1 00:00:24,580 --> 00:00:28,310 president Faust members of the Harvard 2 00:00:28,310 --> 00:00:31,029 corporation and the Board of Overseers 3 00:00:31,029 --> 00:00:34,930 members of the faculty proud parents and 4 00:00:34,930 --> 00:00:39,199 above all graduates the first thing I 5 00:00:39,199 --> 00:00:41,230 would like to say is thank you 6 00:00:41,230 --> 00:00:43,820 not only has half had given me an 7 00:00:43,820 --> 00:00:46,640 extraordinary honor but the weeks of 8 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:51,890 fear and nausea I have endured at the 9 00:00:51,890 --> 00:00:53,750 thought of giving this commencement 10 00:00:53,750 --> 00:00:58,510 address have made me lose weight a 11 00:01:01,540 --> 00:01:06,350 win-win situation now all I have to do 12 00:01:06,350 --> 00:01:08,840 is take deep breaths squint at the red 13 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,260 banners and convince myself than up that 14 00:01:12,260 --> 00:01:14,299 I am at the world's largest Gryffindor 15 00:01:14,299 --> 00:01:16,810 reunion 16 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:27,240 delivering a commencement address is a 17 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:30,420 great responsibility or so I thought 18 00:01:30,420 --> 00:01:33,659 until I cast my mind back to my own 19 00:01:33,659 --> 00:01:36,899 graduation the commencement speaker that 20 00:01:36,899 --> 00:01:38,790 day was the distinguished British 21 00:01:38,790 --> 00:01:41,930 philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock 22 00:01:41,930 --> 00:01:44,909 reflecting on her speech has helped me 23 00:01:44,909 --> 00:01:47,610 enormous Lee in writing this one because 24 00:01:47,610 --> 00:01:49,200 it turns out that I can't remember a 25 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:58,830 single word she said this liberating 26 00:01:58,830 --> 00:02:02,850 discovery enables me to proceed 27 00:02:02,850 --> 00:02:05,259 without any fear that I might 28 00:02:05,259 --> 00:02:09,489 inadvertently influence you to abandon 29 00:02:09,489 --> 00:02:12,190 promising careers in business the law or 30 00:02:12,190 --> 00:02:14,680 politics for the giddy delights of 31 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:17,760 becoming a gay wizard 32 00:02:26,540 --> 00:02:30,150 you see if all you remember in years to 33 00:02:30,150 --> 00:02:32,519 come is the gay wizard joke I've come 34 00:02:32,519 --> 00:02:36,349 out ahead of Baroness marijuana 35 00:02:38,810 --> 00:02:42,000 achieve Abul goals the first step to 36 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:48,030 self-improvement actually I have wrapped 37 00:02:48,030 --> 00:02:49,920 my mind and heart for what I ought to 38 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:52,770 say to you today I have asked myself 39 00:02:52,770 --> 00:02:54,930 what I wish I had known at my own 40 00:02:54,930 --> 00:02:58,350 graduation and what important lessons I 41 00:02:58,350 --> 00:03:00,870 have learnt in the 21 years that have 42 00:03:00,870 --> 00:03:04,560 expired between that day and this I have 43 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:07,530 come up with two answers on this 44 00:03:07,530 --> 00:03:09,150 wonderful day when we are gathered 45 00:03:09,150 --> 00:03:11,310 together to celebrate your academic 46 00:03:11,310 --> 00:03:14,130 success I have decided to talk to you 47 00:03:14,130 --> 00:03:18,090 about the benefits of failure and as you 48 00:03:18,090 --> 00:03:19,890 stand on the threshold of what is 49 00:03:19,890 --> 00:03:22,830 sometimes called real life I want to 50 00:03:22,830 --> 00:03:24,870 extol the crucial importance of 51 00:03:24,870 --> 00:03:28,470 imagination these may seem pricks otic 52 00:03:28,470 --> 00:03:32,450 or paradoxical choices but bear with me 53 00:03:32,450 --> 00:03:35,340 looking back at the 21 year old that I 54 00:03:35,340 --> 00:03:37,500 was at graduation