible new technology back in 1975 and I was very impressed. Suddenly I was inspired and without conscious thought ordered my customized T-shirt. They charged for each letter that you ordered and, as money was tight, I felt embarrassed to realize that I had spent seven dollars on a T-shirt that retailed for $2.60 without the lettering.

Still I was excited because I had an article of clothing that would outwardly express my inner mindset. The movie Saturday Night Fever premiered in 1977, based on an article by Nik Cohn, called “Tribal Rite of the New Saturday Night,” which appeared in New York Magazine in 1975. The article was a depiction of the new teenage social scene that had developed in Brooklyn in the aftermath of the Vietnam War in the early seventies. Before bursting on the national scene with the release of the movie, this cultural change had spread, as I was soon to discover, to New Rochelle, New York, and Iona College.

I was parachuted into a world where polyester replaced denim, shirts were shiny, men and women walked on four-inch platform heels, and the blow dryer was essential if you wanted to perfect the big hair look.  We all knew that the scene of the last helicopter leaving the top of a building in Saigon signaled that a new day was dawning, but I could not comprehend how protest evolves to polyester, and not just any polyester, but a white three-piece suit. As a self-proclaimed part of the lineage of Jack Kerouac, Allan Ginsberg, and Bob Dylan, I was quite proud to don my customized white T-shirt whose three words said “Third Generation Beat.” In this world where the latest disco dance move was the important topic of the day, it was more embarrassing and painful to explain what I was trying to communicate than to just stop wearing the shirt. By the middle of junior year, others and I helped foment the anti-disco movement. The highlight of my protest efforts was the throwing of parties where the main attraction was the smashing of disco records. Those of you who have heard disco music will know that, in this, we achieved great progress for humanity.

The world will identify, typecast, and stereotype you into different, tidy descriptions over the course of a lifetime. I have been a jock, Dylan freak, accounting nerd, anti-jock, English literature fanatic, lover of lazy hazy afternoons at the park, computer geek, business school maniac, hungry sales representative, middle manager from hell, and recently known as “The Man.”

I am frequently asked how I chose the path that led to my current position, and what career advice can I provide. I respond by stating that I arrived at my current position without any plan, but with passion! I have never had a career plan, and never will. I have always chosen activities that were a primary fascination at the time. With passion you will excel, and when you excel, other opportunities and passions will present themselves.

Along this path, unrhymed, unmatched, and unbroken, there were many compromises with others, some as bitter as between our founding fathers, but never compromises with one’s self. I have evolved, but I have not changed. The child with passion will father the man with passion. Recognizing this sounds very much like the rambling of a 1969 Haight-Ashbury hippie advocating a lifetime of mediation, let me make clear that as the adult world beckoned, I chose activities that fascinated myself and could pay the rent. The parents can now relax.

I stand here today as the son of Robert and Adelaide, brother of Pan, Cyndi, Phil, and Bill, husband of Julia, father of Bob, Greg, and Katie, the most important passions in my life. Two years ago, my son Greg was standing in the line for the midnight showing of Star Wars. Greg and a fellow standee started a random conversation to pass the time. This fellow mentioned with great enthusiasm Simon’s Rock College of Bard. Greg was intrigued and mentioned that he wanted to visit the school. Julia and I thought the idea of Greg leaving home at sixteen was horrific. Greg, though, had enthusiasm and possibly passion for the thought. It was impossible to say no and I reluctantly gave up a Saturday and traveled to Great Barrington.

I was prepared to hate the place. As we completed the tour, I admitted the place might be okay. The parents then had the opportunity to visit with six students in the Kellogg Center. The students spoke for several minutes and then took questions from the parents. One question was concerned with the ability of students to receive both a conservative and liberal viewpoint. The student responded that in fact there were two Republicans on campus. I could not help but wonder, where, and maybe they were only allowed out on alternate weekends. The intelligence of the students was in clear abundance, but it was not the intelligence that was most impressive. The level of articulation, the sense of self, the worldview, and the poise was beyond what I had witnessed in other young people.

The essence of Simon’s Rock started to reveal itself to my parental brain. These young people, who chose to leave behind the certain comforts of the only world they knew to seek a place where they could do more, where they could be completely challenged, where they could be immersed in an intellectually rich environment, had stepped forward as the best of the next generation to begin the long process of leadership. As we drove home, I said to Greg, “If you decide to leave home and go to Simon’s Rock and in two years you are near the equal of the students I saw today, your parents will be proud and you will have done well for yourself.”

President Leon Botstein, Provost Mary Marcy, Chairwoman Emily Fisher, members of the board, faculty, and administration of Simon’s Rock College of Bard, you have served the noble purpose of this institution with great honor. As a parent, for all the parents, we salute you, we are in your debt, and we offer our humble thanks.

Graduates of the Simon’s Rock Class of 2007, Rockers:

• Today you come closer to claiming the mantle of leadership for your country, for your generation.

• Compromise with others.

• Seek the passion in your life.

• Evolve but do not change.

• Our future is in good hands.

• Many times, we are awed by you.

•We are grateful for our time in your lives.

•We are so proud of you.

• You have done well.

• Go forward and Rock On.

Congratulations!