The Justice

One of Brandeis' closest clients, Edward Filene, especially impressed Brandeis with his own version of blending his business' financial interests with the goals of worker self-determination. The Filenes built up a merchant empire but, just as importantly, "demonstrated that the introduction of industrial democracy and of social justice is at least consistent with marked financial success." Filene's system of industrial democracy included a minimum wage for women, a system of arbitration between individual employees and management and employees' rights to veto management decisions and determine their own work conditions.

We, too, can resolve the inherent conflict between doing good and doing well. We must always take care of those underneath us, because while social justice opposes systems of oppression, mitigating systems of oppression is important as well. Our common humanity demands that we measure our moral worth by the ways in which we treat those whose destinies are in our hands. "Politically," Brandeis once said, "the American workingman is free-so far as law can make him so. But is he really free? Can any man be really free who is constantly in danger of becoming dependent ... for his subsistence upon somebody and something else than his own exertion and conduct?"

Louis Brandeis defined his career by working to ensure the strength of democracy in the face of the new industrial system of the late 19th and 20th centuries. In the dawn of a new era, the challenges to ensuring a democratic polity still exist, albeit in newer guises. Like Brandeis, we must champion freedom from a tendency to make ideological enemies and remember that "men are not free while financially dependent upon the will of other individuals." But let's toss aside politics. Let's toss aside big issues of state, country, policy and economy. Freedom, too, involves remembering to make time for family and to free oneself from duty and obligation enough to stroll in the park.

Look. It's a staple of commencement addresses to urge you both to follow your dreams and remember to contribute to your community. It is easy to tell recently minted college graduates to make sure they act as public citizens. Too easy. Brandeis built up his law practice before he started getting tangled up with his "Public Franchise League." Too often we forget that if we don't look out for ourselves, no one will. Too often we forget to live the change we want to see, perhaps working long and hard hours so that others may have a better life. That's great. But remember, you're not doing anyone favors when you grind yourself down in the quest to hopefully lift others up. Inside each of us is a dancing star, a shining soul straining to enjoy the wonders of the universe. In your journeys in life, remember to let it out sometime.

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