is a slightly 55 00:03:37,500 --> 00:03:40,050 uncomfortable experience for the 42 year 56 00:03:40,050 --> 00:03:43,380 old that she has become half my lifetime 57 00:03:43,380 --> 00:03:46,350 ago I was striking an uneasy balance 58 00:03:46,350 --> 00:03:48,420 between the ambition I had for myself 59 00:03:48,420 --> 00:03:50,910 and what those closest talk to me 60 00:03:50,910 --> 00:03:54,750 expected of me I was convinced that the 61 00:03:54,750 --> 00:03:57,690 only thing I wanted to do ever was write 62 00:03:57,690 --> 00:04:01,350 novels however my parents both of whom 63 00:04:01,350 --> 00:04:03,269 came from impoverished backgrounds and 64 00:04:03,269 --> 00:04:05,820 neither of whom had been to college took 65 00:04:05,820 --> 00:04:08,010 the view that my overactive imagination 66 00:04:08,010 --> 00:04:10,860 was an amusing personal quirk that would 67 00:04:10,860 --> 00:04:13,200 never pay a mortgage or secure a pension 68 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:16,410 I know the irony strikes with the force 69 00:04:16,410 --> 00:04:19,669 of a cartoon anvil now 70 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:22,260 so they hoped that I would take a 71 00:04:22,260 --> 00:04:24,960 vocational degree I wanted to study 72 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:27,570 English literature a compromise was 73 00:04:27,570 --> 00:04:29,790 reached that in retrospect satisfied 74 00:04:29,790 --> 00:04:32,729 nobody and I went up to study Modern 75 00:04:32,729 --> 00:04:35,700 Languages hardly had my parents car 76 00:04:35,700 --> 00:04:37,229 round at the corner at the end of the 77 00:04:37,229 --> 00:04:40,080 road than I ditched German and scuttled 78 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:42,330 off down the classics corridor 79 00:04:42,330 --> 00:04:45,240 I cannot remember telling my parents 80 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:47,669 that I was studying classics they might 81 00:04:47,669 --> 00:04:49,379 well have found out for the first time 82 00:04:49,379 --> 00:04:53,610 on graduation day of all the subjects on 83 00:04:53,610 --> 00:04:55,710 this planet I think they would have been 84 00:04:55,710 --> 00:04:58,740 hard put to name one less useful and 85 00:04:58,740 --> 00:05:00,870 Greek mythology when it came to securing 86 00:05:00,870 --> 00:05:05,550 the keys to an executive bathroom now I 87 00:05:05,550 --> 00:05:07,259 would like to make it clear in 88 00:05:07,259 --> 00:05:09,659 parentheses that I do not blame my 89 00:05:09,659 --> 00:05:12,060 parents for their point of view there is 90 00:05:12,060 --> 00:05:14,159 an expiry date on blaming your parents 91 00:05:14,159 --> 00:05:17,840 for steering you in the wrong direction 92 00:05:26,060 --> 00:05:28,860 the moment you are old enough to take 93 00:05:28,860 --> 00:05:31,580 the wheel responsibility lies with you 94 00:05:31,580 --> 00:05:35,190 what is more I cannot criticize my 95 00:05:35,190 --> 00:05:36,960 parents for hoping that I would never 96 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:39,960 experience poverty they had been poor 97 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:42,570 themselves and I have since been poor 98 00:05:42,570 --> 00:05:45,780 and I quite agree with them that it is 99 00:05:45,780 --> 00:05:49,110 not an ennobling experience poverty 100 00:05:49,110 --> 00:05:52,740 entails fear and stress and sometimes 101 00:05:52,740 --> 00:05:55,620 depression it means a thousand petty 102 00:05:55,620 --> 00:05:58,980 humiliations and hardships climbing out 103 00:05:58,980 --> 00:06:01,350 of poverty by your own efforts that is 104 00:06:01,350 --> 00:06:03,450 something on which to pride yourself but 105 00:06:03,450 --> 00:06:06,720 poverty itself is romanticized only by 106 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:10,920 fools what I feared most for myself at 107 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:14,840 