President Gordon B. Hinckley BYU Commencement & Inauguration Ceremony
Marriott Center
Thursday, April 25, 1996
Our Fading Civility
It now becomes my opportunity to offer some concluding remarks. I recognize
that we have been here for a long time, that you would like to get out of
these robes, and be on your way. I have not timed what I have to say, but
I can categorically state that it will take less time than the 30 minutes
that has been allowed me on the program. I have learned that appreciation
for the speaker grows in direct proportion to the brevity of the speech.
I first congratulate President Bateman on his investiture as president of
this great and complex university. His office requires that he be a man
of large capacity and solid faith. President Bateman meets that test. His
academic credentials are spotless. His experience in the real world of business
and management has been remarkable. His service in the ministry of the Lord
has been constant and wonderful.
I wonder if there is another institution in the nation, or even in the world,
of this size, where the choice of a president becomes a matter of prayer
on the part of the institution's trustees. I can assure you that when the
Trustees were faced with the responsibility of finding a successor to our
beloved friend, President Rex Lee, there was prayer, and there was direction.
I feel also that under the trust imposed on President Bateman he will be
accountable not only to the Trustees, but also to the Lord for this university
is a part of His work.
A major portion of the funds used in financing this institution comes from
the consecrated tithes of our people. This magnificent campus with its capable
and dedicated faculty affords some indication of the size of the budget
which is gladly allocated to the operation of Brigham Young University.
We who are responsible for the allocation of these funds regard them as
sacred, and I know that President Bateman so regards them. Speaking for
the Board of Trustees, I wish to say that we have total confidence in President
Bateman as he now officially enters this office with our love, our blessing,
and our prayers.
In behalf of the Trustees, I congratulate you graduates on your great achievement.
If you have finished with high honors, my special compliments to you. If
you barely made it, but did so with sincere effort, giving it the best you
have, then I warmly compliment you also. To each of you I wish good fortune.
Your secular education is designed to give you an improved opportunity in
the great marketplace of the world. You, in most cases, will be compensated
according to the value society places upon your skills.
But, as you have been told before, there should be, there must be, another
side to the coin you carry with you from BYU. President David O. McKay,
who for many years served as chairman of the Board of Trustees, once said:
"True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts
of science, history, literature or art, but in the development of character.
True education awakens a desire to conserve health by keeping the body clean
and undefiled. True education trains in self denial and self mastery. True
education regulates the temper, subdues passion and makes obedience to social
laws and moral order a guiding principle of life. It develops reason and
inculcates faith in the living God as the Eternal Father of all." (Conference
Report, April 1928)
Through the media we are witnessing a strange and interesting criminal case,
the arrest and on-going investigation of the man supposedly known as the
"Unabomber." He has not been tried, and I hasten to make that
clear. But we now know enough about his life to draw some conclusions. He showed remarkable qualities of scholarship while in high school. He went
on to Harvard and did exceptionally well. He was regarded by those who knew
him as a near-genius in the field of mathematics. On the basis of his credentials
he was offered a position at Berkeley where he taught for a brief period
and then resigned. Evidently there was some element in his character that
was missing. Now a stack of evidence is being accumulated against him, accusing
him of the most serious kind of crimes. He was brilliant in mind, but today
he sits alone in a jail cell while a net of accusations is being woven about
him. His case illustrates my long-held personal thesis that the major work
of the world is not done by geniuses. It is done by ordinary people, with
balance in their lives, who have learned to work in an extraordinary manner.
In your studies many of you have chronicled the march of civilization. It
has been a truly remarkable odyssey as through the centuries society has
made progress as people have lived together in communities with respect
and concern one for another. This is the hallmark of civilization. And yet
at times we wonder how much progress we have really made. This century which
now draws to a close has witnessed more wars and more death and suffering
than any other century in human history. Even today we witness the tragedies
occurring in Liberia, in Israel and its neighbors, in Bosnia, in Ireland,
and everywhere. Civility and mutual respect seem to have disappeared as
people kill one another over ethnic differences.
But civility also appears to be fading much closer to home. Civility covers
a host of matters in the relationships among human beings. Its presence
is described in such terms as "good manners" and "good breeding."
But everywhere about us we see the opposite. This is evident in growing
gangs, whose members show little respect for life and no respect for their
enemies, who mar beautiful walls and buildings with their ugly graffiti,
who evidently think only in terms of self.
