8/8/2019 Michael Bloomberg Harvard Commencement Speech 2014

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Michael Bloomberg Harvard Commencement Speech 2014 - Harvard

University Commencement 2014

Universities lie at the heart of the American experiment in democracy. They

are places where people of all backgrounds and beliefs can come to study and

debate their ideas freely and openly. I’d like to talk with you about how

important it is for that freedom to exist for everyone, no matter how strongly

we may disagree with another’s viewpoint.

 Tolerance for other people’s ideas and the freedom to express your own are

inseparable values. oined, they form a sacred trust that holds the basis of our

democratic society. !ut that trust is perpetually vulnerable to the tyrannical

tendencies of monarchs, mobs and ma"orities. And lately, we have seen those

tendencies manifest themselves too often, both on college campuses and inour society.

I think both #arvard and my own city of $ew %ork have been witnesses to this

trend.

&irst, $ew %ork 'ity. (everal years ago, as you may remember, some people

tried to stop the development of a mos)ue a few blocks from the *orld Trade

'enter site. It was an emotional issue, and polls showed that two+thirds of

Americans were against a mos)ue being built there. ven the Anti+-efamation eague ++ widely regarded as the country’s most ardent defender

of religious freedom ++ declared its opposition to the pro"ect.

 The opponents held rallies and demonstrations. They denounced the

developers. And they demanded that city government stop its construction.

 That was their right ++ and we protected their right to protest. !ut we refused

to cave in to their demands.

 The idea that government would single out a particular religion and block itsbelievers ++ and only its believers ++ from building a house of worship in a

particular area is diametrically opposed to the moral principles that gave rise

to our nation and the constitutional protections that have sustained it.

/ur union of 01 states rests on the union of two values2 freedom and

tolerance. And it is that union of values that the terrorists who attacked us

found most threatening. To them, we were a 3od+less country. In fact, there is

no country that protects the core of every faith and philosophy ++ free will ++

more than the United (tates.

 That protection, however, rests upon our constant vigilance.

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It is up to us to ensure that e)uality under the law means e)uality under the

law for everyone. If you want the freedom to worship as you wish, to speak as

you wish and to marry whom you wish, you must tolerate my freedom to do

so ++ or not do so ++ as well. %ou may 4nd my actions immoral or un"ust, but

attempting to restrict my freedoms, in ways that you would not restrict your

own, leads only to in"ustice.

 Throughout history, those in authority have tried to repress ideas that

threaten their power, their religion, their ideology or their re+election chances.

 That was true for (ocrates and 3alileo5 it was true for $elson 6andela and

7aclav #avel5 and it has been true for Ai *eiwei, 8ussy 9iot and the kids who

made the :#appy; video in Iran.

*e cannot deny others the rights and privileges that we demand forourselves5 that is true in cities, and it is no less true at universities, where the

forces of repression appear to be stronger now than they have been since the

<=01s.

 There is an idea >oating around college campuses ++ including here at #arvard

++ that scholars should be funded only if their work conforms to a particular

view of "ustice. There’s a word for that idea2 censorship. And it is "ust a

modern+day form of 6c'arthyism.In the <=01s, the right wing was attempting to repress left+wing ideas. Today,

on many campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas, even as

conservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species.

8erhaps nowhere is that more true than here in the Ivy eague. In the ?1<?

presidential race, =@ percent of all campaign contributions from Ivy eague

faculty and employees went to !arack /bama. That statistic, drawn from

&ederal lection 'ommission data, should give us pause ++ and I say that assomeone who endorsed 8resident /bama. *hen =@ percent of faculty donors

prefer one candidate to another, you have to wonder whether students are

being exposed to the diversity of views that a university should oer.

-iversity of gender, ethnicity and orientation is important. !ut a university

cannot be great if its faculty is politically homogenous.

In fact, the whole purpose of granting tenure to professors is to ensure that

they feel free to conduct research on ideas that run afoul of university politics

and societal norms. *hen tenure was created, it mostly protected liberals

whose ideas ran up against conservative norms.