your age was not poverty but failure at 108 00:06:14,840 --> 00:06:18,270 your age in spite of a distinct lack of 109 00:06:18,270 --> 00:06:20,850 motivation at University where I had 110 00:06:20,850 --> 00:06:22,710 spent far too long in the coffee bar 111 00:06:22,710 --> 00:06:25,170 writing stories and far too little time 112 00:06:25,170 --> 00:06:27,900 at lectures I had a knack for passing 113 00:06:27,900 --> 00:06:31,740 examinations and that for years had been 114 00:06:31,740 --> 00:06:33,960 the measure of success in my life and 115 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:38,250 that of my peers now I am not done 116 00:06:38,250 --> 00:06:39,990 enough to suppose that because you are 117 00:06:39,990 --> 00:06:43,170 young gifted and well-educated you have 118 00:06:43,170 --> 00:06:46,560 never known heartbreak hardship or 119 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:50,220 heartache talent and intelligence never 120 00:06:50,220 --> 00:06:52,560 yet inoculated anyone against the 121 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:55,230 Caprice of the fates and I do not for a 122 00:06:55,230 --> 00:06:57,720 moment suppose that everyone here has 123 00:06:57,720 --> 00:06:59,550 enjoyed an existence of unruffled 124 00:06:59,550 --> 00:07:04,170 privilege and contentment however the 125 00:07:04,170 --> 00:07:05,700 fact that you are graduating from 126 00:07:05,700 --> 00:07:08,400 Harvard suggests that you are not very 127 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:11,729 well acquainted with failure 128 00:07:11,729 --> 00:07:14,500 you might be driven by a fear of failure 129 00:07:14,500 --> 00:07:17,550 quite as much as a desire for success 130 00:07:17,550 --> 00:07:21,100 indeed your conception of failure might 131 00:07:21,100 --> 00:07:23,050 not be too far removed from the average 132 00:07:23,050 --> 00:07:26,410 person's idea of success so high 133 00:07:26,410 --> 00:07:31,990 have you already flown ultimately we all 134 00:07:31,990 --> 00:07:33,820 have to decide for ourselves what 135 00:07:33,820 --> 00:07:36,639 constitutes failure but the world is 136 00:07:36,639 --> 00:07:38,320 quite eager to give you a set of 137 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:41,740 criteria if you let it so I think it 138 00:07:41,740 --> 00:07:44,380 fair to say that by any conventional 139 00:07:44,380 --> 00:07:47,169 measure a mere seven years after my 140 00:07:47,169 --> 00:07:50,800 graduation day I had failed on an epic 141 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:54,010 scale an exceptionally short lived 142 00:07:54,010 --> 00:07:57,130 marriage had imploded and I was jobless 143 00:07:57,130 --> 00:08:00,400 a lone parent and as poor as it is 144 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:02,770 possible to be in modern Britain without 145 00:08:02,770 --> 00:08:06,310 being homeless the fears that my parents 146 00:08:06,310 --> 00:08:08,650 had had for me and that I had had for 147 00:08:08,650 --> 00:08:12,340 myself had both come to pass and by 148 00:08:12,340 --> 00:08:15,039 every usual standard I was the biggest 149 00:08:15,039 --> 00:08:18,639 failure I knew now I'm not going to 150 00:08:18,639 --> 00:08:20,289 stand here and tell you that failure is 151 00:08:20,289 --> 00:08:23,860 fun that period of my life is a dark one 152 00:08:23,860 --> 00:08:26,440 and I had no idea that there was going 153 00:08:26,440 --> 00:08:28,510 to be what the press has since 154 00:08:28,510 --> 00:08:31,060 represented as a kind of fairytale 155 00:08:31,060 --> 00:08:34,839 resolution I had no idea then how far 156 00:08:34,839 --> 00:08:37,419 the tunnel extended and for a long time 157 00:08:37,419 --> 00:08:39,490 any light at the end of it was a hope 158 00:08:39,490 --> 00:08:43,650 rather than a reality so why do I talk 159 00:08:43,650 --> 00:08:48,010 about the benefits of failure simply 160 00:08:48,010 --> 00:08:50,260 