The Test of Our Civilization

• 10 Jun 2016
• World Tribune
The Test of Our Civilization
Oscar Arias on helping civilization pass its greatest test.

The following are excerpts from the address former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias gave to the graduates of Soka University of America’s Class of 2016 at their commencement ceremony, held on May 27 at the Soka Performing Arts Center in Aliso Viejo, California.
You stand today at the end of a long line of tests—but without any doubt, your greatest challenge lies before you now. It is the test that Mahatma Gandhi famously described when he wrote, “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.”
The beauty and the test of our civilization.
Nearly 70 years after Gandhi’s death, how have we advanced toward achieving the goal he laid out? How have we advanced in terms of coming together? How have we advanced in terms of respecting diversity? What is the state of our union as a human race?
I do not have to tell you that the state of our union is troubled indeed. You can already see that. Today, you join an exclusive club: the seven percent of people worldwide who hold a university degree. That makes you some of the most privileged and powerful people on Earth. You are like explorers who have reached a peak few people ever see—but reaching those heights is a double-edged sword. From up here, you can see a great deal of poverty. From up here, you can see a great deal of inequality. From up here, you can see a great deal of hunger. From up here, you can see a great deal of injustice.
We look to you to help create a change. We look to you to help civilization pass, at long last, its greatest test. We look to you to help us create unity in diversity.
How on earth can we accomplish this? Well, how have you prepared for any test you have ever taken? First, you have studied— and while you are graduating today, your studies are just beginning, because the challenges we face as a human race require leaders who inform themselves every single day. You will struggle, not to find information, but to choose. Your excellence will be determined, in part, by your power of selection as you drink from the fire hose of the internet. You will need to work, each day, to find reliable information about the true roots of poverty, illness and ignorance. I urge you to question, to dig deeper, in a world that is increasingly focused on the superficial.
The second thing you have done throughout your life to pass tests is to join forces with others—from the third grade, when your mother might have helped you with your spelling words, to your recent university years when you leaned on your classmates for inspiration and support. This will be more important now than ever. None of us can work alone. Look to your left, look to your right, look for people who share your commitment to a better world, and do not let them go.
The third thing you have done before most any test is to worry. You will continue to do that, too. In fact, your worries will increase exponentially as you have more and more at stake: the futures of the communities you will settle in and come to love. The futures of the home countries to which many of you will now return. The futures of your children and grandchildren. You will worry and fear—and that is OK. Know that I will be worrying with you. Know that everyone who cares about our planet shares your fears and concerns. Believe that together, we will make it through.
The last thing you have done when faced with tests throughout your academic career is to take the test— usually, before you were ready. One virtue of academic life is that you are forced, on a regular basis, to share your knowledge, even when you would much rather stay home in bed. You are forced to speak out, whether that is on an exam paper, or in front of a professor or committee. The world will not always give you such opportunities. The world will not check in with you with such regularity. The world will not often ask to hear your voice. Sometimes, it will seem that the world has forgotten you.
So I am telling you today: Take those moments for yourself. Never let anyone make you believe that youth is a liability. When I first completed my university studies, I was often told that I was too young to think about becoming a national legislator, or a cabinet minister, or a president. I quickly learned that one of the keys to success is understanding that youth is an advantage, not a liability. It provides a fresh perspective. It grants the power to see things differently.
Class of 2016: You have inherited a planet full of problems, but you also carry within you the potential to find the solutions that escaped your parents and grandparents. You can teach us a new way forward. Teach us to see beyond the borders that divide one nation from another. Teach us to use our power to alleviate human suffering. Teach us that the ability to set a different course for humanity is no longer in the hands of a few. Teach us that the tools for change can be as simple as the smartphone in our pockets. Teach us to use these tools to make a difference. Teach us to, as we would say in Spanish, place our own granito de arena, our own grain of sand, to help build a better world. Speak out, no matter what they tell you. Speak out for peace. Speak out for respect. Speak out for unity in diversity. Never forget the words of your founder, a man I am so proud to call my friend, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda: “A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a society and further, will enable a change in the destiny of all humankind.
Congratulations, and Godspeed.

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