Prof. Georgi Fotev: There are moments in life when a person must believe in the impossible!

Introduction by Emily Sargent Beasley, ACS President

From the moment I met Professor Fotev, the energy and the spirit that he absolutely exudes, is a spirit that, uh, no matter the year, uh, is a spirit that actually is retained. And it is a spirit that you will experience in our graduates today. Professor Georgi Fotev has worked tirelessly, exploring society, democracy, values, identity, freedom, of the human condition. After decades of scholarship, public service, and intellectual leadership, Professor Fotev has shaped intellectual and civic life, both within Bulgaria and internationally.

That a thinker whose life has been devoted to questions of knowledge, meaning, ethics, and humanity joins us today, it is an honor for ACS, and a meaningful gift to our graduates, as they prepare to enter what is an increasingly complex world. Please welcome Professor Fotev!

Dear Madam President,

Dear Members of the Board of Trustees,

Dear Faculty, Parents, and Guests,

Dear Graduates,

Every year at this time at the American College of Sofia, and probably in countless other places of learning, similar events occur. Today’s event, here and now, is absolutely unique in the boundless universe. You, dear graduates, are now celebrating your birthday. The truth I tell you is the closest and simplest truth for each of you. There is nothing closer and simpler than “I am I.” Each of us, throughout our lives, when asked the question “Who are you?” is happy to answer, “I am I.” If a person finds it difficult to give this perfectly simple answer, he is beset by the most difficult and tragic calamity in this life: THE IDENTITY CRISIS.

Your loved ones in this hall, or those who for some reason are not here, are experiencing profound emotion. They experience trembling and fear (Kierkegaard). This experience is love: true, deep, endless human love. It is the quintessence of freedom. A person of flesh and blood is born of love and lives in the name of love. Love is the only phenomenon that even death cannot defeat!

Man is the unique being who questions his own essence. In the history of ideas, there are hundreds of definitions of human essence. My definition is this: Man is the world of man! All my work is an interpretation of the essence and existence of man of flesh and blood, as the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno expressed it. After these introductory thoughts, I proceed to the most important thing I wish to share with you before this gathering of people whom you know love you.

Dear graduates of the American College in beautiful Sofia, you are entering a world unprecedented in the history of humankind. At this epochal turning point, you have remarkable advantages over the previous generation, over your parents, over all of us adults, and even over your teachers. The thought of the Polish-American Nobel laureate in literature Czesław Miłosz comes to mind: “Youth is a fundamental advantage.” Intellectual honesty compels me to tell you something else that other speakers usually conceal in ceremonial speeches. Human happiness is not a sentimental matter. Human happiness lies in overcoming trials, sometimes overwhelming ones. There are moments in life when a person must believe in the impossible! Did you hear me well?

And now again about the world you are entering after this Celebration.

Today’s world is characterized by an increasing acceleration of social time, which means constant social change, creating the paradoxical impression that change itself is the only constant. Another characteristic is the growing complexity of the social world, which means the expansion of anonymous social relations at the expense of face-to-face relationships. Another name for this process, in my opinion, is dehumanization.

The acceleration of social time devalues experience, knowledge, and the recipes for everyday life inherited from the past, making the future increasingly opaque and uncertain (my book Human Insecurity). Human society is increasingly populated by intelligent machines, which I call non-humans. Added to all this is the dizzying rise of artificial intelligence. Goethe is happy in the irretrievable past.

With the increase of non-humans in modern society, the explanatory and heuristic power of Man as a principle is increasingly weakening. A post-human society is emerging. The prominent American author Francis Fukuyama published a book with such a title. A bestseller! There are significant differences between our concepts of post-human society. That is another matter.

The Apostle Paul says in the Gospel more than once: “Do not be afraid!” The message is addressed to each of us. I want to say aloud in this hall, where our beautiful and dear graduates of the American College in beautiful Sofia have gathered us together, that they are not cowards in the face of the unknown. But the captivating truth that people seek is always hidden, sometimes very deeply, even despairingly deep. Yet we have already said that we can believe in the impossible. Why can you? Because at the beginning of Man stands freedom. The beginning of man is freedom as the fundamental principle that distinguishes humanity from everything else in the universe. People are not angels. I agree with Friedrich von Hayek that a society of angels would be hell.

When I recall the words “Do not be afraid!”, I want to say that fear is the greatest vice. Not one of the greatest, but the greatest, because all human vices stem from it. Do not be afraid, wonderful young people born for happiness.

Have a good journey!