because failure meant us stripping away 161 00:08:50,260 --> 00:08:53,860 of the inessential I stopped pretending 162 00:08:53,860 --> 00:08:56,440 to myself that I was anything other than 163 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,200 what I was and began to direct all my 164 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:01,930 energy into finishing the only work that 165 00:09:01,930 --> 00:09:05,230 mattered to me had I really succeeded at 166 00:09:05,230 --> 00:09:06,790 anything else I might never have found 167 00:09:06,790 --> 00:09:09,339 the determination to succeed in the one 168 00:09:09,339 --> 00:09:11,620 arena where I believed I truly belonged 169 00:09:11,620 --> 00:09:16,089 I was set free because my greatest fear 170 00:09:16,089 --> 00:09:18,490 had been realized and I was still alive 171 00:09:18,490 --> 00:09:21,130 and I still had a daughter whom I adored 172 00:09:21,130 --> 00:09:24,250 and I had an old typewriter and a big 173 00:09:24,250 --> 00:09:25,000 idea 174 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:28,270 and so rock-bottom became the solid 175 00:09:28,270 --> 00:09:31,590 foundation on which I rebuilt my life 176 00:09:31,590 --> 00:09:34,810 you might never fail on the scale I did 177 00:09:34,810 --> 00:09:38,230 but some failure in life is inevitable 178 00:09:38,230 --> 00:09:42,280 it is impossible to live without failing 179 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:44,500 at something unless you live so 180 00:09:44,500 --> 00:09:46,840 cautiously that you might as well not 181 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:50,020 have lived at all in which case you fail 182 00:09:50,020 --> 00:09:53,980 by default failure gave me an inner 183 00:09:53,980 --> 00:09:55,750 security that I had never attained by 184 00:09:55,750 --> 00:09:58,750 passing examinations failure taught me 185 00:09:58,750 --> 00:10:00,190 things about myself that I could have 186 00:10:00,190 --> 00:10:03,160 learned no other way I discovered that I 187 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:05,710 had a strong will and more discipline 188 00:10:05,710 --> 00:10:08,710 than I had suspected I also found out 189 00:10:08,710 --> 00:10:11,860 that I had friends whose value was truly 190 00:10:11,860 --> 00:10:15,280 above the price of rubies the knowledge 191 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:17,170 that you have emerged wiser and stronger 192 00:10:17,170 --> 00:10:19,450 from setbacks means that you are ever 193 00:10:19,450 --> 00:10:22,980 after secure in your ability to survive 194 00:10:22,980 --> 00:10:26,230 you will never truly know yourself or 195 00:10:26,230 --> 00:10:28,570 the strength of your relationships until 196 00:10:28,570 --> 00:10:31,780 both have been tested by adversity such 197 00:10:31,780 --> 00:10:35,410 knowledge is a true gift for all that it 198 00:10:35,410 --> 00:10:38,110 is painfully one and it has been worth 199 00:10:38,110 --> 00:10:40,330 more than any qualification I ever 200 00:10:40,330 --> 00:10:44,500 earned so given a time Turner I would 201 00:10:44,500 --> 00:10:46,240 tell my twenty-one year old self that 202 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:48,130 personal happiness lies in knowing that 203 00:10:48,130 --> 00:10:51,220 life is not a checklist of acquisition 204 00:10:51,220 --> 00:10:54,130 or achievement your qualifications your 205 00:10:54,130 --> 00:10:57,490 CV are not your life though you will 206 00:10:57,490 --> 00:10:59,890 meet many people of my age and older who 207 00:10:59,890 --> 00:11:03,100 confuse the two life is difficult and 208 00:11:03,100 --> 00:11:06,130 complicated and beyond anyone's total 209 00:11:06,130 --> 00:11:08,800 control and the humility to know that 210 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:11,050 will enable you to survive its 211 00:11:11,050 --> 00:11:15,490 vicissitudes now you might think that I 212 00:11:15,490 --> 