This was the gist of Arthur Schlesinger's recent commencement tirade addressed to graduate students at New York University.

The 'Generation X' message.

This one comes straight out of the movie "Reality Bites," Where Winona Ryder, playing the class valedictorian, sums up the languid angst of our generation: "The answer is...I don't know."

Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman says that "I Don't Know" is the motto for the Class of '94, just as "Make Love Not War" was the motto for the Class of '69. What does "I Don't Know" mean? It's supposed to capture our sense of pessimistic uncertainty and the fact that we aren't afraid to admit it. "They see the world booby-trapped with unintended consequences," writes Goodman. "[W]hen asked about the future, this generation has the honesty to answer: 'I don't know.'"

This years batch of commencement speeches are like most commencement speeches: cliche, vague, effete, boring. Instead of serving up banal generalizations, I wish they would tell us something we don't know, maybe even drop a political bombshell like the Marshall Plan. They should offer some practical advice or, at the very least they should make us laugh for a couple minutes.

While impressive geopolitical strategies and witty banter are rare commodities these days, here's some graduation advice I would actually find refreshing:

Lower your expectations.

Don't expect to make any discernible impact on the world for at least the next twenty years.

Learn how to relax.