那些振奮人心的畢業致辭究竟保質期有多久

Six long decades ago George Marshall, the American secretary of state, delivered the commencement speech at Harvard University's graduation ceremony. Back then, in 1947, he did not feel the need to pander to his young audience: instead of offering anecdotes about his own life or giving career advice, he delivered a loFTy appeal to the American people to save the war-battered continent of Europe.

六十年前，時任美國國務卿的喬治•馬歇爾(George Marshall)在哈佛大學(Harvard University)的畢業典禮上致辭。當時（1947年），馬歇爾並未感到有必要去迎合那些年輕的聽衆；他沒有分享自己的人生趣事或是給出職業建議，而是高屋建瓴地呼籲美國人民去拯救戰後滿目瘡痍的歐洲大陸。

“The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products - principally from America - are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help,” Marshall solemnly told the students as he outlined, for the first time, his putative “Marshall plan”. “The remedy lies in breaking the vicious circle and restoring the confidence of the European people.”

馬歇爾嚴肅地告訴臺下的學生們：“事實上，歐洲在未來三到四年間需要外國（主要是美國）提供的食品以及其他重要物資，遠遠超過了歐洲目前的支付能力，因此歐洲必須得到大量額外援助。”這是他首次闡述所謂 “馬歇爾計劃”的政策綱要。他說：“解決問題的關鍵在於打破當前的惡性循環，並讓歐洲民衆重拾信心。”

How times change. At this time of year, hundreds of universities and other educational institutions across America are holding their own commencement rituals. And, as in Marshall's time, these are solemn, high-stakes events. Little surprise: in modern America, commencement ceremonies have almost become akin to “coming of age” ceremonies. As an anthropologist might say, they are a liminal ritual that marks a changing social state, and thus forces people to reflect on the values they want to inculcate in the next generation.

如今時代是多麼不同啊。在一年中的這個時候，美國各地的數百所大學以及其他教育機構正在舉行自己的畢業典禮。和馬歇爾時代一樣，這些也都是都是莊嚴而重要的活動。意料之中的是，在當代的美國社會，畢業典禮已近乎成爲一種類似“成年禮”的儀式。人類學家或許會說，畢業典禮是一種標誌社會狀態變化的過渡性儀式，因此也迫使人們思考他們希望傳遞給下一代怎樣的價值觀。

But if Marshall could have heard this year's crop of commencement speeches - or secular “sermons” - he might have been shocked. Never mind the fact that modern etiquette demands that today's commencement speeches are very short, usually lasting a mere 12-15 minutes; and ignore the fact that the speeches are now deliberately directed at students, not society as a whole. What is really striking is that the ranks of civic notables who are delivering these sermons are no longer limited to senior politicians or even judges and religious leaders.

但假如馬歇爾能夠聽到今年的這批畢業致辭——或者說是俗世“佈道”——他或許會深感震驚。且不論現代禮儀要求如今的畢業致辭短小精煉（時長通常僅爲12到15分鐘）這一事實，也忽略現在的畢業致辭專門針對學生、而非面向社會整體這一點。真正讓人感到震驚的是，如今在畢業典禮上佈道的名人已不再侷限於資深政治家、法官以及宗教領袖。

On the contrary, writers, business leaders, sportsmen, TV personalities, entertainers and scientists now dominate the ranks. Thus students this year have heard from people such as Oprah Winfrey (chat-show host); Jim Yong Kim (head of the World Bank); Julie Andrews (actress); Annie Lennox (singer); Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist); the Dalai Lama (the Buddhist leader); Arianna Huffington (journalist); and Sheri McCoy (CEO of Avon Products). True, there have been some politicians and senior government officials: Barack Obama, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Michael Bloomberg have spoken too. But after perusing the numbers, it seems to me that the statesmen were vastly outnumbered by cultural commentators. (In the interests of disclosure I should admit that I have skewed that list too, since I was one of several journalists who spoke, in my case at Baruch College in New York.)

相反，作家、商界領袖、運動員、電視名人、演藝界人士以及科學家如今成爲畢業致辭者的主流。今年的畢業生們聆聽了以下名人的致辭：奧普拉•溫弗瑞（Oprah Winfrey，脫口秀主持人）、金墉（Jim Yong Kim，世界銀行(World Bank)行長）、朱莉•安德魯斯（Julie Andrews，演員）、安妮•倫諾克斯（Annie Lennox，歌手）、奈爾•德格拉斯•泰森（Neil deGrasse Tyson，天文物理學家）、達賴喇嘛（Dalai Lama，佛教領袖）、阿里安娜•赫芬頓（Arianna Huffington，新聞工作者）以及雪莉•麥科伊（Sheri McCoy，雅芳(Avon Products)首席執行官）。的確，在致辭者中也有一些政治家和高級政府官員：巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)、科瑞•布克(Cory Booker)、柯爾斯頓•吉利布蘭德(Kirsten Gillibrand)以及邁克爾•布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)也在今年的畢業典禮上發表了演講。但我仔細研讀數據後發現，政治家的數量遠遠少於文化評論家。（出於信息公開的目的，我應該坦誠，我自己也有份使這份名單變得比例失衡，因爲我也是受邀發表畢業致辭的幾位新聞工作者之一，在紐約市立大學柏魯克分校(Baruch College, The City University of New York)）做了演講。）

