This Commencement Speech Will Blow Your Mind: David Brooks at UChicago

David Brooks, AB’83, op-ed columnist for The New York Times, speaks to graduates on June 9 at the University of Chicago. The address was part of the University of Chicago’s inaugural Class Day ceremony. I had the honor to help translate the whole speech in Chinese. Hope you enjoy it.

[@Dirk80241]

"How many see the world through a distorted mirror, how many see only what they want to see..." so true. A good education that makes you see is essential. Be thankful for it!

[@kenlodge3399]

Am so glad I came across this. I've been listening to David Brooks for going on ten years now; his segment on PBS mostly. In all that time am sure if you ask him he'll insist he's a "Conservative" and I would have to tell him he is not. For too many reasons, too many to address here, I would have to confront him with the honesty he so often speaks of. His manner of Conservancy might have been center-Right in say maybe the late nineteen sixties, but I appreciate Mr. Brooks and would have to ask he be honest too. He is by far and away the most independent, politically speaking, as well as spiritually plus psychologically. He is his own man, hands down!

[@muchmorecoffee]

Just a wonderful speech - way, way unexpected. Brooks gets to the bone and deeper. I didn't realise how hungry I am for more conversations like this. Thank you, and a tip of the hat, David Brooks.

[@missheartbreak]

David Brooks is simply the best. He provokes an entire spectrum of emotions, and moves me better than almost any writer. Definitely read his latest book! 🩶

[@user-hu9lh3yd9h]

​@@missheartbreako

[@stephenlee685]

I finished this video. For what it's worth, for me, I realize how good his final advice was.

[@laurellussen3512]

Thank you, David Brooks. You have given these likely graduates a few, critical, clues. I am truly grateful.

[@cancionerodelpalacio]

Great exposition of the value of deep thought and the beauty of our western tradition: the waves of profound thinkers and profound livers of meaningful lives in our tradition. The folks ignorant of the western tradition--the critics below-- are alienated by his namedropping, thinking that he is pompous or superficial because they don't share the same context and background as do folks who have sincerely explored our spiritual thought tradition. David Brooks is always thoughtful. Whether you agree or not with him politically, only the superficial would think that he is a thinker who is superficial. Nice speech.

[@gregorywright1684]

I am so glad, that you graced my life with your knowledge.

[@juligrlee556]

Beautiful: from an 80 year old reader and intense intellectual.

[@rubbersoulboy]

Impressive and relatable speech..

[@bpai99]

Good speech by Mr. Brooks. Earnest, heartfelt, amusing and wise.

[@bndnambiar]

Truthful and touching speech, always enjoy your views deeply

[@hershchat]

Brooks always good

[@EnriqueCubillo]

always

[@kathrynshiels5912]

Why do I have the feeling the critics here missed the plot. Did they not hear the part about ‘willingness to put your ideas out there and argue and listen.’ It appears cancel culture behind the keyboard is alive and well.

[@dieterhalbwidl4667]

Brilliant! Thank you.

[@brunon44]

I was one of The Abandoned Overseas Children of American Servicemen...WW11...down in Oz. My rascal father...a Psychiatrist in the U.S. Medical Corp attended the University of Illinois.

[@sherylbellman7160]

It’s the need to be conscious of truth, beauty and goodness.

[@charliebrown5611]

My grandson is considering this university. I sent this video to my daughter.

[@katerogers1027]

I just plain LOVE this man.

[@stephenlee685]

I am 11 minutes into the speech and I took a pause to read the comments. I graduated from Chicago in '85 with a Ph.D. in chemistry, and realized only just now hearing this speech (which I will go back to after writing this message) that I had experienced this same transcendence of thought at Chicago and how important that has been my whole adult life. Thank you. PS. To the person who wrote the critic, ``if this ``blew your mind'', you didn't have much of a mind'' I actually think my mind is OK.

[@patricia7434]

Perhaps you should have waited until the end of the speech!

[@chrismorgan9154]

Don’t watch him or PBS anymore. It’s only were one watched one side of a story and opinions and that’s usually too liberal and filled with woke bias.

[@margarettharpe3138]

"Mind-blowing" is often-& in this case probably was-a POSITIVE (not negative) response. I'm puzzled by the negativity of the "not much of a mind" response."

[@endoravin]

Unusual in that he touches on new ground, describing the experience of getting lost in time, space and thought--better than most science fiction and quite moving, and a real ideal for what a college education might be, at the highest level. Of course, he is talking about the humanities, not the experience of engineering or premedical students, but this is one speech actually worth the time to listen to it.

[@xiangalan]

For anyone who knows the title of the book "The Birth of Tragedy", which is just a title. The book really talks about the trend that the mainstream philosophical tradition since Plato actually precipitates the death of tragic spirit of Greek, embodied in Dionysus, the god of wine and emotional energy. So Brooks at the end suggest the students not open the book (Because they would argue that the title is "birth" rather than "death", forgetting it is an opportunity to fool around as graduate of UChicago). This echos the speech's emphasis on Dionysian spirit, cultivating intimate relations in the university setting, over the over-intellectualizing of Platonian metaphysics.

[@user-dg4ui4sj2t]

God bles david

[@charlesmorse1901]

He is so humane.

[@yananzhang768]

感谢如此精确优雅的翻译。

[@sbechdolt]

The critics are too stupid to understand his speech❤

[@jazzfan7491]

What an intersection talk

[@LivinginCentralNewJersey-ep4bq]

A powerful conversation about the TELOS crisis ....

[@streaklight]

where's this "death despair desolation and the futility of human existence" speech? as an admitted student that's the only thing I wanna hear

[@justinxu3986]

I like his comments on PBS Newshour.

