2007 Founder's Day Award Recipient

read the citation

Remarks by K. Tucker Andersen '59
May 18, 2007

Good morning Exeter! Despite the rain today, I certainly hope that each of you appreciates what a really beautiful day this is, since it is the first day of the rest of your life and full of all the opportunity that arises from living in the best of all possible times and in the best of all possible places – but more concerning that in a few minutes.

My first draft of these comments devoted a good deal of the brief time allotted to me to thanking those responsible for this wonderful honor and then recounted how in September 1957 I ended up entering the Academy, a place which I had never heard of nine months earlier and was far removed in many ways from the industrial town of Bristol, CT. where I was attending high school. I arrived on campus as a fifteen-year-old upper who had failed the foreign language entrance exam but who nevertheless was determined to graduate in two years rather than the three years recommended to me by the Academy, and did so partially due to the forbearance of Percy Rogers, one of the most memorable teachers I had during my time here and who gave me a D- in Spanish rather than the failing grade which I probably deserved at the end of the first marking period. (By the way, for those of you who may aspire to be standing here some day, I was told that one of the qualifications for this award is to have almost flunked out.) I then recounted some of my experiences at that all boys school with relatively few four-year students and a quite unforgiving attitude toward both scholastic and moral failings on the part of its students and contrasted it with the Academy of today. I then imparted a few lessons learned during my two years here. In other words, the standard speech of an award recipient that would in all likelihood have been quickly forgotten.

However, that speech still resides on the hard drive of my computer, so those of you who were looking for some profitable investment advice are going to be disappointed. Instead, I have decided to stay true to my reputation and make some comments which might be viewed as provocative or even infuriate some of you; but hopefully they will be much more entertaining and even cause a few of you to view your education, lives and possible careers from a different perspective.

However, there are four people who I do specifically need to thank individually before proceeding further. First are my mom and dad – obviously for the intelligence with which I was genetically endowed but more importantly for the values and discipline that they taught me combined with the love of learning that they nurtured and the self confidence which these attributes engendered. I know that they would be very proud if they were still alive to see me receive this award. Next I am immensely grateful for the continual support and encouragement of my wife Karen during the almost forty-four years of our marriage. And finally, Hammy Bissell, the director of scholarship students who became a lifelong friend after recruiting me as one of his many newspaper boys who, as he was famous for summarizing, were long on brains but short on cash. It is not often that you can clearly identify an individual responsible for a major inflection point in your life – amazingly Hammy was responsible not only for my ability to attend Exeter, but also convinced me to attend Wesleyan despite being admitted to Harvard in an era when there was not a single Exeter graduate on the Wesleyan campus prior to my arrival. I apologize to the rest of my family and friends who are here today as well as members of the awards committee that I don’t have time to individually thank them, but if I started it would be difficult not to offend someone who was unintentionally omitted.

However, I do need to thank my fellow trustees with whom I served; my time on the Trustees was in many ways the most rewarding organizational experience which I have ever had – the true good will felt towards Exeter by every single member of our group and their willingness to put aside their egos on occasion and the teamwork which resulted led to the many accomplishments which will be of lasting benefit to future generations of Exonians. However, I firmly believe that despite the collegiality that resulted from our attempt to create a true partnership with all members of the Academy community, we would not have let the friendships which resulted interfere with our responsibility to defend the integrity of this community; in my opinion, we certainly would have acted more rapidly and resolutely than the trustees of either Duke or Columbia, those two superb academic institutions whose presidents have capitulated to mob rule and the exigencies of political correctness in the recent episodes involving their campuses, and yet neither of whom has been dismissed or at the least received the strong public rebuke which they deserve.

In order to provide some background that might be helpful in setting the mood for what I want to discuss, I have chosen to excerpt some lyrics on a recent CD by one of my favorite songwriter/philosophers, Kris Kristofferson. The piece is entitled PILGRIM’S PROGRESS:

"Am I young enough to believe in revolution?
Am I strong enough to get down on my knees and pray?
Am I high enough on the chain of evolution to respect myself, and my brother
and my sister, and perfect myself in my own peculiar way?
I want justice, but I’ll settle for some mercy, on this holy road, through the universal mind.
And I’d be crazy not to wonder if I’m worthy, of the part I’ve played in this dream that’s coming true.