00:11:17,350 chose my second theme the importance of 213 00:11:17,350 --> 00:11:18,940 imagination because of the part it 214 00:11:18,940 --> 00:11:21,339 played in rebuilding my life but that is 215 00:11:21,339 --> 00:11:24,640 not wholly so though I personally will 216 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:27,100 defend the value of bedtime stories to 217 00:11:27,100 --> 00:11:30,040 my last gasp I have learned to value 218 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:33,270 imagination in a much broader sense 219 00:11:33,270 --> 00:11:36,220 imagination is not only the uniquely 220 00:11:36,220 --> 00:11:37,670 human capacity 221 00:11:37,670 --> 00:11:40,640 envision that which is not and therefore 222 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:42,530 the fount of all invention and 223 00:11:42,530 --> 00:11:46,040 innovation in its arguably most 224 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:48,680 transformative and revelatory capacity 225 00:11:48,680 --> 00:11:51,530 it is the power that enables us to 226 00:11:51,530 --> 00:11:54,020 empathize with humans whose experiences 227 00:11:54,020 --> 00:11:57,620 we have never shared one of the greatest 228 00:11:57,620 --> 00:11:59,270 formative experiences of my life 229 00:11:59,270 --> 00:12:01,970 preceded Harry Potter though it informed 230 00:12:01,970 --> 00:12:03,800 much of what I subsequently wrote in 231 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:07,010 those books this revelation came in the 232 00:12:07,010 --> 00:12:09,160 form of one of my earliest day jobs 233 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:11,360 though I was sloping off to write 234 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:14,090 stories during my lunch hours I paid the 235 00:12:14,090 --> 00:12:17,150 rent in my early twenties by working at 236 00:12:17,150 --> 00:12:19,040 the African research department of 237 00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:21,350 Amnesty International's headquarters in 238 00:12:21,350 --> 00:12:24,920 London there in my little office 239 00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:27,410 I read hastily scribbled letters 240 00:12:27,410 --> 00:12:31,070 smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by 241 00:12:31,070 --> 00:12:32,450 men and women who were risking 242 00:12:32,450 --> 00:12:34,700 imprisonment to inform the outside world 243 00:12:34,700 --> 00:12:37,190 of what was happening to them I saw 244 00:12:37,190 --> 00:12:39,290 photographs of those who had disappeared 245 00:12:39,290 --> 00:12:42,020 without trace sent to amnesty by their 246 00:12:42,020 --> 00:12:44,810 desperate families and friends I read 247 00:12:44,810 --> 00:12:47,570 the testimony of torture victims and saw 248 00:12:47,570 --> 00:12:49,190 pictures of their injuries 249 00:12:49,190 --> 00:12:53,060 I opened handwritten eyewitness accounts 250 00:12:53,060 --> 00:12:55,840 of summary trials and executions of 251 00:12:55,840 --> 00:13:00,230 kidnappings and rapes many of my 252 00:13:00,230 --> 00:13:02,390 co-workers were ex political prisoners 253 00:13:02,390 --> 00:13:04,640 people who had been displaced from their 254 00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:07,670 homes or fled into exile because they 255 00:13:07,670 --> 00:13:09,800 had the temerity to speak against their 256 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:12,740 governments visitors to our offices 257 00:13:12,740 --> 00:13:14,870 included those who had come to give 258 00:13:14,870 --> 00:13:17,120 information or to try and find out what 259 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:18,710 had happened to those who had left 260 00:13:18,710 --> 00:13:23,450 behind I shall never forget the African 261 00:13:23,450 --> 00:13:26,300 torture victim a young man no older than 262 00:13:26,300 --> 00:13:28,460 I was at the time who had become 263 00:13:28,460 --> 00:13:31,130 