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Western Carolina University Commencement Address 1970

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  • hl_commencementaddress_1970-06_04.jpg
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  • We are told by many people that one of our main problems today is the problem of communications. We are told that there is not enough communication among groups and individuals in our society, that we need more and presumably better communica- tions from everyone to everyone else. There is no denying that communica- tions is a problem and one of my pur- poses today is to try to suggest one of the ways in which | think it may be but it may not be quite the kind of problem that we commonly think it is. We commonly hear that there is not enough communication. | will suggest that perhaps there may be too much. | will talk for a few minutes, then, about the problem of overcommunication and its implication for one of our forgotten rights. There are many possible ways of ap- proaching this problem. One interesting, and in many ways sensible, approach is that of the prophetic singing humorist, Tom Lehrer, who in one of his songs says every- body is complaining that they cant com- municate today: parents complain that they cant communicate with children; children, that they cant communicate with parents; students, that they cant communicate with teachers; and teachers, that they cant communicate with students and so on. He says that if a person cant communicate, the least that he ought to be able to do is to shut up. This homely and vulgar wisdom ought not to be lost on us. But another way of ap- proaching the problem might be suggested by the history of the very idea of communi- cations.
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).