The Intellectual

The Intellectual

The Greatest minds of our generation, looked back, learned, and brought the
waning wisdom back.

To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live
your lives for yourselves, you have the chance to make the same choice.
Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the
other. Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps
the evil.

If you've understood what I've said, stop supporting your destroyers.

Don't accept their philosophy.

Your destroyers hold you by means of your endurance, your generosity, your
innocence, and your love.

Don't exhaust yourself to help build the kind of world that you see around
you now.

In the name of the best within you, don't sacrifice the world to those who
will take away your happiness for it.

One particularly magnificent being to go back and learn, and rise, and
triumph is Ayn Rand.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender

be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;

and listen to others,

even the dull and the ignorant;

they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,

they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,

you may become vain and bitter;

for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs;

for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

many persons strive for high ideals;

and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.

Especially, do not feign affection.

Neither be cynical about love;

for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment

it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,

gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,

be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,

no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,

whatever you conceive Him to be,

and whatever your labors and aspirations,

in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,

it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

Learning is Unavoidable. Here is Sir Ken Robinson^[3] warning you that
things are not as they should be.

Sir Ken Robinson is clearly well educated and experienced. In preparation
for this talk he would have wanted to come up with a powerful message, an
idea worth sharing. While extraordinary claims, require extraordinary
evidence; a simple question begs a simple answer.

Yes. Schools kill creativity.