mentally ill after all he had endured in 264 00:13:31,130 --> 00:13:34,910 his homeland he trembled uncontrollably 265 00:13:34,910 --> 00:13:37,580 as he spoke into a video camera about 266 00:13:37,580 --> 00:13:41,240 the brutality inflicted upon him he was 267 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:43,610 a foot taller than I was and seemed as 268 00:13:43,610 --> 00:13:47,030 fragile as a child I was given the job 269 00:13:47,030 --> 00:13:48,470 of in scoring him back to the 270 00:13:48,470 --> 00:13:50,100 underground station afterwards 271 00:13:50,100 --> 00:13:52,560 and this man whose life had been 272 00:13:52,560 --> 00:13:55,680 shattered by cruelty took my hand with 273 00:13:55,680 --> 00:13:58,620 exquisite courtesy and wished me future 274 00:13:58,620 --> 00:14:02,910 happiness and as long as I live I shall 275 00:14:02,910 --> 00:14:05,070 remember walking along an empty corridor 276 00:14:05,070 --> 00:14:07,740 and suddenly hearing from behind a 277 00:14:07,740 --> 00:14:10,710 closed door a scream of pain and horror 278 00:14:10,710 --> 00:14:13,860 such as I have never heard since the 279 00:14:13,860 --> 00:14:16,650 door opened and the researcher poked out 280 00:14:16,650 --> 00:14:19,650 her out her head and told me to run and 281 00:14:19,650 --> 00:14:21,570 make a hot drink for the young man 282 00:14:21,570 --> 00:14:25,200 sitting with her she had just had to 283 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:27,450 give him the news that in retaliation 284 00:14:27,450 --> 00:14:29,910 for his outspokenness against his 285 00:14:29,910 --> 00:14:33,210 country's regime his mother had been 286 00:14:33,210 --> 00:14:38,370 seized and executed every day of my 287 00:14:38,370 --> 00:14:40,920 working week in my early twenties I was 288 00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:43,680 reminded how incredibly fortunate I was 289 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:45,600 to live in a country with a 290 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:48,060 democratically elected government where 291 00:14:48,060 --> 00:14:50,430 legal representation and a public trial 292 00:14:50,430 --> 00:14:54,480 were the rights of everyone everyday I 293 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:57,290 saw more evidence about the evils 294 00:14:57,290 --> 00:14:59,430 humankind would inflict on their fellow 295 00:14:59,430 --> 00:15:04,290 humans to gain or maintain power I began 296 00:15:04,290 --> 00:15:06,480 to have nightmares literal nightmares 297 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,870 about some of the things I saw heard and 298 00:15:09,870 --> 00:15:15,840 read and yet I also learned more about 299 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:18,870 human goodness at Amnesty International 300 00:15:18,870 --> 00:15:21,980 than I had ever known before 301 00:15:21,980 --> 00:15:24,810 amnesty mobilizes thousands of people 302 00:15:24,810 --> 00:15:26,250 who have never been tortured or 303 00:15:26,250 --> 00:15:28,650 imprisoned for their beliefs to act on 304 00:15:28,650 --> 00:15:32,070 behalf of those who have the power of 305 00:15:32,070 --> 00:15:34,590 human empathy leading to collective 306 00:15:34,590 --> 00:15:38,450 action saves lives and frees prisoners 307 00:15:38,450 --> 00:15:41,220 ordinary people whose personal 308 00:15:41,220 --> 00:15:44,220 well-being and security are assured join 309 00:15:44,220 --> 00:15:47,100 together in huge numbers to save people 310 00:15:47,100 --> 00:15:50,250 they do not know and will never meet my 311 00:15:50,250 --> 00:15:53,070 small participation in that process was 312 00:15:53,070 --> 00:15:54,860 one of the most humbling and inspiring 313 00:15:54,860 --> 00:15:59,880 experiences of my life unlike any other 314 00:15:59,880 --> 00:16:03,100 creature on this planet human beings can 315 00:16:03,100 --> 00:16:05,290 learn and understand without having 