And there is another shift too: the “me” factor. Five or six decades ago, statesmen did not usually talk about themselves in public. They preferred to focus on lofty policy ideas. These days, some politicians still discuss politics. But most do not: instead, the overriding fashion for speakers is to talk about their own inner journeys and individual struggles. Steve Jobs, the late founder of Apple, did this particularly brilliantly in 2005 when he told Stanford students about how cancer, career twists and marriage had shaped his life. “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life,” he advised. But numerous actors, writers and other speakers have done the same. This year's address to the University of Michigan by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo explained to students how career failure had made him more creative, and left him convinced that “you can't plan a script” for life and just have to “be in this moment”. In place of high-policy plans to rescue Europe, in other words, there is personal, self-help philosophy. I dare say some FT readers might feel somewhat appalled by this. After all, the changing tone partly reflects the fact we live in a more individualistic, entertainment-obsessed, consumer-focused age, where students expect advice to be given in bite-sized chunks, with a lacing of emotion to grab their attention. But there is a more optimistic interpretation: the shift also reflects a more inclusive, egalitarian age. Six decades ago, statesmen such as Marshall inhabited a world that was distant from most people's lives. The boundaries between politicians, public intellectuals, entertainers and business leaders are blurring. Politicians today might feel pressure to talk about their “private lives”; but actors, singers and chat-show hosts also face pressure to take a stance on “public” issues and civic questions - be that in commencement sermons or anywhere else.

除此之外還有一大轉變，即“自我”元素的興起。五六十年前，政治家們通常不會在公衆場合談論自己的事情。他們傾向於將注意力集中在崇高的政策理念上。如今一些政治家仍在談論政治，但絕大多數人已經不再這麼做。如今最主流的演講模式是，演講者講述他們自己的心路歷程以及個人奮鬥史。已經去世的蘋果(Apple)公司創始人史蒂夫•喬布斯(Steve Jobs)在2005年時就極爲高明地運用了這一模式，當時他與斯坦福大學(Stanford University)的學生分享了癌症、職業轉變以及婚姻改變人生的經歷。喬布斯建議道：“你的時間是有限的，所以不要浪費時間過別人過的生活。”但無數演員、作家以及其他致辭者也運用了同樣的演講模式。今年Twitter的首席執行官迪克•科斯托洛(Dick Costolo)在密歇根大學(University of Michigan)的畢業典禮上對同學們講述，他在職業道路上的挫折如何使他變得更富創造力，並使他相信“你無法預製人生的劇本”，而應當“活在當下”。換句話說，個人的自助哲學取代了拯救歐洲的高層政策方案。我敢說，英國《金融時報》的部分讀者對此會感到有些震驚。畢竟演講主題的轉變所部分反映出的事實是，我們生活在一個更加個人主義、更注重娛樂、消費者導向性更明顯的時代，學生們希望獲得像切得大小適合入口的食物那樣立等可用的建議，並配以一點情感元素以抓住他們的注意力。但也有人對此作出更加樂觀的解讀：這種轉變還反映出了一個更加包容、更加平等主義的時代氛圍。六十年前，像馬歇爾這樣的政治家所生活的圈子，距離絕大多數人的生活很遙遠。而現在，政治家、公共知識分子、演藝界人士以及商界領袖之間的界限正變得模糊。如今的政治家可能要被迫談論自己的“私人生活”，但演員、歌手以及脫口秀主持人也要被迫就“公共”事務以及公民問題表明立場——不論是在畢業致辭時還是在任何其他場合上。

Of course, it is an open question whether any students ever actually listen to any of this; far less remember it later. Most of the graduates are pretty bleary-eyed and relieved by the time they get into that stadium; their parents doubly so. But perhaps the real value of all those speeches-cum-sermons is that they are collectively creating an extraordinary body of literature that will enable future historians to study how America's leaders wanted to present themselves in the 20th and 21st centuries. As such, it is a peculiarly admirable tradition. Even - or particularly - in an age when a 13-minute speech has come to seem to many graduates as if it is “long”.

當然，有沒有畢業生真能把演講者們的任何建議聽進去是一個有待商榷的問題，聽過之後還能記得住的人更是少之又少。絕大多數畢業生在走進禮堂的那一刻通常都是稀裏糊塗並且感到如釋重負，他們的父母更是加倍如此。但或許所有這些演講（也是佈道）的真正價值在於，他們共同構成了一類非同尋常的文體，未來的歷史學家能夠藉此研究二十世界和二十一世紀的美國領袖們希望展示出怎樣的自我形象。就此來說，畢業致辭是一項非常可貴的傳統。即便在一個許多畢業生覺得一個13分鐘的演講似乎也爲時過長的時代裏也是如此，或者說尤爲如此。