Halloweenfirande och Star Wars-leksaker kunde vi gott vara utan, men det finns andra amerikanska fenomen som vi med fördel kunde ha mer av, som deras commencement speeches. Det här är till alla ungdomar som tar grundskole- eller gymnasieexamen denna månad, plus alla andra:
Relaterad diskussion:
SvaraRaderahttp://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/23/ssc-gives-a-graduation-speech/
"Ladies and gentlemen, probably the most famous graduation speech in history was Kurt Vonnegut’s “Wear Sunscreen” address. I’m sure you’ve all heard about it. He told an MIT class that they should wear sunscreen. Because for all he knew any more substantial advice he gave might be wrong, but that at least was on a firm evidential basis.
Well, I come here before you to explain that there is now serious controversy in the dermatological community.
[...]
My understanding is that a majority of dermatologists are still in favor of sunscreen, but that the issue is by no means settled.
But think about what the disagreement means. One of the smartest men in America came before an auditorium just like this, and said that there was only one item of advice of which he was completely certain – that you should wear sunscreen. Absolutely certain. And years later, we know that not only is this a very complicated question on which no certainty is yet possible – but it may very well be that if you follow his advice, you will get cancer and die.
Sometimes the things everybody knows everybody knows just aren’t true. Like, did you know Vonnegut never wrote a graduation speech about sunscreen at all?"