On the Need for a Change
We at Yale often pride ourselves on the remarkable values of our undergraduate students. I have often been the leader in waxing poetic about the remarkable generosity and great potential of our Yalies. Yes, what amazing young people! Yes, I am ALMOST always so very proud of them.
However …
Let’s first go back to the late 1990s. I had a wonderfully entertaining master’s tea with the great comedian George Carlin and attracted more than 400 students. I was very pleased.
Yet several days later, I had an incredibly important master’s tea with a Christian missionary who entered Southern Sudan from Kenya to redeem Black Sudanese enslaved by the mercenaries supported by the butchery that was the Khartoum regime. I attracted only FIVE students. Even the students who asked me to invite the Christian missionary didn't show up. I was ashamed.
Let’s now flash forward to 2011. A few days ago, Morgan Freeman, the great Hollywood actor visited Yale (“It’s Morgan Freeman Day”) and attracted a huge crowd in Woolsey Hall. Master Brenzel was very pleased.
Yet several days later, together with the South-Asian Film Society, I had an incredibly important master’s tea with Sarah Singh, who screened for us her very powerful documentary on the tragic consequences of the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. I managed to attract only FIVE students. I was ashamed.
I love Lady Gaga, too, but it might have been more important to meet Mother Teresa, don't you think?
Things do need to change, if Yale students wish to be regarded as young people committed to the responsibility of lasting values. Could the fault lie with the Yale culture itself, a culture that encourages and lauds so much frenetic activity — often for the very sake of that activity — that there is just not enough time for the kind of lasting values that would require consideration of genocide in Sudan or the tragic consequences of imperialism and colonialism in South Asia?
Just a thought. I think we need to continue this discussion.
Agreed. I myself was guilty of missing the forest for the trees while at Yale. Perhaps it is a maturity issue. Perhaps not. Perhaps students need to re evaluate their place of privilege-- being at a place like Yale. (And Pierson!) Keep fighting the good fight, Master G. I think fewer regrets are held by those who try as compared to those who stand by...
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