Wills speaks of shaping the future

Author Garry Wills is the kind of man who can casually mention intimate chats with President Clinton, and in the same breath refer to him as a leader who can't keep his pants on. He is a Catholic who calls the Pope a "prodigal father."

The wonderfully opinionated and insightful Wills addressed students and members of the Oberlin community in Finney Chapel Thursday night. He was the first of six speakers comprising Oberlin's convocation series for this year. His speech, entitled "The Future of the United States," was an interesting and stimulating beginning to the program planned for the 1999-2000 academic year.

The main theme of the speech was the need to negotiate change by a dialogue involving all of America's people. Wills encouraged the U.S. to be open to a larger view of society, and in doing so ease the disruptiveness of the changes we are embarking upon.

He touched on such topics as population growth, urbanization and the women's movement as evidence of the future. He also stressed the importance of a global dialogue as opposed to Western imperialism as we move into the 21st century. He warned against underestimating the human capacity for change as people are surrounded by hysteria and anxiety about the new century before them.

Wills was adamant in his refusal to make predictions about America's future. He called prediction "a fool's game," and maintained that if prophesies that seemed so plausible in the past had come true, people would all be driving hovercrafts and waited on by cybernetic robots. In his opinion, past theorists made a mistake in portraying the human race as passive. "The future will not mold us," he said. "We will mold the future."

Instead he encouraged America to recognize inklings of its future that already are manifesting the demand for better and continuing education, and contribute to the demise of the patriarchal structures that have governed America in the past.

Wills believes that the patriarchal "father knows best" attitude that America has adopted toward other countries in the past will no longer fly. He suggested that we focus on involving ourselves in dialogue with the rest of the world. Wills quoted President Clinton as saying that although America is a super power now, our influence may wane in the future. Our business now should be to strengthen our economic and political ties through respect and inclusion.

In response to those who see the decline of morality in America as a result of sex before marriage and the decline of the traditional family structure as the 21st century approaches, Wills says that in fact the changes occurring for women and minorities are evidence of our growing respect as a nation for individual dignity. In fact, our morals are growing in leaps and bounds.

As to what the future holds, Garry Wills believes that we will be living the same stories, because, he said, "The human heart is ultimately unprogrammable."

Garry Wills is a prolific writer, author of such books as Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in Literature; A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government; Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man; Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders; and John Wayne's America: The Politics of Celebrity. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of the Endowment for the Humanities, the National Book Critics Circle Award (twice,) the Organization of American Historians' Merle Curit Award, Yale Graduate School's Wilbur Cross Medal, and the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting for writing and narrating "The Choice" for Frontline. He currently serves as an adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University.

Garry Wills is only the first lecturer in the experimental series of six planned for this year, all of which will focus on American society. Oberlin will also host such distinguished speakers as Richard Haass on Oct. 27; Stephen Carter, Amy Gutmann, and Michael Sandel on Nov. 11; Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Feb. 10; and James Keller on Mar. 7.