Sometimes in life the planets align, everything links up, and your timing is perfect.
This wasn’t one of those times.
April 2012
Sometimes I see a topic discussed in real life or a website and I think to myself, oh wait a minute I remember reading this from somewhere or being taught this in university. Then when I’m about to say something, I realize the words I’m about to speak aren’t my own words or opinions, they’re the opinions and words of others. It reminds me of the scene in Good Will Hunting with Skylar, Will, and Clark at the bar.
CLARK
There's no problem. I was just hoping
you could give me some insight into
the evolution of the market economy
in the early colonies. My contention
is that prior to the Revolutionary
War the economic modalities especially
of the southern colonies could most
aptly be characterized as agrarian
precapitalist and...
Will, who at this point has migrated to Chuckie's side and
is completely fed-up, includes himself in the conversation.
WILL
Of course that's your contention.
You're a first year grad student.
You just finished some Marxian
historian, Pete Garrison prob'ly,
and so naturally that's what you
believe until next month when you
get to James Lemon and get convinced
that Virginia and Pennsylvania were
strongly entrepreneurial and
capitalist back in 1740. That'll
last until sometime in your second
year, then you'll be in here
regurgitating Gordon Wood about the
Pre-revolutionary utopia and the
capital-forming effects of military
mobilization.
CLARK
(taken aback)
Well, as a matter of fact, I won't,
because Wood drastically
underestimates the impact of--
WILL
"Wood drastically underestimates the
impact of social distinctions
predicated upon wealth, especially
inherited wealth..." You got that
from "Work in Essex County," Page
421, right? Do you have any thoughts
of your own on the subject or were
you just gonna plagiarize the whole
book for me?
Clark is stunned.
WILL
Look, don't try to pass yourself off
as some kind of an intellect at the
expense of my friend just to impress
these girls.
Clark is lost now, searching for a graceful exit, any exit.
WILL
The sad thing is, in about 50 years
you might start doin' some thinkin'
on your own and by then you'll realize
there are only two certainties in
life.
CLARK
Yeah? What're those?
WILL
One, don't do that. Two -- you
dropped a hundred and fifty grand on
an education you coulda' picked up
for a dollar fifty in late charges
at the Public Library.Frankly, I’m over it.
“Okay.”
—Augustus Waters (The Fault In Our Stars, John Green)
Ok I'm good.
Now, where was I?
