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Advice to new grads: Don't be an idiot

By Howard Troxler, Times Columnist
In print: Sunday, June 8, 2008

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Dear class of 2008:

Congratulations on your achievement. Thank you for inviting me here today. I hope you will indulge me in a few brief points of advice.

First: As you move to your next stage of life, please try not to be as big a nitwit about issues and politics as most of us running around today.

In particular, I hope you will cling to the notion that ideas and facts can be true or false and have merit or demerit by themselves.

They remain true or false even if Democrats or Republicans, atheists or believers try to deny them because of their own prejudices.

Anybody who chooses what to believe based on a label — "I am an X, so I believe Y" — is an idiot. My advice is for you to decide what you believe to be true first, and then to choose your label later.

Sometimes, if you turn out to have any brains, you will end up believing something contrary to your self-chosen label. You will feel guilty and you will not want to tell your fellow label wearers. This is extremely healthy.

Along similar lines, it is entirely possible that someone you cannot stand will have something to say that turns out to be worthwhile.

Remember this saying: "Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then." Something can be valid no matter who is saying it. Consider the words of Democrats and Republicans, of President Bush and Hillary Clinton, of Rush Limbaugh and Ted Kennedy, and judge them on their merits.

Change your mind now and then. As the saying goes, this will prove you are using it.

When an argument is based solely on insulting the other side, the odds are higher that the other side is right.

Do not believe chain e-mails. Do not forward them. Do not answer them. Barack Obama is not a Muslim. Your account has probably not been suspended. Nobody from Nigeria is offering to give you money.

Use your turn signal. That's the stick on the left side of your steering wheel that moves up and down. It tells other people which way you are going. No, really.

The more money you make, the more taxes you will pay. Remember this about taxes. They are not bad by themselves. They are bad when they become too high, or when the government arrogantly believes it is entitled to your money. It is not.

But the concept of taxes is fine. Taxes are like dues to a club. Taxes are the price of civilization. They pave our roads. They pay for our fire trucks. They pay for the Army and Navy and all that business.

Despite this, never trust the government. Not in any circumstance. The government is either seeking power over you, which a wise person should not yield, or else the government thinks it is doing something good for you, which can be even worse.

It does not matter if it is the local zoning board or the president of the U.S. Your job is not to go, "Duh, okay, whatever you say." Your job is to judge for yourself whether the speaker is full of it.

Do not automatically believe what you read or hear in the media, whether from Katie Couric or Bill O'Reilly. Remember that even videotape can lie. The more outrageous something sounds, the more likely that it is not true. Test it against another source — no, multiple sources.

That's true even when your first source is an obviously wise, believable, fair-minded and lovable writer in your hometown newspaper.