Viva le Fleming!

Medievalist extraordinaire and all-around great guy, Dr. Fleming writes on The latest French revolution

What we laughingly call the "real world" can be a scary place. But as seniors hand in their theses and enjoy the last relaxed weeks before facing it, I have a few words of advice for graduates. Not a one of them is "Plastics." A Princeton diploma is, among other things, a testimony to a lifetime of privilege. It is never too early to start paying back. Do something serious, useful, daring and fun. Travel around, and use the foreign language we helped you learn. Invent something. Start a company. Teach something wholesome to somebody who needs it. Revel in your individuality and personal enterprise in a way that satisfies you by helping our needy world. Take some big risks, and fail a few times. Let your attitude be closer to that of an immigrant Mexican yard-worker than of a French bureaucrat. This country doesn't owe you a living, but it affords you unequalled opportunities to make a decent one. Work really hard. Create the wealth of the commonwealth. Combat social pathologies, illiteracy, epidemic disease and sanctified ignorance. Be "rich of holy thoght and werk." If you end up rich in dough as well, endow a Princeton chair and found a charitable foundation. Die happy.

As it turns out, due to the vagaries of the world wide web, I came across the article via ¡No Pasarán! even when the Daily Princetonian's issued a mile away from here.

Long-time Fausta's blog readers might remember Dr. Fleming.

Give the guy his own tag!