316 00:16:05,290 --> 00:16:07,600 experienced they can think themselves 317 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:11,950 into other people's places of course 318 00:16:11,950 --> 00:16:13,840 this is a power like my brand of 319 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:15,990 fictional magic that is morally neutral 320 00:16:15,990 --> 00:16:18,790 one might use such an ability to 321 00:16:18,790 --> 00:16:22,300 manipulate or control just as much as to 322 00:16:22,300 --> 00:16:26,620 understand or sympathise and many prefer 323 00:16:26,620 --> 00:16:28,720 not to exercise their imaginations at 324 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:31,630 all they choose to remain comfortably 325 00:16:31,630 --> 00:16:32,860 within the bounds of their own 326 00:16:32,860 --> 00:16:35,470 experience never troubling to wonder how 327 00:16:35,470 --> 00:16:37,060 it would feel to have been born other 328 00:16:37,060 --> 00:16:40,060 than they are they can refuse to hear 329 00:16:40,060 --> 00:16:43,240 screams or peer inside cages they can 330 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:45,520 close their minds and hearts to any 331 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:46,960 suffering that does not touch them 332 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:51,660 personally they can refuse to know I 333 00:16:51,660 --> 00:16:54,400 might be tempted to envy people who can 334 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:56,890 live that way except that I do not think 335 00:16:56,890 --> 00:16:59,550 they have any fewer nightmares than I do 336 00:16:59,550 --> 00:17:02,680 choosing to live in narrow spaces leads 337 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:05,589 to a form of mental Agra phobia and that 338 00:17:05,589 --> 00:17:07,060 brings its own terrors 339 00:17:07,060 --> 00:17:10,810 I think the willfully unimaginative see 340 00:17:10,810 --> 00:17:14,880 more monsters they are often more afraid 341 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:18,369 what is more those who choose not to 342 00:17:18,369 --> 00:17:21,550 empathize enable real monsters for 343 00:17:21,550 --> 00:17:23,020 without ever committing an act of 344 00:17:23,020 --> 00:17:25,390 outright evil ourselves we collude with 345 00:17:25,390 --> 00:17:30,070 it through our own apathy one of the 346 00:17:30,070 --> 00:17:31,780 many things I learned at the end of that 347 00:17:31,780 --> 00:17:33,820 classics corridor down which I ventured 348 00:17:33,820 --> 00:17:35,680 at the age of eighteen in search of 349 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:37,990 something I could not then define was 350 00:17:37,990 --> 00:17:39,670 this written by the Greek author 351 00:17:39,670 --> 00:17:43,870 Plutarch what we achieve inwardly will 352 00:17:43,870 --> 00:17:47,770 change outer reality that is an 353 00:17:47,770 --> 00:17:49,840 astonishing statement and get proven a 354 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:52,330 thousand times every day of our lives it 355 00:17:52,330 --> 00:17:55,390 expresses in part our inescapable 356 00:17:55,390 --> 00:17:57,640 connection with the outside world the 357 00:17:57,640 --> 00:17:59,440 fact that we touch other people's lives 358 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:03,520 simply by existing but how much more are 359 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:07,840 you Harvard graduates of 2008 lightly to 360 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:10,810 touch other people's lives your 361 00:18:10,810 --> 00:18:12,140 intelligence 362 00:18:12,140 --> 00:18:14,270 your capacity for hard work the 363 00:18:14,270 --> 00:18:16,600 education you have earned and received 364 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:20,510 give you unique unique status and unique 365 00:18:20,510 --> 00:18:23,600 responsibilities even your nationality 366 