[@paulnugent9937]

30 seconds of comments saved me 30 minutes of this speech.

[@hdndragon]

This seems worse than judging a book by its cover. :-) You don’t even know what the speech is about.

[@paulnugent9937]

@@hdndragon Sometimes the cover tells you all you need to know, or at least the blurb on the back.

[@antman8887]

As accurate and correct an exposition of the reasons for a liberal education as I have heard. The dearth of such training is why we live with climate change, and Trumpism, and unregulated AI, and so many other consequences caused by persons who live unexamined lives but who plow blindly forward in pursuit of a future that is both unseeable and deeply predictable. We all suffer, at an accelerated rate, the consequences of this failure to teach and to learn.

[@garyhambleton2374]

Well-spoken and insightfully (brutally) accurate.

[@arlenerubenstein6762]

Great guy indeed

[@cynthiahansen9395]

Perfect assessment of our current circumstances!

[@rmichaelcassidy1338]

😢

[@hasanmcwhorter3968]

Damn!

[@davidlofthusenterprisesllc5993]

The emperor was naked long before Trump came along, Mr. Brooks.

[@user-rn5vb2qx4m]

Preaching to the intelligentsia of society about things that the majority cannot grasp.

[@jamesphelan5066]

If you need Mr. Brooks to be your mentor, your developmentally delayed. He;s the chaf that is separated from the wheat. A man who equivocates and equivocates.

[@janbehrends5196]

Nietzsche never wrote "The death of tragedy." He wrote "The _birth_ of tragedy out of the spirit of music" (1872).

[@janbehrends5196]

But that is not imrportant.The description of the wonderful experience of bing immersed in reading is powerful and valuable. I hope that this is still possible to achieve it today, but I doubt it.

[@xiangalan]

"The birth of tragedy" is just the title. The book really talks about the trend that the mainstream philosophical tradition since Plato actually precipitates the death of tragic spirit of Greek, embodied in Dionysus, the god of wine and emotional energy. So Brooks at the end suggest the students not open the book (Because they would argue that the title is "birth" rather than "death", forgetting it is an opportunity to fool around as graduate of UChicago). This echos the speech's emphasis on Dionysian spirit, cultivating intimate relations in the university setting, over the over-intellectualizing of Platonian metaphysics.

[@paulhilvert5705]

I think it is important. I think it is Nietzsche's topic and whole point. Immersed in reading is powerful and valuable. Indeed. Maryanne Wolf has done a great job of acknowledging the science of that as well as the current movements that make it less and less achievable for each of us.

[@paulhilvert5705]

I disagree about what the book "really talks about." I do not think a close reading of the book would conclude that Nietzsche saw Dionysian as embodying the "tragic spirit." I would enjoy hearing you defend the thesis that there is an emphasis in the speech on cultivating the Dionysian spirit. I hear his urging the planning, defining, choosing, articulating goals as more Apollonian. @@xiangalan

[@jazzfan7491]

That's one beautiful woman behind him

[@christopherbowen2547]

So Brooks Brothers.

[@paulhilvert5705]

The Death of Tragedy by Nietzsche??? So intense, I do not remember the title.

[@anahirsch-toth7807]

How True. Thank you. 0:17

[@user-ej5gx7ph7q]

I feel sorry for the graduating class

[@jim6798]

Wasn’t Brooks the guy who was impressed with the crease inObama’s pants

[@barbarabonanno1879]

So the message is....have more sex? A college education is not meant to be a blueprint for your entire life! Despite my lack of agreement with of some of his main points, I did enjoy his point of view and sense of humor.

[@drjzzz]

Clever/funny start, good name/idea dropping, but it fails to coalesce. I used to like Brooks even though he usually argued against my preferred politics. But his uninformed support of the war against Iraq (the weakness of the case was self-evident), and his excruciatingly slow grasp of that error (blaming the 'way' it was fought instead of the 'why'), changed my opinion. He is clearly a very smart man, very talented. But I wonder if he understands how much such lies desensitized so many citizens, to the extent that too many now accept moron's lies as typical, acceptable, almost welcomed.

[@eveningstarnm3107]

If this “blew your mind”, you didn’t have much of a mind to blow.

[@nickigonzales5544]

An argument for the best of Jesuit liberal arts education.

[@leilagomulka5690]

Go Betty Friedan - a Smith college alum

[@kalena26]

Not sure why the need to bring up the Trump presidency and get political.

[@user-pt2nw8je4b]

Too long and boring speech.

[@liamstacey419]

You joined KZbin yesterday just to make that comment?

[@philipbuckley759]

these speeches are not all the most wonderful......

[@randycrist6839]

The emptiest of empty suits. If you want a good graduation speech, try David Foster Wallace.

[@acedrumminman]

Or Rodney Dangerfield.

[@personnelente]

Sorry, you lost me at David Brooks...

[@swisskiwi1478]

Your loss.

[@johnpapadopoulos9057]

This sugary guy should recuse himself from public discourse. … whose lobbyist?

[@jjhpor]

I watch David Brooks every Friday night on the PBS News Hour and truly enjoy his insights and his slow walk away from the Republican party. I never imagined he could be such an awful public speaker.

[@garyhambleton2374]

Yes, painfully true. He has such great thoughts but due to nervousness he speaks too quickly and many times butchers his words.

[@zdk1099]

David Brooks has an inflated sense of himself! He believes that he is one of the world's great intellectuals! Actually, he's just another average talking head! He's not the sharpest crayon in the box!

[@wayneeckerson4417]

Crayons aren’t meant to be sharp. I think you mean pencils or tools (in the drawer).

[@zdk1099]

@@wayneeckerson4417 You're correct! Crayons aren't meant to be sharp! That fits Brooks exactly!