Page Four .

SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday. May I3. 1960

 

Center Of leadership |s Pursuit Of Wisdom

Ed note. Following is the ‘

text oi the speech given by
Norman Springer (English) at ,
the Friars chapel last Fl'itluy.
Because at Spl'inger's treat—
ment or the subject “Lender-
ship," the text is printed in its
entirety.
is x at at x x H

l talk this morning because
tor these relatively tew moments
I want to make the word my
word. I'll try—knowing all the
time that even as l speak, and
or course when l cease speaking,
what I want to make oi the
word will be escaping iroin me,
never to he retrieved.

A good iriend oi mine, a
political scientist new teaching
at staniord, began an article
he entitled “What Happened
to the Great Issues" with a
quotation irom J. l). Salinger‘s
story called “Zooey.” The l
character in the story, Miss
Franny Glass, says:

“I don’t think it would have
all got me quite so down if just
once in awhile—Just once in
awhile—there was at least some
polite little periunctory implie
cation that knowledge should
lead to wisdom and that it it
doesn’t, it's just a disgusting
waste oi time.

“But there never is! You never
even hear any hints dropped on
a campus that wisdom is sup—
posed to be the goal ot kllowlel
edge. You hardly ever event
hear the word ‘wlsdom’
tionedl

"Do you want to hear absolute;
truth—in almost four years oi,
college, the only time I can re-l
member ever even hearing the
expression ‘Wise man' being
used was in lny freshman year,
in political scieneel
“And you know how it wasl
used? It was in reference to
some nice old poopy elder statese
man who’d made a fortune in
the stock market and then gone
to Washington to be an advisor
to President Roosevelt. Honesly,
nowl Four years oi college, ale
most: l'in not saying that hap—
pens to everybody, but l just
got so upset when 1 think about
it i could die!” (The New
Yorker, May 4, 1957).

Of course, one doesn‘t have to
talk about wisdom to be striv—
ing for it. But 1 should like to
think that in a very spccial
way, the core of lending is the
achievement in one degree or
another oi some part oi “wis-
dam.” I think Sallnger's Franny
Glass was talking about just the
confusion I want to talk abouti,
calling a man wise ior makingl
a killing on‘tlle stock market.

That there is coniusion about
what is meant by leadership
is to be expected We see the
coniusitm everywhere, and
there is no reason why it
sllould‘stay out oi the academ-

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linto and against

i this power

to world (a world as caught
up in time and place as the i
political u-orldi.
Clearly the etlorts towardsl
successlul lives which all at us
pursue almost every waking
moment are based on what we
think we are and what we think
we ought to be. I don't have to
helaboi- the point that what we
think we are and ought to be ’
inculeated in us li-om the very,
moment oi birth.
All the world throws itsclt at
us like the absolute hammer
driving the nail into the wood.‘
To the extent that we are aware
of the hammer, quite diilerent,
train the nail, to this extent can
we turn the blow, use the blow,
The iorcc of all my own ei—
iort, my whole stance, my ap,
proach, has been in terms oi
battle. The tone oi my voice,
the structure of my sentences,
the accent on certain means, in-‘
side and outside of class, have
been etiorts to iorce their ways
the terrible
power oi the everyday—the
overwhelming m o m e n t—byemtr
ment which has such absolute
demands, ways to extricate my-
self, to be able as often as pos-
sible to act with disinterest—
that it, without this momentl
and the one which preceded it‘
having absolute mastery overi
each word, each thought, eachi
following action. ,

Even as we are aware oi
oi the present,
even as we light it, there is
no guarantee that we will con—
quer it in the least—that we
will use it, make it ours and

discard it. ,

Proi. Elder Olson (the reel
eently visiting writer and teach—l
Cr) suggested, when speaking of‘
literature, that term is the ac~
tualizing oi the potential in;
matter. And 1 see our struggle‘
as in many ways like the artist
battling with his material to
force some shapcito make it
do what he wants it to do.

As some indications oi the slzel
oi the struggle, obserye the
possibility oi near perfection:
and those men who in theiri
lives produced signiiieant works.
There was only one Aristotle,
one, Plato, one Dante, one
Shakespeare. i szty this to indi—
cate the immense struggle that
goes on and the relatively iow‘
successesionly billions and bil-
lions oi detects.

