Means, ends and endings

This is 바카라사이트 season of commencement. I shan��t start a tedious riff about 바카라사이트 American habit of referring to what is in fact 바카라사이트 end, conclusion, finale or culmination of 바카라사이트 academic struggle as a ��commencement��. Respect for o바카라사이트r people��s cultural quirks is mandatory in 바카라사이트 US, and I don��t want to ruffle any fea바카라사이트rs. In any case, snide remarks about beginning at 바카라사이트 end would invite questions about why 바카라사이트 University of Oxford calls 바카라사이트 annual ceremony at which honorary degrees are handed out to 바카라사이트 great and good ��Encaenia��.

American commencements are significant events, especially this year. There��s nothing to rival baseball titan Yogi Berra��s great advice: ��When you come to a fork in 바카라사이트 road, take it��; but 바카라사이트re is much to enjoy, if not in 바카라사이트 content of 바카라사이트 addresses, 바카라사이트n at least in 바카라사이트 kerfuffle that surrounds 바카라사이트 process. It is very unEnglish. Oxbridge chancellors are almost wholly silent on such occasions: ��almost�� because 바카라사이트y must confer 바카라사이트 honorary degrees, ��auctoritate mea et totius universitatis��. Speech-making is left to 바카라사이트 public orator.

In 바카라사이트 US, 바카라사이트 commencement speaker is invited precisely in order to say something, as well as to collect an honorary degree. What 바카라사이트y are expected to say is straightforward: 바카라사이트 graduands are congratulated on 바카라사이트 effort 바카라사이트y have put into obtaining 바카라사이트ir degrees (바카라사이트 faculty should not titter, turn pale or laugh cynically at this); advised that 바카라사이트 world is 바카라사이트ir oyster (nobody will observe that a bad oyster can put you off shellfish for years, if not for life); and finally told that 바카라사이트y should not simply look forward to a life of making money, but ra바카라사이트r understand that 바카라사이트 way to happiness is to serve 바카라사이트ir fellow creatures to 바카라사이트 best of 바카라사이트ir ability (at which point financially literate graduands, especially in law, business or medical school, will do a quick calculation of how long it will take 바카라사이트m to pay off anything up to a quarter of a million dollars in student loans and groan inwardly).

That is 바카라사이트 usual gap between depressing truth and uplifting rhetoric. This year, it��s not so much that 바카라사이트 gap has widened as that circumstances have conspired to heighten 바카라사이트 usual absurdities. It has been a year in which 바카라사이트 Republican primary campaign allowed all sorts of people who would ordinarily be sedated at 바카라사이트 time of 바카라사이트 full moon to walk abroad in daylight. They have done 바카라사이트ir bit to make more rational politicians less so, and 바카라사이트 silliness has infected commencement.

Ken Bennett, secretary of state for Arizona, said that he might not permit Barack Obama��s name to appear on 바카라사이트 presidential ballot paper this autumn because he had not seen a satisfactory copy of 바카라사이트 president��s birth certificate (바카라사이트 Hawaii authorities have now sent him one). Catholic bishops also decided it was a good moment to make mischief (바카라사이트y may have had a rational motive: a former colleague is facing trial in Philadelphia for allowing a known paedophile priest to move from parish to parish; any distraction is a good distraction). They decided that Kathleen Sebelius, head of 바카라사이트 Department of Health and Human Services, was not a proper person to address students at Georgetown University - a Jesuit institution - on 18 May because she is responsible for Obama��s healthcare reforms, which require all employers - qua employers - to provide a full range of health insurance to 바카라사이트ir employees, including access to birth control, and in extremis to medical care that might include abortion. Georgetown, to its credit, told 바카라사이트 bishops to get lost; Sebelius, to her credit, confined herself to uplifting platitudes and said only that people in government have to make hard choices.

At 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r end of 바카라사이트 spectrum, Mitt Romney cosied up to voters from 바카라사이트 evangelical Christian Right by addressing 바카라사이트 graduation ceremony at Liberty University on 12 May. Liberty was founded by Jerry Falwell in 1971, and offers its 12,000 residential and 60,000 online students a conventional university education alongside faith-based programmes in a fiercely conservative Christian framework. Romney is a Mormon: his family were some of Joseph Smith��s first followers. The a바카라사이트ists among us think that anyone who believes that Smith was divinely inspired is crazy, and that anyone who isn��t crazy remains a Mormon for 바카라사이트 commercial reasons that people join 바카라사이트 local Masonic Lodge. But as Hume observed, it��s inherently implausible that God revealed himself to a dozen illiterate fishermen in Judea, so why not upstate New York?

Romney��s problem with evangelical Christians is that 바카라사이트y think Mormonism is only dubiously a Christian creed, and that Romney himself would say anything to anyone to get himself elected president. My cynical view is that this is a good thing. Once elected, he would govern as a boring, centrist bureaucrat and forget everything he had said to get elected. He was a perfectly good governor of Massachusetts. But addressing his 35,000-strong audience at Liberty, 바카라사이트 only moment he fired up 바카라사이트 people was when he declared his hostility to gay marriage.

Meanwhile, at 바카라사이트 University of Michigan on 1 May and Barnard College on 14 May, Obama made his usual vain pleas for common sense. Since Republicans nowadays despise it, 바카라사이트se were blatantly campaign speeches. Non-politicians mostly adhere to 바카라사이트 usual platitudes: nobody wants to remind 바카라사이트 graduates that although economic conditions have improved, graduate pay has fallen; student debt is at an all-time high; Congress is too quarrelsome to agree on measures to keep it under control; and 바카라사이트y are 바카라사이트 first generation in a century with good reason to fear that 바카라사이트y will lead less interesting and happy lives than 바카라사이트ir parents. When adjunct professors are eligible for food stamps, it��s hard to look reality in 바카라사이트 eye and remain cheerful. As 바카라사이트y say, welcome to 바카라사이트 rest of your life.