These lines in some ways summarize the journey of this pilgrim who is standing before you much better than I would ever have the ability to do - I can only lift my eyes heavenward in gratitude to God for the blessings that have been bestowed upon me and the dream which I have lived.

Now, since I hope that all of you are young enough to believe in revolution – I would like to devote some comments to that subject. First, if you want to be a successful revolutionary – educate yourself well. Luckily I am a knowledge sponge, so while my academic career ended with my BA – my learning had just begun. True creativity is a discovery process, and the key intellectual challenge and in my experience the secret to achieving success is not about remembering all the individual data points and facts to which you will be exposed, but rather filtering that overwhelming amount of information and assembling it into a mosaic of knowledge which will provide you with enough insight to lead to the wisdom which you will need. Also, remember that the world in which you live is chaotic, and there is often great knowledge to be gained by opening yourself up to that disorder and apparent randomness.

Next, be very wary of consensus thinking unless it is based on hard scientific evidence or is simply useful in day-to-day interpersonal relations. Usually, a claim of consensus is either trivial or an attempt to stifle debate and coerce harmony- to illustrate this point I would like to discuss the consensus which I believe is the greatest danger facing our system of democratic capitalism today. This can be summarized as the promotion of the idea of the moral equivalency of all cultures and religions and the advocacy of multiculturalism as a worthy goal in and of itself, with no examination of whether the ideas espoused by the various cultures are equally valid, are benign or dangerous, or whether they promote acceptance and respect and tolerance of other cultures or instead they claim superiority for their own worldview and attempt to establish a regime of submission which allows their leaders to impose their views on others. One result of the toleration of such views is that the rejection of the concept of natural law becomes acceptable, as is the espousal of the idea that it is possible to deconstruct the meaning of any intellectual work or work of art totally independently of the intent of its creator. Thus the rationale forming the basis of our constitutional democracy becomes subject to reinterpretation by whoever is in power. Finally, the acceptance of such moral ambiguity eventually tends to result in a willingness to appease rather than name and confront evil. If you think that my concern is overly dramatic, I urge you to read the books written by two courageous women whom I have met and talked to in depth about this problem. Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Aly have both received death threats for their willingness to speak out concerning their oppression as women and the stifling of their human potential by such regimes. In fact, the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was stabbed to death on a public street in Holland by an Islamic extremist for his insistence on publicizing Ayaan’s story.

Last, question authority, especially when it is exercised by the government to restrict your freedoms, limit your rights and seize your property on the basis of some perceived greater public interest decided for you by bureaucrats and politicians interested primarily in enhancing their own power or job security. Given the sorry state of political discourse today and the corrupt nature and intellectual bankruptcy of both major political parties, we need to take to heart the admonition of George Washington, one of the most underrated political theorists of our revolution, that "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence: it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master." Remember that the framers of our Constitution viewed that document as a shield against the sword of government, which is why both the liberal and conservative methodologies of constitutional interpretation are incorrect and the argument between them miscast. The activism of the liberals in claiming that the Constitution is a living document which means whatever they choose (therefore nothing) has scared the conservatives into becoming strict constructionists who eschew any activism; what we need instead are judicial revolutionaries who become activist judges who consistently come down on the side of the narrow enumerated powers of government and the broad unenumerated rights of the populace (as the Ninth and Tenth Amendments made clear was the intention of the framers).

While my previous comments regarding the dangers of consensus and authority refer to the political marketplace, the same counterproductive results also often flow from consensus in the academic world as well. I am a board member of a foundation established by a truly wonderful individual, an eighty-year-old George Mason University faculty member named Vernon Smith. Vernon refused to accept the fact that economic theoreticians did not attempt to validate their theories, and in attempting to prove correct his beliefs concerning the superiority of socialist models of economic organization of society, he designed experiments which eventually in fact proved practically all his hypotheses to be wrong. Thus began Vernon’s intellectual odyssey, which led to the establishment of a discipline named experimental economics, which now includes the fascinating science of neuroeconomics. Recently, Vernon’s insights, nonconformity and originality led to him becoming the recipient of the Nobel Prize.

