John Waters’ RISD Commencement Speech: Actual Wealth Is Lifestyles With out A*Holes

John Waters’ rol­lick­ing com­mence­ment speech at The Rhode Island College of Design presented up some excellent one-lin­ers and a couple of pearls of wis­dom, regardless that phrased, reasonably nat­u­ral­ly, in an irrev­er­ent approach. In a position for some sage recommendation on what actual­ly counts as wealth? And what profession choic­es will make you tru­ly rich? Mr. Waters has this to mention:

Uh, don’t hate all wealthy peo­ple. They’re no longer all terrible. Consider me, I do know some evil deficient peo­ple, too. We want some wealthy peo­ple: Who else goes to again our motion pictures or purchase our artwork? I’m wealthy! I don’t imply mon­ey-wise. I imply that I’ve fig­ured out tips on how to nev­er be round ass­holes at any time in my according to­son­al and professional­fes­sion­al lifestyles. That’s wealthy. And no longer being round ass­holes will have to be the function of each and every grad­u­ate right here as of late.

It’s OK to hate the deficient, too, however best the deficient of spir­it, no longer wealth. A deficient according to­son to me may have a large financial institution bal­ance however is stu­pid by way of selection – uncu­ri­ous, judg­males­tal, iso­lat­ed and unavail­ready to modify.

I’m additionally sor­ry to document there’s no such factor as kar­ma. Such a lot of of my tal­ent­ed nice pals are lifeless and such a lot of of the fools I’ve met and loathed are nonetheless alive. It’s no longer honest, and it nev­er can be.

Like I mentioned, irrev­er­ent­ly phrased. But if stripped right down to their fundamentals, some superb prin­ci­ples to are living by way of.

Watch the speech above; learn the com­plete tran­script right here.

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