The Independent Man 

Talk  by David Kilgour to Boarders 

St George’s School

Vancouver 

April 25, 1967

(At the age of 26, David gave this talk at a boys boarding school in Vancouver.  It turned up recently in a drawer.  Any comments most welcome.  Please forgive the sexist language.)

I’ll be brief, but I’m grateful to David Collins for this chance to throw out some ideas. My simple thesis here is that it is exactly to the degree that you and I are independent in our actions and words; that we will be esteemed and followed by those around us, whether they be dorm (or prison) mates, fraternity brothers, or countrymen

To some, this theory is so basic as to be nothing more than a not very penetrating glimpse into the obvious. To others the theory is wrong in that its adherents will make too many enemies and keep too few friends. For others, the theory is fine but the personal sacrifices required to practise it are excessive.

Let me try to illustrate what I’m talking about: President John Q. Adams, a strong president, was, prepared to make enemies on all sides when matters of principle were at stake. Yet Chancellor Conrad Adenauer insisted that before one can be effective as a leader you must be popular. The point I’m trying to make is that we will never be popular in a meaningful sense, unless we opt for Adams’ approach. Adenauer certainly took it. For instance, after Hitler, as Chancellor, caused the Nazi Swastika to be flown from all public buildings in Germany, Adenauer, as Mayor of Cologne, had them removed from all public buildings in his jurisdiction. People remembered that.

  There are too few devices today to protect our minds, our sprits, and our ability to think and speak independently and our capacity to stand up and be counted on any of the ideas which affect our lives or the life of the nation. David Riesman’s book, The Lonely Crowd, argues that “the other directed” type of person is pre-empting the leadership role formerly monopolized by “inner directed” persons. He defines the “other directed” person as one who is motivated in thoughts and acts by what he thinks is acceptable to his peer group; the inner directed is, one whose personal convictions are his only final standard of conduct.

Riseman contends, in effect, that the community today tries hard to smooth the bumps, preferring a uniform product. Eric Fromm, in his book “The Same Society” describes the product thus:

      “…today we come across a person who acts and fells like an automaton; who never experiences anything which is really his; who experiences himself entirely as the person he thinks he is supposed to be; whose artificial smile has replaced genuine laughter; whose meaningless chatter has replaced communicative speech; whose dulled despair has taken the place of genuine pain”

The chief earmark of our villain is his overwhelming desire to please. President Warren Harding may be cited. His biographer, Andrew Sinclair, in The Available Man, states that history has little affection for him; and he is generally regarded as one of the worst U.S Presidents, chiefly because, in his desire to please everyone with a peace-at-any-price attitude, he pleased no one.

            Let me offer a few examples:

1.                  John A. Macdonald was first noticed as a future leader by the people in Kingston when as a young lawyer he undertook, in the interest of fair play, to defend a man accused of murder;

2.                  John Kennedy in the 1960 Presidential Election took an unequivocal stand on civil rights when it might have cost him the crucial Southern electoral votes and thereby added a post-publication chapter to profiles in Courage;

3.                  Governor General Roland Michener was sufficiently independent and impartial speaker of the house between 1958 and 1962 that upon losing his seat in the 1962 election he was not appointed to the Senate by Mr. Diefenbaker before his government was defeated in 1963. Such was his stature that a party against whom Mr Michener had fought most of his political life was compelled by circumstances to appoint him to the highest appointive position in the nation;

4.                  John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1930 at the bottom of the worst depression the world has seen had the courage to continue work on the 14 buildings of the Rockefeller Centre. This provided jobs for an estimated 250,000 men; and was a financial success almost from the day of its completion:

5.                  President Teddy Roosevelt was independent and courageous almost to the point of fault. When his party refused to renominate him for Presidency in 1912, he formed a new party and won 700,000 more votes than the incumbent President William Howard Taft in the following election

I suggest that all these men had something in common - they put principle first, safety second; individuality first, adjustment second; courage first, cost second.

I venture to predict that not one of you will pass many years before you will answer some very difficult questions. Your answers will, I believe, begin to determine whether your family, this school, and you have produced a common or uncommon human being.

You appreciate, I’m sure, that the “uncommon man” is not a crank, refusing to conform to anything. He is wise enough to recognize those upon which agreement and compromise are necessary, and bold enough to take a stand on those issues on which he feels disagreement and differences are not only possible but necessary.

When you chose to speak your mind you will acquire enemies, but you will develop the reputation of being outspoken, sometimes uncooperative, but always honest in supporting what you believe to be right.

A favourite quote of President Kennedy’s on this was from Dante and goes:

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of moral crisis, preserved their neutrality.”

To conclude, permit me to change the traditional “Make no little plans” to “Make no little enemies” – people with whom you avoid for petty or personal reasons. Rather, cultivate fundamental convictions. In short, on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.