Don't move to a mental slum

Perhaps the main point
of knowing a rule is
to be an exception to it.

It is true that the macro-news -
the news about the world
is bad.

The times we live in are indeed
alarming. A time of triumphant
mediocrity.

Many features of our so-called
culture have as their goal and result
the reduction of our mental life;
of our mental operation.

It is also true that your news
may not be bad, indeed,
that you have a duty not to let it be bad
for you.

Perhaps the most useful suggestion
I can make is,
that you go on being students.

Don’t move to a mental slum,
go on being students,
for the rest of your lives.

If you want to do creative work
there will be many obstacles, and
you’ll have many excuses.

Most people, and many institutions
will be devoted to encouraging you
not to do it.

And remember
when you hear yourself saying one day
you don’t have time anymore to read
or listen to music, or
look at paintings, or go to the movies,
or do whatever feeds your head now;

that means

they got to you, after all.

I wish you Love, Courage and Fantasy.

I FOUND this piece in a speech (Be Bold) given by Susan Sontag in May 1983.

'Dream intentionally - while you're awake.'