那些振奋人心的毕业致辞究竟保质期有多久

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.
除此之外还有一大转变，即“自我”元素的兴起。五六十年前，政治家们通常不会在公众场合谈论自己的事情。他们倾向于将注意力集中在崇高的政策理念上。如今一些政治家仍在谈论政治，但绝大多数人已经不再这么做。如今最主流的演讲模式是，演讲者讲述他们自己的心路历程以及个人奋斗史。已经去世的苹果(Apple)公司创始人史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)在2005年时就极为高明地运用了这一模式，当时他与斯坦福大学(Stanford University)的学生分享了癌症、职业转变以及婚姻改变人生的经历。乔布斯建议道：“你的时间是有限的，所以不要浪费时间过别人过的生活。”但无数演员、作家以及其他致辞者也运用了同样的演讲模式。今年Twitter的首席执行官迪克•科斯托洛(Dick Costolo)在密歇根大学(University of Michigan)的毕业典礼上对同学们讲述，他在职业道路上的挫折如何使他变得更富创造力，并使他相信“你无法预制人生的剧本”，而应当“活在当下”。换句话说，个人的自助哲学取代了拯救欧洲的高层政策方案。我敢说，英国《金融时报》的部分读者对此会感到有些震惊。毕竟演讲主题的转变所部分反映出的事实是，我们生活在一个更加个人主义、更注重娱乐、消费者导向性更明显的时代，学生们希望获得像切得大小适合入口的食物那样立等可用的建议，并配以一点情感元素以抓住他们的注意力。但也有人对此作出更加乐观的解读：这种转变还反映出了一个更加包容、更加平等主义的时代氛围。六十年前，像马歇尔这样的政治家所生活的圈子，距离绝大多数人的生活很遥远。而现在，政治家、公共知识分子、演艺界人士以及商界领袖之间的界限正变得模糊。如今的政治家可能要被迫谈论自己的“私人生活”，但演员、歌手以及脱口秀主持人也要被迫就“公共”事务以及公民问题表明立场——不论是在毕业致辞时还是在任何其他场合上。

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”.
当然，有没有毕业生真能把演讲者们的任何建议听进去是一个有待商榷的问题，听过之后还能记得住的人更是少之又少。绝大多数毕业生在走进礼堂的那一刻通常都是稀里糊涂并且感到如释重负，他们的父母更是加倍如此。但或许所有这些演讲（也是布道）的真正价值在于，他们共同构成了一类非同寻常的文体，未来的历史学家能够借此研究二十世界和二十一世纪的美国领袖们希望展示出怎样的自我形象。就此来说，毕业致辞是一项非常可贵的传统。即便在一个许多毕业生觉得一个13分钟的演讲似乎也为时过长的时代里也是如此，或者说尤为如此。