An Amazing College Commencement Speech - How It's Brought to Life

Surfing on YouTube, I ran across a really amazing and relevant college graduation speech from the 1960s - and I add some thoughts on different forms of media conveying the "same information."

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To start with, the index event for me was finding a 13 minute YouTube video in which Irish actor Andrew Scott reads "Choose One of Five" - a commencement address, largely forgotten, at a small Illinois college in 1965.   It's jaw-droppingly good.

See the video here.

Scott is a well-established theater actor who's also known for his television roles in BBC/Sherlock and Fleabag.  He presents "Choose One of Five" slowly - it's 13 minutes long (the speech is only 1300 words). 

The speech itself, although it's fifty years old and (as far as I can tell) nearly forgotten, is stunningly contemporary.  Except for a phrase or two, "Choose One of Five" could have been written today. You can see the written speech here.

Who Wrote It?

The speech was presented at Illinois State College in Naperville on May 30, 1965.

The speaker was Edith Sampson, who had a remarkable life (Wikipedia here.)  Living from 1898-1979, she overcome many barriers and adversities to eventually go to law school, be admitted to the bar (another series of barriers), and by the 1950s become a judge in Chicago.   In the 1950s she was also part of the US delegation to the United Nations.   Read more about her here as well.

Why Do We Know About It Today?

Islington is the borough of London just north of central London.  There you'll find the Almeida Theatre, which has an active website and active YouTube channel.

One of the series at the Almeida is "Figures of Speech," where top British actors (such as Scott, and Ian McClellan) present usually not-too-well-known speeches from history.    Somehow, Choose One of Five was selected as a pivotal historical speech, for this series. 

See the YouTube home of Almeida Theater here.  The Figures of Speech homepage is here (lengthy; scroll downward).

Insights

The speech is jaw-dropping, I think, as presented by Andrew Scott.   I was in the process of sending both the speech (link) and the video (link) to a friend, and I stopped to read the speech more slowly.

Here's the insight - The speech on paper is good; it must be; it's the text and the ideas.   But I probably wouldn't have even read the whole thing had I not had seen the text brought into life by the actor.   Once you've seen the actor's work, you can't re-read it without seeing and feeling the power of the speech and its ideas.

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January 2024, a Chat GPT 4 interpretation.

Edith Simpson's 1965 commencement speech, "Choose One of Five," can be perceived as moving and inspiring for several reasons:

Relatability and Timelessness: The speech addresses a universal and timeless theme – the choices we make in life after achieving a milestone, such as graduation. This is a relatable subject for anyone who has faced or will face a turning point in their life.

Provocative Choices: The five choices Simpson presents range from apathy and conformity to intellectual engagement and social involvement. These choices force the listener to reflect on their own life path and the societal norms they might unconsciously follow. The stark contrast between the ease of conforming and the challenges of continuous learning and engagement is thought-provoking.

Critique of Conformity and Apathy: Simpson's critique of conformity (choices one and two) and her satirical tone when describing them can be inspiring as they challenge the audience to think critically about the passive acceptance of societal norms and the dangers of intellectual stagnation.

Encouragement of Continuous Learning and Self-Improvement: Choices four and especially five emphasize continuous learning, self-improvement, and active engagement with the world. This advocacy for a life of intellectual curiosity and social responsibility resonates with listeners who value personal growth and societal contribution.

Emphasis on Individuality and Moral Courage: The fifth choice, which Simpson finds most challenging yet rewarding, advocates for maintaining one's individuality, moral courage, and the pursuit of knowledge. This call to be one's "unique best self" and to engage thoughtfully with the world is particularly inspiring as it encourages personal integrity and social responsibility.

The Speech's Context and Simpson's Own Life: Knowing Edith Simpson's background – a trailblazer in law and public service – adds weight to her words. Her accomplishments as a woman in fields dominated by men during her time exemplify the principles she advocates in her speech, making her message more powerful and authentic.

In summary, the speech's moving and inspiring nature lies in its call to introspection, critical thinking, and active engagement with the world, coupled with Simpson's own life as a testament to these values.

"Germany's Master Plan" (1943, Borkin, Welsh, Thurman Arnold) vis-a-vis "China Rx" (Gibson, 2018)

Somehow I ran across the podcast series Pandemic - which is part of the longstanding Stephen K. Bannon podcast War Room - maybe after an appearance by Bannon on Bill Maher on February 14.

Within the Pandemic series - about coronavirus - they had author Rosemary Gibson, who I learned wrote a 2018 book called "China Rx" about the high proportion of drugs that either come from China or are synthesized from chemical backbones made in China.   Similarly, this weekend Washington Post highlights the dependence of US hospital masks on China suppliers, in a WaPo article about the one remaining US mask manufacturer (here) - a topic featured a couple days earlier on Bannon.

The story of China monopolizing drug manufacturer and mask manufacturer reminded me of a much earlier book, "Germany's Master Plan: The Story of an Industrial Offensive," published in 1943 by Borkin and Welsh and with an introduction by Thurman Arnold.

Germany's Master Plan has slipped into the sands of history - it has one (and negative) review on Amazon.  While that Amazon reviewer says that Borkin and Welsh published a "biased interpretation of the facts," surely a lot of the facts are real and for me it was a fascinating read.

Also, the point of the Borkin's book about German industry in the 1930s clearly has parallels to Gibson's main point about the Chinese pharma industry in the 2020's.

You can get second-hand copies of Germany's Master Plan for as little as $4 on Amazon. You can also find the whole text free online.

Some resources for Germany's Master Plan:

• $4 up on Amazon, here.
• Contemporary 1943 review at Foreign Affairs, here.  
• (Access with contemporary subscription to Foreign Affairs.)
• Contemporary 1943 review at Journal of Political Economy, here.
• (View page 1 of a longer review.)
• Contemporary 1943 review at JAMA (!), paragraph review, here.
• Full free text in multiple formats at Archive.org here.
• Text, PDF, Kindle format, etc.

The brief reviewer at JAMA wrote, 

Long before the beginning of World War II, German industry had been endeavoring to set up a system for worldwide control over electrical equipment, drugs, chemicals and basic war materials. Many of the facts regarding this system of control are here made available by writers who have been in intimate touch with the investigations on the subject. Joseph Borkin was for many years economic adviser to the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. Some of the facts regarding the relationship of the German drug industry to some portions of the American drug industry will come as revelations to American readers and indicate the need for control over international agreements of this type in the future.