Cornell West Speech on Greatness and Success

On the video Dr. Cornell West pontificates about the difference between greatness and success. He first starts off with his definition of greatness. He says that one who devotes their live to giving back to others is a person of greatness. He explains how many people settle for mediocrity instead of wanting more. West clarifies that many of this from the converting from greatness to success. West defines success as having the “finer” things in life. This mostly consists of being financially stable and usually being popular in the media. He says how when people become successful and they spent their time around a different group of people they change who they are. It’s not exactly them changing who they are but more so pretending to be someone who they are not. Cornell West says that usually when people become successful they forget their purpose in life. Although, they may think that they have accomplished so much, they forget what the reasoning to be successful was. This connects to many artist who are well known in the hip-hop industry. Usually when artist are what you would consider “underground” they most likely are sending positive messages about the being better in life. In reality, that’s not what the industries want to hear. People like Talib Kweli or Common, are pushed away because music industries want to display a negative image on hip-hop. This is the reason that today’s music consist of dehumanizing women, drugs, and violence. Cornell West defines those people as people who are successful, though they have lost their greatness.