{"id":27882,"date":"2026-05-15T16:57:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=27882"},"modified":"2026-05-16T17:14:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T00:14:33","slug":"haidts-graduation-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/05\/15\/haidts-graduation-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Haidt&#8217;s Graduation Speech, and More"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Jonathan Haidt&#8217;s graduation speech: choose your attention, do hard things, make personal connections;<\/li>\n<li>Like billionaires, what Christian nationalists have is never enough: now they want to inscribe &#8220;In God We Trust&#8221; on every Federal Building in the US; Amanda Marcotte on hijacking America&#8217;s 250th anniversary; and how most Americans do *not* want Christian nationalism;<\/li>\n<li>Veritasium on a flaw in fundamental mathematics, and Conway&#8217;s &#8220;Game of Life&#8221;, and a pertinent passage from the latest Tyson.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/div>\n<p>So I&#8217;ve read the Jonathan Haidt graduation speech, and it strikes me as perfectly anodyne, occasionally inspirational, and in no way offensive. Of course the people who objected to his giving a speech hadn&#8217;t read the speech; they only objected to his presence, because of other things he&#8217;d said elsewhere. But those protests illustrate some of those other things he&#8217;d been saying.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll quote some bits, including what I quoted yesterday.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.theatlantic.com\/thumbor\/GU7sfYLhQ6VfnguGSDXHUY9cwQQ=\/1x0:4700x2643\/976x549\/media\/img\/mt\/2026\/05\/2026_05_14_Pay_Attention\/original.jpg\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Atlantic, Jonathan Haidt, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/2026\/05\/nyu-jonathan-haidt-commencement-speech\/687168\/\">Pay Attention<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Essential advice for the class of 2026&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s mostly about living your potential, thinking for yourself, taking advantage of opportunities. &#8220;Treasure your attention.&#8221; I quoted this yesterday:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In 2014, when she was nearly 80 years old, the poet Mary Oliver <a href=\"https:\/\/readalittlepoetry.com\/2014\/09\/10\/sometimes-by-mary-oliver\/\" data-event-element=\"inline link\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen31117857_899=\"423022\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time31117857_899=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired31117857_899=\"1\">wrote<\/a> a short poem titled \u201cInstructions for Living a Life.\u201d It goes like this:<\/p>\n<div class=\"ArticleLegacyHtml_root__WFd2I ArticleLegacyHtml_standard__kC_zi\">\n<blockquote class=\"\"><p><i>Pay attention.<br \/>\nBe astonished.<br \/>\nTell about it.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"ArticleParagraph_root__4mszW\" data-flatplan-paragraph=\"true\">It sounds simple. But paying attention is in fact one of the most challenging and meaningful things you can do. Because what you pay attention to shapes what you care about. And what you care about shapes who you become.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He then quotes something David Foster Wallace said in his commencement address in 2005 at Kenyon College.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>He said, \u201cthe really significant education-in-thinking that we\u2019re supposed to get in a place like this isn\u2019t really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about.\u201d He was right, and he seemed to anticipate that, two decades later, there would be so many powerful people and big companies trying to take that choice away from you.<\/p>\n<p>They compete with each other to <i>capture<\/i> your attention. Think about that phrase. It acknowledges that your attention is valuable. But it also reveals that some of the biggest corporations in human history aren\u2019t trying to <i>earn<\/i> your attention, or <i>deserve<\/i> your attention. They\u2019re trying to take it from you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This evokes his warnings of the dangers of social media, in his books. He goes on with examples of asking his students to turn off their phones, to disconnect from their social apps.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Once you\u2019re in control of your attention, you can start to ask yourself one of life\u2019s most exciting questions: \u201cWhat do I want to do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the answer to this question is going to be different for each of you. But looked at in another way, I think the answer may be the same for all of you. What should you do? You should do hard things.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With his repeated message: &#8220;humans, and especially young people, are not fragile.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And then:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Which brings me to my final point. Because along with the question \u201cWhat should I turn my attention towards?\u201d comes a related question: \u201cWhom should I spend my attention on?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once again, the answer is going to be different for each of you. And once again, the answer may also be the same for all of you: You should spend a lot of your attention on real people in the real world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He worries about people getting lost on their phones. Make personal connections, he says. And he ends:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Here\u2019s something else I can tell you: The world needs you to seize that opportunity with everything you\u2019ve got. It won\u2019t be easy. You\u2019ll face the universal challenges encountered by all the generations who came before you, and you\u2019ll face the unique ones that have arisen for your generation.<\/p>\n<p>But if you treasure your attention, and then use it to do hard things, with other people, in real life, then\u2013\u2013and trust me on this, as a social psychologist\u2013\u2013your life is going to be amazing. And the world is going to be a far better place because you\u2019re in it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>My thoughts: most people won&#8217;t do this, because they don&#8217;t need to. Most people go through life following prescribed social roles. They don&#8217;t think, because thinking might undermine the presumptions of their social and religious tribes. Easier to conform.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Aside, since I saw this online just now.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MaryMillerMOUTH-660x330.