Dear students:
Hello everyone!
Congratulations on your graduation! I don’t know if your studies have been smooth and your life has been pleasant these years, but it’s great that you can graduate!
A few days ago, a professor from Tsinghua University said in his Moments that as soon as the graduation season arrives, the university’s graduation speeches begin: some are patient and persuasive, some are gentle and subtle, but they often urge graduates to do things they themselves cannot do. I deeply agree. But what can be done? Although I have not been able to do it, at least the light in my eyes has not been extinguished, because students are the light in the eyes of teachers.
I didn’t expect to give a graduation speech as the dean this year, and I even felt a sense of relief. Because my speech is nothing more than based on the current era, to give some instructions to the students, and to face the era and be serious with it often requires the courage to bear the pain.
As Chinese people, we are proud and proud of our country’s long-term stable development and the great achievements it has made. However, from a global perspective, some things that are happening in this era make me feel like I’m in another world every time I wake up. War disasters, brutal killings, bullying, cyber violence… Well-known scholars incite and instigate narrow nationalism, mainstream media are particularly fond of entertainment gossip news, public departments fabricate false statistical data…, etc., etc.!
I never thought that so many things would happen in the civilized society of the 21st century. One hundred and seventy-five years ago, Marx lamented, “All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned.” Today, we need to look at our situation with a calm eye again, and we need to face again the life-and-death question of Liang Ji, the father of Liang Shuming, who committed suicide by throwing himself into the lake one hundred and five years ago because he was confused about the future: “Will the world be good?”
From a global perspective, I often feel that my “three views” are broken, my bottom line is breached, and my imagination is severely deficient. I am extremely skeptical of “a better tomorrow” and extremely uncertain about “the progress of civilization.” We are often busy with various unavoidable jobs, and besides being exhausted, we often cannot feel the meaning of existence. A colleague of mine once said that he used to feel tired on Fridays, but now he starts to feel tired on Wednesdays, and he doesn’t know why.
Students, this may be the world you are about to walk through. Please don’t blame me for not making an exciting vision for the future at the time of graduation, in fact, you don’t lack this.
In this era, I want to urge everyone to “keep the bottom line”, because human behavior is constantly breaking the bottom line; I want to urge everyone to “return to common sense”, because human actions often violate common sense; I want to urge everyone to “be true to themselves”, because human interaction is often a cooperative performance; I want to urge everyone to “do things elegantly”, because human activities are often a conspiracy of the Jianghu; I want to urge everyone to “treat people as people”, because human development has already regarded each living person as a number; I want to urge everyone to “remember the trauma”, because humans will easily forget the suffering they have experienced in excitement.
However, today I want to urge everyone even more: “Stay sober in the embrace of power!”
Students, after you leave the campus and enter society, you will immediately feel the omnipresence and even omnipotence of power.
Whether you are a unit leader or an ordinary employee, as long as your job is related to people, you have a certain power; no matter what work you do, even if you are flexibly employed, or even do not engage in any work, as long as you deal with public departments or others, you will inevitably have to face various powers. Therefore, you will feel more deeply that you are surrounded by power.
I am very worried that you will “follow the customs” in the embrace of power, gradually become infatuated with power, lose yourselves, and become confused about life.
Power does have a huge attraction, which can make people infatuated and addicted, thus becoming “refined” and smooth. Many years ago, a college student returned to his hometown. Because his mother was a local leader, he had various proper arrangements from the moment he got off the train, from food and accommodation to travel, with meticulous care, accompanied by various praise and support. At that time, my first feeling was not rejection, but I felt that perhaps everyone could be addicted to such meticulous arrangements, and they would also be infatuated with this omnipresent sense of superiority. Another time, a professor from a famous university was excited to say that he went to a local survey, and the local leaders personally received him, and his tone and posture all revealed his infinite intoxication with this sense of superiority.
Because of this, some people unconsciously begin to cater to power and pursue power. In the face of power, they are accustomed to using a set of “rhetoric” that is both smooth and refined, “saying what to whom and what to say in what occasion.” At first glance, you will feel that others are “so sensible and so good at speaking”, but when you think about it carefully, you always feel that it is not so real, not like their original words.
Power does have a huge dominance, which can make people arrogant and willful, thus losing themselves. An action of the power system can make harvesters line up on the highway, reclaim the green mountains and clear waters into terraced fields and mudslides, and turn yesterday’s “returning farmland to forests” into today’s “returning forests to farmland.” Power is always placed in a prominent position and pushed to a high position. Over time, some people are accustomed to putting themselves first. When a local academic conference was held, an old professor in his sixties stood in the sun and waited for the young leader to come and take a group photo, and he waited for nearly 20 minutes. More seriously, power can also create the illusion of omnipotence, so “forcibly changing codes” and “pointing at a mouse and calling it a duck” in broad daylight.
