Good evening Class of 2012, and welcome to this community of scholars.  I am pleased to see you looking so well dressed, and generally alert despite the understandable weariness you must be feeling after the exertions of move-in, orientation, a surfeit of inspirational speeches, and, just perhaps, a bit of late-night social activity. You also seem, if I may say so — just a little anxious.  This is entirely normal on the night before classes begin.  But there is another reason why your anxiety is merited, and I will reveal it to you in a moment after conveying greetings to other friends who are with us tonight.

I am delighted to see that the faculty have returned from their summers of travel, research, writing, and perhaps even the odd vacation.  They are the ones you see behind me, dressed in colorful medieval garb, along with a number of our loyal and dedicated trustees.  Welcome back to all of you as well.

Members of the Class of 2012, you find yourselves in a rare and enviable situation.  As first-year students in one of the most highly selective colleges in the world's best system of higher education, you represent a miniscule sliver of privilege.  Indeed, freshmen in schools like Muhlenberg equal less than one tenth of one percent of all the 18-year-olds on planet Earth at this moment. How did you end up in such a fortunate but tiny minority? Let us not debate that question tonight.  Suffice it to say that for years you and your parents have thought hard about (some would even say obsessed over) your admission to the best possible college. And now, here you are. So far, so good.

But there is another truth that you have not been told — and now I'm going to reveal it to you.  Assuming you take your education here seriously, you will be joining one of America's most misunderstood, unappreciated, despised, suspect, and even at times endangered minorities.  You will become, (I hardly dare speak the word), "intellectuals." If you succeed in this endeavor, many of your fellow citizens will consider you snobs at best and possibly even subversives.  You will, in effect, join an underground movement.

Remember the Terminator movies?  Think of yourselves as so many Sarah and John Conners, hiding in the ruins, guerrilla resistance fighters against overwhelming and malevolent odds. Yikes! 

Okay, I exaggerate.  But our society -- despite having built the world's best system of higher education and despite its impressive achievements in science, technology, and the arts - has a long and deeply rooted tradition of anti-intellectualism.  The wellsprings of this tradition have been variously attributed to our nation's history of egalitarianism, fundamentalism, populism, and pragmatism.¹  Whatever its origins, we do not need to look long or hard for examples: the Scopes Trial, the McCarthy hearings, efforts to force "intelligent design" into high school science curricula, and the deliberate mispronunciation of the word "nucular". Nor is it difficult to discern the appalling effect this tradition has had on the quality of public discourse:  our national discussions of  compelling issues like energy policy, immigration policy, education policy, and economic policy,  have a lot more in common with the painful prattling of Spencer, Heidi, LC, and Audrina, than they do with serious intellectual debate.

In the early days of our nation, Thomas Jefferson wrote "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free…it expects what never was and never will be."  Good advice.  Too bad nobody was paying attention. Today, our leaders tell us, in so many words, that there are no complex issues.  That every problem will yield to simple, expedient, and painless solutions. And most of us are eager to believe them, even if our common sense tells us this cannot be true.

The dangers posed by our national culture of intellectual laziness— let's be blunt and call this by its real name --"stupidity" — are real and immediate.  Inadequately designed levees are breached, poorly maintained bridges collapse, public schools fail to educate, our health care system is a mess, airlines are incapable of delivering basic service, the economy and banking infrastructure are in shambles, our national ignorance of other cultures, languages, and religions is an international embarrassment, and we rely on a patchwork safety net of underfunded volunteer organizations to provide the most vulnerable among us — children, the indigent, the elderly — with meager social services.  Meanwhile our news media distract us with coverage of Christie Brinkley's third divorce and Lindsay Lohan's nineteenth nervous breakdown, while candidates for public office insult our intelligence with negative campaign ads based on distortions, half-truths, out-of-context quotes, and oversimplified pandering.

What a mess!  I hope you are not too daunted to learn that I am counting on you — members of the Class of 2012 — to turn this situation around!  As new recruits in the intellectual underground, here is what you must do to prepare for the struggle.

First, resign yourself to the reality that the big issues actually are complicated — that's how they got to be big issues.  That means you will need intellectual stamina.  You will need to work hard, think hard, learn how to listen, learn how to develop and present a point of view.  You will need to learn that argument is about the careful construction of a logical sequence of ideas, not just the loud and passionate reiteration of your opinions. You must learn how to persuade those with whom you disagree, not just talk louder than they do.

 
You must learn to distinguish fact from opinion, to understand the use and misuse of statistical data, to appreciate the power of metaphor. Realize that your task is not simply about acquiring information, but learning how to interpret information. You must take nothing at face value.  Generalizations should make you nervous; flat statements of fact should make you suspicious. This is strenuous work.

Interpretation requires relentless skepticism. But it also requires you to apply that skepticism to your own convictions, not just those of others. In doing so, you will discover that you invariably learn more from those who disagree with you than from those who think like you do.  Seek out those who see the world differently.  Be open to the possibility that individuals of other religions, cultures, and political persuasions, have access to truths that you may not have glimpsed and might not otherwise encounter. Learn from them.

The more you practice these habits of mind, the more you will come to realize that knowledge is more about nuance than certainty, and the more you will be able to appreciate the elegance of a convincing argument. 

Muhlenberg will provide ample opportunities for you to do this work.

For the next four years, this is your job. Every class, every writing assignment, every dinner-table discussion, every leadership role in a team or club, will provide a chance for you to hone your intellectual skills.  You'll find a wealth of opportunities to test academic theory against reality, through service learning courses, individual research, fieldwork, internships, and community service. With the help of Muhlenberg's Community Service staff, almost 80 percent of our students volunteer in the community.  Embrace these opportunities. Become a skilled guerrilla fighter in the war of ideas. 

Finally, do not be afraid to display your passion for the life of the mind wherever and whenever you have the chance. It is time for our country's best and brightest (that would be you) to set a higher standard for us all. You are the next generation of freedom fighters, and the next four years will be your training camp. If you embrace this mission, you can lead us out of the underground and into the light.  We're counting on you.  God bless you, and Godspeed as you set out on your mission.