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 Today, if tenure is going to continue to exist, it must also protect

conservatives whose ideas run up against liberal norms. /therwise, university

research will lose credibility. A liberal arts education must not be an education

in the art of liberalism.

 This spring, it has been disturbing to see a number of college

commencement speakers withdraw, or have their invitations rescinded, after

protests from students and ++ to me, shockingly ++ from senior faculty and

administrators who should know better.

It happened at !randeis, #averford, 9utgers and (mith. ast year, it

happened at (warthmore and ohns #opkins. In each case, liberals silenced a

voice and denied an honorary degree to individuals they deemed politically

ob"ectionable.As a former chairman of ohns #opkins, I believe that a university’s obligation

is not to teach students what to think, but to teach students how to think. And

that re)uires listening to the other side, weighing arguments without

pre"udging them, and determining whether the other side might actually

make some fair points.

If the faculty fails to do this, then it is the responsibility of the administration

and governing body to step in and make it a priority. If they do not, if studentsgraduate with ears and minds closed, the university has failed both the

student and society. If you want to know where that leads, look no further

than *ashington.

In *ashington, every ma"or )uestion facing our country is decided. %et the

two parties decide these )uestions not by engaging with one another, but by

trying to shout each other down, and by trying to repress and undermine

research that runs counter to their ideology. The more our universitiesemulate that model, the worse o we will be as a society.

An example2 &or decades, 'ongress has barred the 'enters for -isease

'ontrol from conducting studies of gun violence, and recently 'ongress also

placed that prohibition on the $ational Institutes of #ealth.

 This year, the (enate has delayed a vote on 8resident /bama’s nominee

for surgeon general ++ 7ivek 6urthy, a #arvard physician ++ because he had

the audacity to say that gun violence is a public health crisis that should be

tackled.

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et’s get serious2 *hen B@ Americans are killed with guns every day, and

shootings regularly occur at our schools and universities, including last week’s

tragedy in (anta !arbara, 'alifornia, it would be almost medical malpractice

to say anything else.

!ut in politics ++ as it is on too many college campuses ++ people don’t listen to

facts that run counter to their ideology. They fear them. And nothing is more

frightening to them than scienti4c evidence.

arlier this year, the state of (outh 'arolina adopted new science standards

for its public schools ++ but the state legislature blocked any mention of

natural selection. It was kind of like teaching economics without mentioning

supply and demand.

 ust as members of 'ongress fear data that undermines their ideologicalbeliefs, these state legislators fear scienti4c evidence that undermines their

religious beliefs. And if you want proof of that, consider this2

An B+year+old girl in (outh 'arolina wrote to members of the state legislature

urging them to make the woolly mammoth the oCcial state fossil.

 The legislators thought it was a great idea, because a woolly mammoth fossil

was found in the state in <D?0. !ut the state (enate passed a bill de4ning the

woolly mammoth as having been :created on the sixth day with the otherbeasts of the 4eld.;

Unfortunately, the same elected oCcials who put ideology and religion over

data and science when it comes to guns and evolution are often the most

unwilling to accept the scienti4c data on climate change.

$ow, don’t get me wrong2 (cienti4c skepticism is healthy. !ut there is a world

of dierence between scienti4c skepticism that seeks out more evidence and

ideological stubbornness that shuts it out.3iven the general attitude of many elected oCcials toward science education,

it’s no wonder that the federal government has abdicated its responsibility to

invest in scienti4c research, much of which occurs at our universities.

 Today, federal spending on research and development as a percentage of

gross domestic product is lower than it has been in more than 01 years, which

is allowing the rest of the world to catch up ++ and even surpass ++ the U.(. in

scienti4c research.

*e canEt risk becoming a country that turns its back on science, or on each

other. And you graduates must help lead the way.

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/n every issue, we must follow the evidence where it leads and listen to

people where they are. If we do that, there is no gridlock we cannot break, no

compromise we cannot broker, no problem we cannot solve.