House of Cards Creator, Speaks At Columbia University School of The Arts Commencement

Beau Willimon, Columbia College, 1999; School of The Arts 2003

[From article]
He writes about the world we live in. . . .
[. . .]
Willimon drew inspiration for his speech in part from the documentary The Fog of War, in which Robert McNamara, the U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968, talks about the Vietnam War and eleven lessons he learned from that conflict.
"I realized these eleven lessons were just as applicable to the making of art as they were to the waging of war," Willimon said. "And maybe it's because making art is a battle of sorts, because if you're not climbing Mount Olympus to spar with the gods, what's the damn point?"
Willimon shared the lessons, elaborating upon each of them:

1. Empathize with your enemy. ("The enemy is fear.")
2. Rationality alone will not save us.
3. There's something beyond oneself.
4. Maximize efficiency.
5. Proportionality should be a guideline in a war. ("I'm going to replace it with something a little more useful, which is, none of us can do this alone, folks.")
6. Get the data. ("Your data set has no boundaries. It's everything from Anna Karenina to the scribblings of a three-year-old child, from a Vermeer in the Met to the beauty of a piss stain on the sidewalk, from the kings and queens of Shakespeare's plays to the hookers and junkies and queens of an SRO on Jane Street.")
7. Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
8. Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning.
9. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil. ("I think it's applicable if you revise it to 'In order to make something beautiful, you may have to engage in the ugly or the horrific or the uncomfortable.' ")
10. Never say never.
11. You can't change human nature.

"You are the warriors for truth and beauty," he said. "You have to be brave, because your bravery is the only weapon that you actually have."
[. . .]
"The nefarious underlying principle of our social and economic policy — that if you can't make it on your own, somehow you don't deserve to make it — lurks as subtext for all of us, but perhaps especially for young artists," [said Theatre Program Chair Christian Parker]

http://arts.columbia.edu/soa/news/2015/graduation_roundup

'HOUSE OF CARDS' CREATOR BEAU WILLIMON ('03) GIVES SCHOOL OF THE ARTS GRADUATES ELEVEN RULES FOR ART AND WAR
28-May-15