Thoughts On Graduation, The American Democratic Experiment, and Multiverses

At the moment, for much of the legal community, there's significant reason to lose hope or to doubt the American democratic experiment. Mark Lemley, a Stanford law professor and scholar I greatly admire, claimed we are living in the "worst timeline." While I do not know the nature of time (though it's an interest I hope to explore later in my career, and different schools of physicists debate and argue about it), I want to impart what I consider words of wisdoms to today's graduates in an era that seems without hope. 

Imagine you are looking a tree. As you look up the tree, you see that there are various forks, or branches, that can represent different life paths. In one life path, you make a risky decision and follow your dreams, and in another path you stay put in your safe life and marry your sweetheart. Which is the correct choice? Robert Frost has a famous poem about the "road less traveled," but I encourage all young readers to instead consider each life choice - or each forking branch or life path - from an ethical perspective. If you imagine yourself on your deathbed and you always make the choice, as I strive to do, of doing "what is right over what is easy" where will you be at the end of your life?

Life gives us many forks in the road, and it may seem hard when faced with a decision which path to choose. If you are a theorist in the law and economics movement (which I study), perhaps you would consider a choice from the perspective of efficiency, or perhaps you would consider it from the perspective of cost-benefit analysis. The math and physics based approach that I'm working on my larger research agenda suggests an alternative. That life is about doing what is fair and what maximizes social utility to all members of society.

Bringing this back to the tree metaphor for graduates, you may face a forking path in your future: Do you speak out against the current administration as a young person and mark yourself as an opponent in a way that is scary and that could have consequences if you are targeted? Do you speak out when you see others who are oppressed? Or do you stay silent if you are relatively privileged? Not just young people, but many established scholars and persons with substantial amounts of power are facing the same questions. Some incredibly powerful members of the elite such as judges and lawmakers have been arrested or threatened, or even attacked. 

For myself, when looking back on my death bed, I want more than anything to know that I'm a good person, and by that I mean that I made the right choice along each and every forking path in the tree that is my life. Perhaps we can consider the tree like a cosmic multiverse (not that multiverses can physically exist on the same planet), and if we are faced with a choice ask ourselves: who benefits? Do we benefit (and we may), but are we acting in service of others? Are our motives pure? Are we attempting to help others, and by that I mean are we acting in service of the greater good? For me, I know that my defining value is always doing what is right over what is easy, and that includes making choices other people may not understand or may be unpopular. Federal judges take an oath to decide "without fear or favor." That's the way it must be, and sometimes doing what is right over what is easy is not a popular decision. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was reviled by many in his time, and gave his life for his beliefs. The world would be served by other idealists like him.

I only hope that our generation or the next generation contains a group of citizens who are willing to unite in service of "doing what is right over what is easy" and stand up to speak truth to power. That's what will give me peace on my deathbed, and I urge many of young people to take the long view and imagine how you as an older person would advise you now. What would your future self say?


-Cortelyou C. Kenney 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Mary Anne Franks Is the Single Best First Amendment Scholar In the Country, But Why Feminism Also Needs A Huge Update From The Perspective of Game Theory, Math, and Physics

              Today's post is lengthy personal essay and book review and is about the First Amendment and feminism, and why feminist scholars like Mary Anne Franks put the entire scholarly community to shame for being simply outstanding in every conceivable way. But while I stand with Mary Anne Franks and the entirety of her new book, in my view feminism in the end should yield to other more important values, including curiosity, love, forgiveness, spirituality, and belonging, though I cannot speak for anyone other than myself, by definition, although I can call on the whole world to adopt my values, for the reasons I explain in this TLDR post below. Main point: Franks in my view should be able to go wherever she likes, but I also conclude feminism is insufficient and must be problematized from the perspective of game theory.  A.      Frank’s Book: I’m privileged to personally know many of the top ...
Read more

Rage is natural, but ultimately less effective than being loving

               My background as a future doctrinal law professor has been, shall I say, circuitous. This is my second career, and my prior career was as a social justice warrior and clinician. Clinicians are deeply and badly needed in this world, and while I once regretted my decision to pursue a doctrinal path and would have given anything to go back in time to highly specific moments, like the protagonist in the science fiction movie,  The Time Traveler’s Wife   (though I’m a woman and not a man, and I’m an academic, not a librarian), I don’t regret and will never regret it, though if I’d known what it would have involved and could have foreseen each and every aspect of my journey, no force on the entire planet could have compelled me to go through with it, unless of course I was compelled by the laws of spacetime itself.  I leave the specific question of time, a deep interest of mine, to another moment. There are many wise p...
Read more

Why Versus How? Physics, Feminism, And Shifting Perspective: A Reflection.

Image
Many years ago, I was a “why” person. In fact, I’m still a “why” person and I always want to know why things are the way they are because if the reason isn’t good, then something (like rules) may have to change. I used to pester my parents, and ask “why, why, why” about basically anything in any subject, and my parents, who were educated, my Dad at the University of Chicago, and my Mom at Oberlin with an actual PhD at UC Berkeley, did their best to answer my questions. However, in the end, my tiny five-year-old self stumped them routinely and they would eventually run out of answers. Asking “why” is one of my favorite techniques, not to disrespect boundaries because obviously “no” in many contexts is a full and complete answer and no one has to justify, for example, not requiting romantic interest. But if the legal system is built on making sense, then laws  ought  to have sound justifications for why rules or laws exist.  My life’s work actually started well before I was...
Read more