00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:27,320 sets you apart the great majority of you 367 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:29,240 belong to the world's only remaining 368 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:32,840 superpower the way you vote the way you 369 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:35,990 live the way you protest the pressure 370 00:18:35,990 --> 00:18:38,240 you bring to bear on your government has 371 00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:41,090 an impact way beyond your borders that 372 00:18:41,090 --> 00:18:45,380 is your privilege and your burden if you 373 00:18:45,380 --> 00:18:47,809 choose to use your status and influence 374 00:18:47,809 --> 00:18:49,400 to raise your voice on behalf of those 375 00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:51,740 who have no voice if you choose to 376 00:18:51,740 --> 00:18:54,770 identify not only with the powerful but 377 00:18:54,770 --> 00:18:57,440 with the powerless if you retain the 378 00:18:57,440 --> 00:18:59,480 ability to imagine yourself into the 379 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:01,040 lives of those who do not have your 380 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:03,799 advantages then it will not only be your 381 00:19:03,799 --> 00:19:05,570 proud families who celebrate your 382 00:19:05,570 --> 00:19:08,510 existence but thousands and millions of 383 00:19:08,510 --> 00:19:10,850 people whose reality you have helped 384 00:19:10,850 --> 00:19:14,510 change we do not need magic to transform 385 00:19:14,510 --> 00:19:17,030 our world we carry all the power we need 386 00:19:17,030 --> 00:19:19,760 inside ourselves already we have the 387 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:23,929 power to imagine better I'm nearly 388 00:19:23,929 --> 00:19:26,900 finished I have one last hope for you 389 00:19:26,900 --> 00:19:29,330 which is something that I already had at 390 00:19:29,330 --> 00:19:32,750 21 the friends with whom i sat on 391 00:19:32,750 --> 00:19:34,669 graduation day have been my friends for 392 00:19:34,669 --> 00:19:37,610 life they are my children's godparents 393 00:19:37,610 --> 00:19:39,620 the people to whom I've been able to 394 00:19:39,620 --> 00:19:42,830 turn in times of real trouble people who 395 00:19:42,830 --> 00:19:44,780 have been kind enough not to sue me when 396 00:19:44,780 --> 00:19:48,250 I took their names for Death Eaters 397 00:19:54,860 --> 00:19:58,169 at our graduation we were bound by 398 00:19:58,169 --> 00:20:00,600 enormous affection by our shared 399 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:02,309 experience of a time that could never 400 00:20:02,309 --> 00:20:02,850 come again 401 00:20:02,850 --> 00:20:05,909 and of course by the knowledge that we 402 00:20:05,909 --> 00:20:08,309 held certain photographic evidence that 403 00:20:08,309 --> 00:20:11,970 would be exceptionally valuable if any 404 00:20:11,970 --> 00:20:15,049 of us ran for prime minister 405 00:20:16,050 --> 00:20:20,050 so today I wish you nothing better and 406 00:20:20,050 --> 00:20:24,250 similar friendships and tomorrow I hope 407 00:20:24,250 --> 00:20:26,530 that even if you remember not a single 408 00:20:26,530 --> 00:20:27,460 word of mine 409 00:20:27,460 --> 00:20:30,640 you remember those of Seneca another of 410 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:33,430 those old Romans I met when I fled down 411 00:20:33,430 --> 00:20:35,800 the classics corridor in retreat from 412 00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:39,070 from career ladders in search of ancient 413 00:20:39,070 --> 00:20:44,680 wisdom as is a tale so is life not how 414 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,980 long it is but how good it is is what 415 00:20:47,980 --> 00:20:51,040 matters I wish you all very good lives 416 00:20:51,040 --> 00:00:00,000 thank you very much