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>JMG, today<\/strong>, via press release: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joemygod.com\/2026\/05\/gop-bill-would-mandate-inscribing-in-god-we-trust-in-prominent-locations-on-every-federal-building-in-us\/\">GOP Bill Would Mandate Inscribing \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d In \u201cProminent Locations\u201d On Every Federal Building In US<\/a><\/li>\n<li>These are the people who don&#8217;t think, and don&#8217;t want anyone else to think either.<\/li>\n<li>And, this thought just occurred to me: they are like billionaires, for whom what they have is never enough. I&#8217;ll expand on this later.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Or maybe not an aside. I should catch up on some related items.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/app\/uploads\/2021\/07\/american-clag-christian-cross-0723211.jpg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Salon, Amanda Marcotte, today<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2026\/05\/15\/the-christian-right-hijacks-americas-250th\/\">The Christian right hijacks America\u2019s 250th<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Trump&#8217;s Rededicate 250 event erases the U.S.&#8217;s secular history&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;On Sunday, May 17, the White House will kick off the celebrations of the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary with <a href=\"https:\/\/freedom250.org\/celebration\/rededicate-250-a-national-jubilee-of-prayer-praise-and-thanksgiving\">an alarming event<\/a>: Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise &amp; Thanksgiving, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/religion\/2026\/05\/13\/trump-administration-host-rededicate-250-jubilee-mall-sunday\/\">all-day prayer festival<\/a> featuring administration officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as well as House Speaker Mike Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>The founders would no doubt be appalled, as there is nothing to rededicate; they\u00a0explicitly wrote the Constitution to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2018\/01\/14\/celebrate-religious-freedom-the-way-the-founding-fathers-originally-intended\/\">reflect their belief<\/a> that the U.S. is a secular nation. But Trump\u2019s second term has been dominated by a single-minded determination to erase real history and replace it with self-flattering fantasies of the MAGA movement.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>This is just weird. Are we not civilized? Or are we religiously-befuddled tribalists?<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.vox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/gettyimages-2212926835.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0%2C4.0107913669065%2C100%2C91.978417266187&amp;w=750\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Vox, Christian Paz, yesterday<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/488587\/trump-religious-right-christian-nationalism-biblical-christian-nation-religion-prayer-250\">A year of Trump is backfiring on the religious right<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Americans don\u2019t really want \u201cChristian nationalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This weekend, an array of Christian religious leaders and government officials are scheduled to gather at the National Mall in Washington, DC. They\u2019ll convene to pray, yes, but this rally \u2014 organized as part of the White House-backed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcwashington.com\/news\/local\/trump-admin-to-join-rededicate-250-criticized-for-promoting-christian-nationalism\/4104243\/\">Freedom 250 celebrations<\/a> tied to this coming July 4 \u2014 will also serve as a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/freedom250.org\/news\/chris-tomlin-to-headline-rededicate-250\">rededication of our country as One Nation under God<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1agbrixi lg8ac51 lg8ac50 xkp0cg1\">If you\u2019ve been following the cultural resurgence of religiosity in the United States, this ceremony shouldn\u2019t come as much of a surprise. The religious right has been ascendant during the second presidency of Donald Trump, and they\u2019ve harnessed his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/05\/01\/trump-religious-commission-church-state-00321814\">disdain for rules and norms<\/a> to blur the lines between church and state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know why I haven&#8217;t being seeing notices from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/veritasium\">Veritasium<\/a> channel on Facebook lately, but today I did get one.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=476&amp;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Freel%2F4032484263632626%2F&amp;show_text=false&amp;width=267&amp;t=0\" width=\"267\" height=\"476\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>*This* is about deep reality, not the childish fantasies the religious project onto the entire universe. The idea here, not new but explained well, is that, in mathematics, there are things that are true that cannot be proved; and about how very simple rules, in Conway&#8217;s &#8220;Game of Life,&#8221; can generate patterns that we perceive as living, even intelligent. Which is to say: human intuitions are not reliable. Reality is deeper and more complex than what humans think.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p>About one of those childish fantasies.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m reading the new Neil deGrasse Tyson book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1668249979\/?bestFormat=true&amp;k=take me to your leader\"><b>Take Me to Your Leader: Perspectives on Your First Alien Encounter<\/b><\/a>, which has this passage, on page 38:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Imagine a pair of Aliens, perched halfway across the Milky Way, staring at a dense star field, and one says to the other, &#8220;See that distant star? The one that&#8217;s indistinguishable from a billion other stars just like it? On its third rock in orbit, there&#8217;s a species that&#8217;s certain the whole universe was made just for them.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonathan Haidt&#8217;s graduation speech: choose your attention, do hard things, make personal connections; Like billionaires, what Christian nationalists have is never enough: now they want to inscribe &#8220;In God We Trust&#8221; on every Federal Building in the US; Amanda Marcotte &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2026\/05\/15\/haidts-graduation-speech\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psychology","category-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27882"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27888,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27882\/revisions\/27888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}