Because of this, some people begin to lose themselves, regarding the possession of power as representing truth—even a casual remark is often rationalized, legalized, and operationalized. They find it difficult to understand or perceive the helplessness, powerlessness, and helplessness that power may bring to countless ordinary people, and the resulting sense of insecurity, frustration, and alienation.
Power does have a huge disciplinary force, which can make people become mechanical and rigid, thus numb and confused. Workplace training often requires students to learn “obedience”, which, although it sounds harsh, has to be admitted that it has become a common practice in practice. A student works in a pollution control department in the south, producing a large amount of data reports every day, and the only requirement is to ensure that the data meets the standards; a student works in a supervision department in the west, and reports 100% of the villagers’ scan codes every day according to the requirements of the superior, but many villagers in many villages have not even heard of the scan code; a student is responsible for food safety supervision in a certain place in the east, and each time he only stops in front of a rural supermarket for half a minute to take a photo, and with the photo, he is “exempt from responsibility”. Some students strongly complained about formalism when they first joined the job, but after a month, they themselves admitted that they gradually got used to formalism.
Because of this, just as fish swim in the water every day but do not know what water is, when people form an unconscious inertia, they fall into a continuously accelerating cycle, endlessly busy, with only the files, data, and traces they have created in their eyes, but not the living people behind them. They repeat the meaningless, unnecessary, and even harmful “bullshit jobs” that the anthropologist David Graeber called, while also working overtime and pretending to love it.
Students, under the temptation, dominance, and discipline of power, in fact, it is difficult for everyone to be alone. Despite this, I still hope that you will not become “refined” and smooth because of the attraction of power, nor will you become arrogant and willful because of the dominance of power, nor will you become numb and confused because of the disciplinary force of power. Because, you are always the light in the eyes of the teacher.
In my opinion, the biggest characteristic of students is simplicity, truthfulness, and cleanliness. Everyone has been learning to seek truth, goodness, and beauty since elementary school. In the past graduation speeches, I said that we should “keep our innocence in a complex society”, which is to hope that you seek truth when doing things; I said that we should “feel the world like the weak”, which is to hope that you seek goodness when treating people; I said that we should “remember sensibility on the road of rationality”, which is to hope that you seek beauty when treating the world, society, nature, and life.
Students, power has no distinction between good and bad in essence, but the practice of power may lead to lying and making false accusations, doing evil, and being ugly and rotten, and it may also achieve honesty and truthfulness, accumulating blessings and doing good deeds, and aesthetic upwardness.
In the face of the embrace of power, people may forget the people because they only have power in their eyes, forget the truth because power is omnipotent, and forget the people behind and the meaning of work because they mechanically execute power. If this continues, although you can gain some honor, you will lack virtue; perhaps you can enjoy some happiness, but you will lack happiness; perhaps you can have some authority, but you will lack respect. Such a world is not real, such a society is difficult to be kind, and such a life is not beautiful. I believe you think so too.
In the face of the embrace of power, I cannot ask you to be like an egg hitting a hard wall, but I hope you can retain the soul of truth, goodness, and beauty in the fragile shell; I hope you will not extinguish the light of truth, goodness, and beauty deep in your soul; I hope you will maintain the courage to run freely towards the light of truth, goodness, and beauty, even if you fall, you can smile. Your running may allow more people to gain equality, allow more people to enjoy freedom, and allow more people to be respected.
Students, at the college faculty and staff congress last year, I shared my insights on college governance based on my experience as dean for eight years. I said that the highest realm of college power is to make teachers and students not feel the existence of power. The central government requires that anyone who exercises power must serve the people, and the greatest power of the country is to serve the people. I think, as long as you do not extinguish the light of truth, goodness, and beauty, do not let go of the courage to run freely, and do not lose confidence in the liberation of mankind, perhaps one day, mankind can be surrounded by power and not feel the existence of power. I believe that will definitely be the best power, the most beautiful world, and the best society.
Students, you may have been wronged these years. Because in the eyes of some people, the School of Humanities and Development and the humanities and social sciences are insignificant, and the White Building and the Democracy Building are not so magnificent and tall. However, we have tidied up the low buildings to be clean, bright, and warm, so that every teacher feels relaxed, calm, and harmonious; we have made the dull classrooms radiate thought, spirit, and value, so that every student feels freedom, equality, and respect.
As you are about to leave the college, I hope you, dear students, can carry an irresistible force to show the ideal of the School of Humanities and Development to society, which is: do not let falsehood obscure the truth, do not let evil replace goodness, and do not let ugliness suppress beauty!
Thank you all!
June 21, 2023
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