Comments on: Harvard Commencement Day speakers: upward and onward https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/ A blog about political change, among other things Sun, 08 Mar 2015 12:28:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Suresh Babu Gaddam https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/#comment-877992 Sun, 08 Mar 2015 12:28:45 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/?p=26131#comment-877992 Suresh Babu Gaddam

neo-neocon » Blog Archive » Harvard Commencement Day speakers: upward and onward

]]> By: RonF https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/#comment-560836 Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:53:21 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/?p=26131#comment-560836 Let’s compare that recent list with the one from the school down the street:

2010 Mar. 16 Raymond S. Stata, founder of Analog Devices
2009 Feb. 10 Deval Patrick, Massachusetts Governor
2008 Dec. 7 Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner
2007 Mar. 13 Charles M. Vest, professor of Mechanial Engineering (at the time) and former president of MIT
2006 Dec. 13 Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of Federal Reserve Board
2005 Apr. 12 Irwin Jacobs, co-founder/chairman/CEO of Qualcomm
2004 Mar. 9 Elias Zerhouni, Director of NIH
2003 Apr. 1 George Mitchell, former US Senator
2002 Feb. 26 James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank
2001 Mar. 23 Daniel Goldin, NASA Administrator
2000 Mar. 14 Carly Fiorina, President & CEO, Hewlett-Packard
1999 Apr. 2 Tom & Ray Magliozzi, MIT alums and hosts of NPR’s “Car Talk”
1998 Feb. 24 William Jefferson Clinton, US President, and David Ho, AIDS
1997 Jan. 29 Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General
1996 Mar. 1 Albert Gore, Vice President of the United States
1995 Apr. 21 Hanna H. Gray, President Emeritus of the University of Chicago
1994 Feb. 15 Karim Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims
1993 Jan. 13 Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President of the United Mexican States
1992 Mar. 31 Leslie Aspin, Congressman from Wisconsin; chairman of the House Armed Services Committee
1991 Mar. 13 Walter E. Massey, director of the National Science Foundation
1990 Dec. 5 Virgilio Barco, President of the Republic of Colombia
1989 Feb. 14 Paul E. Tsongas, chairman of the Board of Regents of Higher Education of Massachusetts; former US Senator from Massachusetts
1988 Feb. 12 A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs; former president of Yale University
1987 Feb. 3 Kenneth H. Olsen, founder and president of Digital Equipment Corp.
1986 Feb. 4 William R. Hewlett, vice chairman of the board of directors, Hewlett-Packard.
1985 Jan. 23 Lee A. Iacocca, chairman of the board and CEO, Chrysler Corp.
1984 Feb. 7 Shirley Chisholm, former Congresswoman of Brooklyn, NY
1983 Feb. 8 Helmut Schmidt, former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
1982 Mar. 5 Katharine Graham, chairman of the board and CEO, Washington Post Co.
1981 Mar. 20 Paul E. Gray, MIT president elected that academic year

]]> By: Maggie's Farm https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/#comment-560024 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 20:19:16 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/?p=26131#comment-560024 Yale and Harvard links…

Measuring One’s Own Yalieness Harvard Commencement Day speakers: upward and onward…

]]> By: Don Carlos https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/#comment-559809 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:31:56 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/?p=26131#comment-559809 Harvard is one of the premier elitist institutions that gave us “Sex Week”, paying for a week of porn, featuring “sex workers”, etc. Others have joined: Yale, Duke, and now public institutions like Tennessee.

]]> By: Baltimoron https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/#comment-559801 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:19:40 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/?p=26131#comment-559801 Its my opinion that popular culture has always been winning. At best people from the academy could give a clear voice to popular sentiments. At worse, they were just chasing the crowd.
However, as long as we had somewhat limited social mobility and access to information in this country, the people at the top could convince themselves they were something special.
That’s no longer the case. So the academy (in the form of art galleries, the ivies, whatever) has to engage popular culture on its terms, or admit they’re unnecessary. And either way they lose.

]]> By: Trimegistus https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/#comment-559747 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:42:44 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/?p=26131#comment-559747 Harvard has been making itself irrelevant for half a century now, and it seems to be working.

]]> By: SteveH https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/#comment-559652 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 11:21:24 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/?p=26131#comment-559652 Artfldgr has the peculiar issue of not being able to see the tree for the forest.

]]> By: Charles https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/#comment-559574 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:50:53 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/?p=26131#comment-559574 Neo, you’re right in that “pop culture” seems to be winning out.

I wonder what a similiar list of speakers would look like at the other Ivy Leagues, such as Princeton, etc. Are they heading in the same direction?

As for my own graduation, I remember a little bit of the speeches; but not too much. I do remember the part about telling parents to “let go, your son or daughter is no longer a child.” Do they need to send that message out to parents even more today?

But, what I most remember is that one of the Dean’s (the one we shook hands with) was missing fingers on his right hand. The look on some of my fellow graduates faces was appalling, just down-right ignorant, as they had this look of horror as they shook hands; their jaws would drop almost hitting the floor!

I was very disgusted by such behaviour and hoped that I didn’t have the same reaction. I also remember thinking: “so much for their college education; they didn’t learn a damn thing about how to treat others.” So much for “diversity” and inclusion.” Let’s just treat the guy as a freak!

Then I wondered if this wasn’t some sort of “final exam.” Would we pass? Would our behaviour, in fact, show that we had “matured”? If it was a test, I hoped that I had passed. or in the very least, showed a little more respect than my fellow graduates.

]]> By: neo-neocon https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/#comment-559350 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:04:21 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/?p=26131#comment-559350 nyc: well, there still is sometimes some interesting information in artfldgr’s comments. Not always, but often.

I understand, though, if a person wants to scroll past and not deal with it at all. But surely it’s not so very hard to scroll past if you’re so inclined?

As a general rule, I tend to err on the side of letting people post here, as long as they’re not outright abusive or obscene.

]]> By: gpc31 https://thenewneo.com/2013/03/20/harvard-commencement-day-speakers-upward-and-onward/#comment-559329 Thu, 21 Mar 2013 02:23:14 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/?p=26131#comment-559329 Like Neo, I was too hungover to remember who spoke at my graduation. Turned out to be Paul Volcker; must not have been too memorable.

Back in the “old days” Harvard was occasionally liberal enough to invite the likes of Solzhenitsyn (commencement 1978 address, truly prophetic) and Mother Teresa (class day speaker in 1982). I particularly enjoyed the apoplectic reactions of my friends to her anti-abortion speech. “How inappropriate!” they sputtered.

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