Ii one wanted to, one could

 

( mind. Every

‘Vlated to that purpose

put all this another why—and ;
make the problem somewhat 1
diliercnt and more “lilting."
One could say there is pro»
grossisce hit the books p nl- ,
ed and read, see the lllcl'ei -c
in student population, see the
atom smasher-s, see all the iii-
tellects we're turning out—sec
the millions of LP’s bought.

Man is marching ahead Well.
I don’t see it that way. 1 don't
believe in those happy successes.
Later on today, Perhaps at
cocktail time, l'll be wllling to
do so

When i set the problem up in,
this manner, you can under-
stand how I see education, llowi
1 sec learning. it is like that,
water-mill that T. S. Eliot}
speaks about in his magnificentl
“Journey oi the Magi"—wlien
his speaker comcs to the tem-
per-ate valley “with a running
stream and a watel‘vmlll beating
the darkness . .

This is a iinc image for my
purpose. 1 see the place or learn—
ing as like that wateremill—aii
everlasting turning, heating the
darkness, spokes ilaying out and
holding the darkness back,

I see Grihnell at its best
moments like that. And it is
here that l conceive or lead
ership—Grinnell as the very
hub oi light in the darkuc .

There is ilot a single o or

thing a college ought to work
for than the training of the
aspect oi loading
that has any meaning in ll‘tcl
long run ought to be directly r

As I see it, in the best senscl
of the term, leadership meahsi
independence. 1n the indivrdual,i
leadership means the ability to
cultivate the quality or disine
tcrest (i don‘t mean uninterest).
I mean by disinterest that abil-
ity to look at and conclude and
to act without self-interesl—i
without personal bias.

To do this in a world which
has not the slightest idea what
this means, is to lead. it is at
this most personal levelizit. the
very moment oi our daily lives
ethat this attitude, this ability
must be cultivated.

in the long run all oi our l,
schooling is an eiiort towards g
this—to cut out our own de— l
vouring eltort to make every- l
thing work ior us to the dis»
advantage oi everything and
everyone else. It is our battle
to achieve this concern tor the

 

 

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‘ don’t.

truth which I wont to cull the
essence of lendersllipi

And when i say disintcrcst, l]

mcan lluil-COlhlillLlnenl.1
One might to be prepared to act;
with passion and understanding:
on those things one discoversj
which calls toi- action. l

it this seems contradictory, let:
me try to explain. There is nol
serious action without commit;
iiient, and there is no commit-
ment without endless .eitort,
there in the word endless and
in the word ellort, commitment}
shows itself) towards the dis-l
covering of the various truthsi

at a situation, a time, a place, ‘

an issue, 1

The disinterest is inherent in‘
the commitment to the extent
that the possessor of disinterest
is always prepared to see error,
that he is always prepared for
and open to attack irom any
quarter. 1

Leadership shows itself at this:
point in the give and lake of the

mind. For at those moments we
will say: here, right here docs
my position appear most weak,‘
Attack there and show me how
you see it. Or one may say tol
another mind at work: No, you’rel
on the wrong track in your at
tack on meiyou hit the wrongl
point—it is. here at this polnt‘

‘yotl ought to atlack.

At the center then is the -
inct that there is nothing more
important than what is true..—
thnt everything ialls hetero
what is true. And here is the
beginning oi responsible lead-
ership, leadership in the
struggle ior the control at
one’s own mind, “
it doesn't necessarily show it—
self in the joining oi organiza-
tions, in the loading at bands, in
the participation in extracur—
ricular chaos The leading may
very well be, as l have already
indicated, in the silent work,
'n the quiet sentence, in the
deadly and necessary work oi
tearing a text spanito see it,
to feel it, to hear it, to use it,
it may well be in thevcry re—
fusal to open the door to one’s
room. . ,
It seems to me at this time
that the leadership needed at

‘Gl‘ml‘lell is of this kind. I don’t

think we need leadership in the
iurther means oi entertaining
ourselves. All our unexamined-
lives are paths towards enter-
tainmcntiwe go there instinc-
tively. ’

1 mean thereiought to fur
ther develop right now (there
is certainly a nucleus at pres—
em.) and in the next years, a
SPEECH
Cont. p. 6‘, col. 1

 

 

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