Crime is essentially an absence of civility. A study sponsored by the National
Institute of Justice, the research arm of the Justice Department, concludes
that crime costs Americans at least $450 billion a year. Some question the
methodology of the study, but surely no one can question the gravity of
the problem. An article on this subject points out that another $40 billion
could be added, bringing the total annual cost of crime to almost $500 billion.
No one can comprehend a figure of that magnitude. But it is interesting
to note that the Defense Department's budget for last year was $252.6 billion,
which means that the cost of crime is essentially twice what we spend for
the defense of this nation and in giving military assistance to other nations.
It is appalling. It is alarming. And when all is said and done the cost
can be attributed almost entirely to human greed, to uncontrolled passion,
to a total disregard for the rights of others. In other words to a lack
of civility. As one writer has said, "People might think of a civilized
community as one in which there is a refined culture. Not necessarily; first
and foremost it is one in which the mass of people subdue their selfish
instincts in favor of the common well being" (Royal Bank Letter,
May-June 1995). He continues: "In recent years the media have raised
boorishness to an art form. The hip heroes of movies today deliver gratuitous
put downs to ridicule and belittle anyone who gets in their way. Bad manners,
apparently, make a saleable commodity. Television situation comedies wallow
in vulgarity, stand up comedians base their acts on insults to their audiences,
and talk show hosts become rich and famous by snarling at callers and heckling
guests." (Ibid)
All of this speaks of anything but refinement. It speaks of anything but
courtesy. It speaks of anything but civility. Rather, it speaks of crudeness
and rudeness, and an utter insensitivity to the feelings and rights of others.
It is so with much of the language of the day. In schools and in the workplace
there is so much of sleazy, evil, filthy language. I hope that every one
of you will rise above it. You are now graduates of this great institution.
You cannot afford the image of those whose vocabularies are so impoverished
that they must reach into the gutter for words with which to express themselves.
Along with such uncouth talk is so much of profanity. It too marks a lack
of civility. The finger of the Lord wrote on the tablets of stone, "Thou
shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not
hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." (Ex. 20:7)
Sloppy language and sloppy ways go together. I hope that you have learned
more than the sciences, the humanities, law, engineering and the arts, while
you have been here. I hope that you will carry with you from this hallowed
place a certain polish that will mark you as one in love with the better
qualities of life, the culture which adds luster to the mundane world of
which we are a part, a patina which puts a quiet glow on what otherwise
might be base metal.
Said the Savior to the multitude: "Ye are the salt of the earth: but
if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth
good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."
(Matt. 5:13)
Civility is what gives savor to our lives. It is the salt that speaks of
good taste, good manners, good breeding.
It becomes an expression of the Golden Rule: "Therefore, all things
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
(Matthew 7:12)
My dear young friends, you of the graduating class of 1996, as I compliment
you on your achievements, may I add that these will not count for much unless
they are accompanied by marks of gentility, of respect for others, of going
the second mile, of serving as the Good Samaritan, of being men and women
who look beyond your own selfish interests to the good of others. Only as
you do so will you find fulfillment. It is an interesting world that lies
ahead. In some respects it is a jungle. It is the absence of civility which
creates the jungle. No matter the extent of your education. No matter the
degrees which you may add to those you receive today. No matter your achievements
in science, business, the professions, or whatever. If that other dimension
of which I have spoken is missing, you will have lost that which is most
precious, that is, the Godly quality of reaching out with respect and kindness,
with courtesy and appreciation to help others. We are approaching political
campaigns, during which we will hear much talk. We should bear in mind that
shouting, defaming, boorish and crude talk and greedy acts only destroy
the refining elements of life. As scripture reminds us, it is the soft answer
that turneth away wrath. (See Prov. 15:1.)
I plead with you as you now go your separate ways, to take with you not
only your diplomas, not only the transcript of your credits, but the mark
of refinement that you should have cultivated while here in this institution.
I am not suggesting that you be soft and docile. I hope you will be enthusiastic
and aggressive as you pursue your objectives. But I also hope that you will
also be enthusiastic and aggressive as you reach out to lift, to help, to
encourage those whose lives you can touch for good.
God bless you, my beloved friends, that as you walk the high road of life
you will savor the sweetness of service, molding your influence, bringing
your powers of persuasion, bringing your simple, quiet, everyday actions
as an antidote to the fading civility of our society. If you do so the world
will be so much the better for your presence and you will be so much the
richer in your living. To this end I pray for your happiness as well as
for your success, as I leave my blessing upon you, in the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.
