Tag: graduation

by Joseph Sunde   As the latest crop of college graduates enters the workforce, many are coming fully loaded with grandiose plans for “social transformation,” “giving back to their communities,” and “making a difference.” Unfortunately, such phrases have become slippery slogans based largely on a cultural imagination that is far too narrow in its basic assumptions. Whether spurred along by the idealism of college professors, the hurrahs of syrupy commencement speeches, or the hedonistic call of cultural tropes (“follow your passion!”), today’s youth are often clouded with a dim vision of what it really means to “change the world.” It’s a realm that’s become far too tiny in its aims and opportunities, confining young people to serving at soup kitchens, protesting in the streets, and traveling with the Peace Corps. These can all be noteworthy endeavors, of course, but they are hardly the only paths to battling injustice, fighting global poverty, or serving our communities. In a letter to college graduates, Andy Kessler reminds us of this, offering a hearty challenge to the social-activism status quo. “You want to reduce inequality, end poverty, comfort the homeless, expand human dignity. Guess what? Me too!” he writes. “But you’re going about it the…