Entrepreneur, philanthropist and former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg discussed the importance of honor and honesty in bringing the country together as he addressed graduates at Rice University’s 105th commencement May 12, 2018 in the Academic Quad.
The excerpts are:
- The concept of honor has taken on different meanings through the ages: chivalry, chastity, courage, strength. And when divorced from morality, or attached to prejudice, honor has been used to justify murder, and repression, and deceit. But the essence of honor has always been found in the word itself.
- The words ‘honor’ and ‘honest’ are two sides of the same coin. In fact, the Latin word ‘honestus’ can mean both ‘honest’ and ‘honorable.’
- To be honorable, you must be honest. And that means speaking honestly, and acting honestly, even when it requires you to admit wrongdoing -- and suffer the consequences. The commitment to honesty is a responsibility that you accepted as an Owl. It is also a patriotic responsibility.
- One of the first things, young children learn about American history is the story of George Washington and the fallen cherry tree. ‘I cannot tell a lie,’ young George tells his father. ‘I cut it down.’ We’ve always lionized our two greatest presidents -- Washington and Lincoln -- not only for their accomplishments, but also for their honesty. We see their integrity and morals as a reflection of our honor as a nation. However, today when we look at the city that bears Washington's name, it's hard not to wonder: What the hell happened?
- In 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year was ‘post-truth.’ And last year brought us the phrase, ‘alternative facts.’ In essence, they both mean: Up can be down. Black can be white. True can be false. Feelings can be facts.
- Pat Moynihan, once said: ‘People are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.’
- Today, those in politics routinely dismiss any inconvenient information, no matter how factual, as fake -- and they routinely say things that are demonstrably false. When authoritarian regimes around the world did this, we scoffed at them. We thought the American people would never stand for that!
- For my generation, the plain truth about America -- the freedom, opportunity, and prosperity we enjoyed. The more communists had access to real news, the more they would demand freedom. We believed that -- and we were right.
- Today many of those at the highest levels of power see the plain truth as a threat. They fear it. They deny it. And they attack it -- just as the communists once did. And so here we are, in the midst of an epidemic of dishonesty, and an endless barrage of lies.
- The trend toward elected officials propagating alternate realities is one of the most serious dangers facing democracies. Free societies depend on citizens who recognize that deceit in government isn’t something to shrug your shoulders at. When elected officials speak as though they are above the truth, they will act as though they are above the law. And when we tolerate dishonesty, we get criminality. Sometimes, it's in the form of corruption. Sometimes, it's abuse of power. And sometimes, it's both. If left unchecked, these abuses can erode the institutions that preserve and protect our rights and freedoms -- and open the door to tyranny and fascism.
- There is now more tolerance for dishonesty in politics than I have seen in my lifetime, one-third of the time the United States has existed!
- My generation can tell you: The only thing more dangerous than dishonest politicians who have no respect for the law, is a chorus of enablers who defend their every lie.
- Remember: The Honor Code here at Rice University just doesn’t require you to be honest. It requires you to say something if you saw others acting dishonestly. Now that might be the most difficult part of an honor code, but it may also be the most important, because violations affect the whole community. And the same is true in our country. If we want elected officials to be honest, we have to hold them accountable when they are not -- or else suffer the consequences. Honest people can disagree. That's what democracy is all about! But productive debate requires an acceptance of basic reality.
- It's always good to be skeptical and ask questions.
- Scientific discovery permeates practically every aspect of our lives.
- Political leaders are being dishonest about facts and data, and too many people are letting them get away with it.
- So how did we get here? How did we go from a president who could not tell a lie to politicians who can not tell the truth? From a George Washington who embodied honesty, to a Washington, D.C. defined by deceit?
- It’s popular to blame social media for spreading false information.
- It's the public's willingness -- even eagerness -- to believe anything that paints the other side in a bad light. That's extreme partisanship -- and that is what's fueling and excusing all this dishonesty. Extreme partisanship is like an infectious disease. But instead of crippling the body, it cripples the mind. It blocks us from understanding the other side. It blinds us from seeing the strengths in their ideas -- and the weaknesses of our own. And it leads us to defend or excuse lies and unethical actions when our own side commits them.
- For example: In the 1990s, leading Democrats spent the decade defending the occupant of the Oval Office against charges of lying and personal immorality, and attempting to silence and discredit the women who spoke out. At the same time, leading Republicans spent that decade attacking the lack of ethics and honesty in the White House. Today, the roles are exactly reversed -- not because the parties have changed their beliefs -- but because the party occupying the Oval Office has changed.
- When someone's judgment about an action depends on the party affiliation of the person who committed it, they're being dishonest with themselves and with the public. And yet many people -- in both parties -- don't even realize that they are making them.
- When people see the world as a battle between left and right, they become more loyal to their tribe than to our country. When power -- not progress -- becomes the object of the battle, truth and honesty become the first casualties.
- Honesty leads to trust and trust leads to freedom. In democracy, it's no different. If we aren't honest with one another, we don't trust one another, then we place limits on what we ourselves can do, and what we can do together as a country. It's a formula for gridlock and national decline. It doesn't have to be that way.
- Arguments were won and lost on facts and data -- not parties and polls.
- At the national level, in Washington today, partisanship is everything. And I think the dishonesty that it produces is one of the greatest challenges that your generation will have to confront.
- Partisanship is not a new problem. George Washington warned against it in his Farewell Address. He referred to the ‘dangers of parties,’ and called the passion that people have for our parties, ‘worst enemy’ of democracy -- a precursor to tyranny. Washington urged Americans to, ‘discourage and restrain’ partisanship. In recent years, the opposite has happened.
- There is now unrestrained, rabid partisanship everywhere we look. It's in the communities where we live, which are becoming more deeply red or more deeply blue. It’s in the groups and associations and churches we join, which increasingly attract like-minded people. It’s even in the people we marry.
- Fifty years ago, most parents didn't care whether their children married a member of another political party, but they didn't want them marrying outside their race or religion, or inside their gender. Today, polls show a strong majority support for inter-racial, inter-religious, and same-sex marriage and that is progress.
- But the percentage of parents who don't want their children marrying outside of their political party has doubled and the more people segregate themselves by party, the harder it becomes to understand the other side, and the more extreme each party grows. The country is more divided by party than it has ever been since the Civil War.
- In like-minded groups, fringe ideas can gather momentum with dangerous speed.
- Bringing the country back together won't be easy. But it can be done -- and if we are to continue as a true democracy, it must be done.
- Americans are facing an "epidemic of dishonesty" in Washington that's more dangerous than terrorism or communism, also warned that "an endless barrage of lies" and a trend toward "alternate realities" in national politics pose a dire threat to U.S. democracy.
- The 76-year-old billionaire, did not call out any politician by name.
- Bloomberg evoked the legend of the nation's first president, George Washington, who as a boy said he could not tell a lie when asked if he cut down a cherry tree. "How did we go from a president who could not tell a lie to politicians who cannot tell the truth?" he asked.