Of course, there are also a multitude of books and case studies regarding examples in the business world of the dangers of groupthink and deferring to authority. In contrast, the just published book THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESS by my friend Charles Koch discusses how he transformed his family company into one of the largest and most successful private companies in the world by developing a unique system of market-based management based on his understanding of the discovery process inherent in the private market economy as elucidated by Ludwig von Mises rather than accepting traditional wisdom concerning corporate management practices.

I am now going to change direction and read a poem that was penned by an important figure in black literature, Paul Laurence Dunbar. While Maya Angelou’s adoption of his words as the title of arguably her most well known book leans towards the typical interpretation of this as a poem about racism, the source of the imagery is probably somewhat more complex according to Dunbar’s wife. In any event, it so wonderfully illustrates the universality of the conditions which can afflict our souls that I decided to use it to make my final point.     

SYMPATHY

I KNOW WHAT THE CAGED BIRD FEELS, ALAS!
WHEN THE SUN IS BRIGHT ON THE UPLAND SLOPES;
WHEN THE WIND STIRS SOFT THROUGH THE SPRINGING GRASS,
AND THE RIVER FLOWS LIKE A STREAM OF GLASS;
WHEN THE FIRST BIRD SINGS AND THE FIRST BUD OPES,
AND THE FAINT PERFUME FROM ITS CHALICE STEALS—
I KNOW WHAT THE CAGED BIRD FEELS!

I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD BEATS HIS WING                        
TILL ITS BLOOD IS RED ON THE CRUEL BARS;
FOR HE MUST FLY BACK TO HIS PERCH AND CLING                  
WHEN HE FAIN WOULD BE ON THE BOUGH A-SWING;
AND A PAIN STILL THROBS IN THE OLD, OLD SCARS                   
AND THEY PULSE AGAIN WITH A KEENER STING—
I KNOW WHY HE BEATS HIS WING!

I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS, AH ME,
WHEN HIS WING IS BRUISED AND HIS BOSOM SORE,
--WHEN HE BEATS HIS BARS AND HE WOULD BE FREE;
IT IS NOT A CAROL OF JOY OR GLEE,                                         
BUT A PRAYER THAT HE SENDS FROM HIS HEART’S DEEP CORE,
BUT A PLEA THAT UPWARD TO HEAVEN HE FLINGS—
I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS!

Dream big dreams and always believe in the almost limitless opportunities available to you, but avoid the tendency to beat your wings against the bars of the cage that we can create for ourselves by the disappointment caused by the tyranny of unrealistic expectations or an unachievable dream. My boyhood idols were the Yankee centerfielders Joe Dimaggio and Mickey Mantle, two of the greatest players of all time. I dreamed of being a Yankee, but by the age of ten I was forced to face the reality that I had absolutely no athletic ability and totally lacked physical coordination. I also never possessed any leg speed and only very limited arm strength. So that dream unquestionably had to die. Imagine my incredible excitement 54 years later when last November I heard an ESPN commentator who was interviewing me actually refer to me as an athlete worthy of note because I was about to run and complete my thirty-first consecutive NYC Marathon, therefore remaining the co-holder of the record for that event, a fact which had only been discovered when the records were recently computerized. I may not be fast, but I am persistent; in fact some people even have described me as obsessive or crazy. (Of course, I just ascribe those opinions to jealousy.) So, remember both happiness and success usually belong to those individuals who seize opportunities, not solve problems, and who refuse to be discouraged by either their limitations or the opinions of others.

My wish for each of you is that you will not only always enjoy the freedom which allows you to follow your dreams and march to the beat of your own drummer, but also to sing the song of a revolutionary. There is no reason for any of you to be the caged bird beating its wing, you all have the opportunity to fly freely and sing joyfully of your freedom, and I want to encourage you to do so and build a world where as many others as possible will have the same freedom. Speak up in support of good and vocally oppose evil, and in so doing follow in the tradition of our founders who stood on the shoulders of the intellectual giants of the Enlightenment to continue building a world where the next generation can stand on your shoulders, benefit from your achievements and learn from your mistakes.

Thank you Exeter, and thank all of you for your patient attention. I love you all!

back to top