Graduation address by Professor Lorna Milne

Tuesday 29 November 2022
Morning ceremony

Vice-Chancellor, Friends, Colleagues, and Honoured Guests, it is truly a great privilege to be one of the first to say to our new Graduates: congratulations. Your Degree is a wonderful achievement, and I know I can speak on behalf of my colleagues here with me when I say that we are absolutely delighted for you.

That sense of sheer delight is one of the reasons that Graduation Days are so special, for us as well as for you. As an institution that quite naturally prizes learning over intuition and reason over feeling, there is for a University something topsy-turvy and even carnivalesque about spending a day away from our books and laboratories, and surrendering ourselves to the unalloyed emotions of joy, pride, and pleasure in your happiness. Of course, this situation is all the more particular because we are in Scotland, a country of traditionally taciturn manners where, until more recent years, praising a child was viewed as an act of parental abuse, greeting a friend with a hug was seen as evidence of deep mental disequilibrium, and displays of euphoria were confined strictly to occasions of national sporting victory – which, however, have always been so rare that there was never any serious danger of damage to our national reputation for being dour. Thank goodness that in the last 20 years or so, we Scots have largely cast off our emotional corsets and have now become so positively incontinent in our sentimental effusions that we can actually enjoy celebrating with you today.

Now, as a professor of language and culture, I’ve been pondering how that development has come about. There are clearly many different reasons, but I’ve been considering a hypothesis that one recent influence over the last decade or so is the fact that everyone has increasingly become fluent in the international language of on-line icons, a language which is encouraging us all to express ourselves in a lexicon of feeling rather than reason. For example, it is possible for me now to read a highly complex piece of argumentation in a newspaper or a journal, and to respond positively by depositing a thumbs-up icon that is referred to as an emotional ‘Like’ rather than a rational ‘Agree’ (or rather, since I am an academic, as an: ‘unconvinced by some of the finer points of nuance but grudgingly prepared to accept the fundamental premise’). And of course, the emoticon vocabulary is not confined to thumbs-up or thumbs-down: we are all constantly sending each other pictures of little yellow faces that are happy, or amused, or sad, or jealous, or disgusted, or angry.

Now, as I hinted a moment ago, it can be good to show your emotions, and the language of emojis is undoubtedly often highly amusing. However, I do think that their influence is also problematic, because the normalisation of these brief reactions of feeling, condensed and basic as they are, is not, I am afraid, helping us to express our ideas and reactions maturely, and in a reasoned, nuanced fashion when we expand them back out again from summary images into words. That may not be very important when the subject matter is frivolous; however, while I can always find good quality public debate on serious topics – science, public health, politics, justice, cultural change, minority rights – given that we are fortunate to live in a society that does support a strong variety of intelligent, reasoned commentary, such debate is often engulfed in a swirling cloud of poorly-considered, highly emotive and emotional discourses that are, frankly, idiotic or infantile when they are not positively toxic.

We have all experienced this: in fact, how many times a day do you read something online that makes you want to select a little yellow icon with the meaning ‘Oh grow up!’? And what is the effect if you do wade into a discussion expressing that sort of sentiment? You will very likely encounter a storm of highly-charged, emotive, and outraged responses, because one expression of negative emotion has a way of provoking more negative emotions in return, and the situation escalates very quickly. Under the pressure of an over-dependence on emotional modes of communication, our arguments can fast become reductively dichotomous and even adversarial: yes or no, right or wrong, in or out, for or against. Little wonder, then, that the dominant emotions in some areas of public discourse at the moment seem to be anger and indignation. In fact, faced with expressions of unthinking and often negative emotion, what I should really wish for are a couple of other icons, one for ‘what is your analysis?’ and another for ‘what are you doing about it?’.

And this is where I turn to you, dear Graduates. You have brilliant heads on your shoulders, and you have graduated today because while you were here, you worked hard to deepen your learning, sharpen your critical skills, and develop your capacity for evidence-based analysis. Of course you have emotions: we all do, and they are terrifically important; but of all people, you are superbly equipped to bring reason to debates wherever they are in danger of turning sour due to an over-simplifying over-emphasis on what people feel.

So as you leave this part of your life behind and get ready to engage in the next phase, here are some thoughts I would like to offer you, because this is the way of Graduation addresses. I have congratulated you (Like); ranted at you (Don’t Like); and now here come my valedictory exhortations (Facepalm).

First, of course, I would like to encourage you to cultivate your positive emotions. Delight in them, share your happiness, and take pleasure in giving joy to others. Be kind to people, and be respectful and decent about them behind their backs, even if they are miserable, grumpy Scots like myself.

Second, think about your negative emotions. Consider whether they are well-founded, try if you can to do without them, and reflect on whether the world will really be a better place if you simply pass them on because, in many cases, to do so may only cause hurt and more negativity.

Third – and above all – be analytical about the problems you encounter or see around you; use your head as well as your heart, do your research, interrogate the evidence, suggest solutions in a constructive manner. Be reasoned, not simply emotional, and be ready to step into that intelligent meeting-place between yes and no, in and out, for and against. People who do not share your views are not necessarily all enemies or fools, and you cannot expect them to respect your position if you do not show some respect for theirs.

Finally, when your analysis is done, take responsibility upon yourself for acting on it. If, on reflection, you do think something is wrong, do not simply be angry and broadcast your outrage if you are doing nothing about it. Take rational and constructive action rather than merely feeling furious.

One of the many good things I wish for you is a future full of interesting, productive debate that will bring about satisfying changes in every area of your personal and professional lives. I hope you will constantly use the knowledge and the critical skills you have developed here to improve the quality of our collective conversations, to the benefit of our whole society.

In the meantime, though, congratulations again and – smiley face, cake, champagne glasses, party hat, heart – have a happy, happy day: you have surely earned it.