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FuckThisStupidRule 12 - 08 May 2009 - Main.WalkerNewell
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| | Fuck This Stupid Rule
Yesterday I spent what felt like an eternity - probably around 6 hours - trying to learn how to apply the Rule Against Perpetuities. Over and over, I thought I had it, but when I got to the next fact pattern I fell on my face again. Admittedly, math is not my strength, and my ability to imagine people dying at age 5 or procreating at age 80 just doesn't cut it. What's wrong with my brain, I thought, why can't I understand this? Then it happened: I realized that I don't have to learn the Rule Against Perpetuities! It's my education, damnit, and I don't give a shit about this stupid rule! I'd rather learn more about the tragedy of the commons or the public trust doctrine than wrap my brain around some legal fiction that all but a handful of jurisdictions have done away with. I think I just might write in my exam that I - along with the vast majority of US jurisdictions - think this is a stupid rule, and that perhaps it's time to strike it from the standard 1L Property syllabus. So what if I get a bad grade in Property? I feel empowered. | | | -- AnjaHavedal? - 07 May 2009 | |
>
> | Anja,
You did, to some extent, invite commentary and criticism, and what followed is about what I would have expected had I made the same post.
I have, however, noticed that many of our fellow students are very confused by the fact that different people have different goals. A friend of mine has been spending the past four months trying to convince me to go to EIP, without any encouragement from me. Why is this?
I suppose that, later in life, it may be difficult for two people who have widely divergent incomes to remain friends. Perhaps this problem is already beginning to manifest itself. | | |
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FuckThisStupidRule 11 - 08 May 2009 - Main.AnjaHavedal
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| | Fuck This Stupid Rule
Yesterday I spent what felt like an eternity - probably around 6 hours - trying to learn how to apply the Rule Against Perpetuities. Over and over, I thought I had it, but when I got to the next fact pattern I fell on my face again. Admittedly, math is not my strength, and my ability to imagine people dying at age 5 or procreating at age 80 just doesn't cut it. What's wrong with my brain, I thought, why can't I understand this? Then it happened: I realized that I don't have to learn the Rule Against Perpetuities! It's my education, damnit, and I don't give a shit about this stupid rule! I'd rather learn more about the tragedy of the commons or the public trust doctrine than wrap my brain around some legal fiction that all but a handful of jurisdictions have done away with. I think I just might write in my exam that I - along with the vast majority of US jurisdictions - think this is a stupid rule, and that perhaps it's time to strike it from the standard 1L Property syllabus. So what if I get a bad grade in Property? I feel empowered. | | |
It’s funny that Anja’s realization that she doesn’t care about her grades is met with the unquestioned presumption that she does in fact care, but won’t admit it. (Will insists that she does care by assuming that a bad grade will make her feel like a failure; Molissa affirms Will’s “good response” to her “bright idealism” and implies that we all secretly care and just don’t admit it). After a semester in this class spent bandying about the idea that grades are bullshit and have little if any bearing on our development as lawyers or our worth to society, it’s a bit surprising that someone who professes detachment is treated like a self-delusional and naïve idealist. So the more she protests that she doesn’t value what the majority values, the less credible she sounds. Welcome to the loony bin. | |
>
> | | | | -- LeslieHannay - 04 May 2009 | |
>
> | I’m not sure why this topic turned sour. My intention in sharing my newfound sense of empowerment was that it would rub off, not rub people the wrong way.
The patronizing tone of the comments (save Leslie’s) reminded me again of what I find to be the most unfortunate aspect of law school: The assumption that we are all the same. That we want to work at big firms, just graduated from Yale, have well educated parents, are Type As, and don’t know ourselves. I saw this class as a break from that – I thought that in “Crazy Man’s Class” I would be taken for what I said and wrote.
But instead, this class has been a bit like a high-school relationship: A lot of games. Only instead of “I really like him but I pretend that I don’t” there is “you say you don’t care about grades but we know you do” and “do you think I’d criticize the hell out of your essay if I didn’t think it was good?” So much game playing; it’s exhausting. When I said that I decided that the Rule Against Perpetuities was not worth my time, I meant it. I wasn’t looking for reassurance, and I certainly did not go add flow charts to my outline. Why did Will, Molissa and Eben’s comments all make this about me? Who cares how I feel about property? Why did Will ponder the probable nature of my reaction to a bad grade, rather than his own?
Is this not the mindset that we have been decrying all semester? For months, we have been criticizing the system that turns us into a herd of sheep, jumping through an insane series of hoops – writing competitions, student organization boards, EIP – because everybody else does. The other day, at the CLS International Advisory Board luncheon, the CLS alumna next to me readily admitted that she never wanted to be a big-firm lawyer but just went with the flow and this is what happened. She made partner, but she is still unhappy. Yet I can’t feel compassion for her. Just like I can’t feel bad about people who stress out about competition in law school. It’s a choice.
We can all choose to march to our own drum. So if you decide not to, stop complaining about other people imposing demands on you. Stop complaining about the competition. It’s your choice to compete. Every day, we wake up and choose to go to school. So I chose to ignore the Rule Against Perpetuities and go for a run in Central Park. I shared it on the wiki because I thought that maybe my “bright idealism” would give someone else a dose of perspective.
We are all individuals, and we should not assume anything about the people we are surrounded by. Molissa may choose a color-coded outline and shoot for an A, but that does not preclude me from choosing to read a novel instead and get a B. If that means I cannot clerk at the Supreme Court, then I don’t want to clerk at the Supreme Court.
We live once (I think) and what we do with that one shot is for us to decide. For each of us, it is what we make it. There is no such thing as “have to” or “should.” You do what you choose to do.
-- AnjaHavedal? - 07 May 2009 | | |
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FuckThisStupidRule 10 - 04 May 2009 - Main.LeslieHannay
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| | Fuck This Stupid Rule
Yesterday I spent what felt like an eternity - probably around 6 hours - trying to learn how to apply the Rule Against Perpetuities. Over and over, I thought I had it, but when I got to the next fact pattern I fell on my face again. Admittedly, math is not my strength, and my ability to imagine people dying at age 5 or procreating at age 80 just doesn't cut it. What's wrong with my brain, I thought, why can't I understand this? Then it happened: I realized that I don't have to learn the Rule Against Perpetuities! It's my education, damnit, and I don't give a shit about this stupid rule! I'd rather learn more about the tragedy of the commons or the public trust doctrine than wrap my brain around some legal fiction that all but a handful of jurisdictions have done away with. I think I just might write in my exam that I - along with the vast majority of US jurisdictions - think this is a stupid rule, and that perhaps it's time to strike it from the standard 1L Property syllabus. So what if I get a bad grade in Property? I feel empowered. | | | rarely more than two or three times a day. | |
>
> | It’s funny that Anja’s realization that she doesn’t care about her grades is met with the unquestioned presumption that she does in fact care, but won’t admit it. (Will insists that she does care by assuming that a bad grade will make her feel like a failure; Molissa affirms Will’s “good response” to her “bright idealism” and implies that we all secretly care and just don’t admit it). After a semester in this class spent bandying about the idea that grades are bullshit and have little if any bearing on our development as lawyers or our worth to society, it’s a bit surprising that someone who professes detachment is treated like a self-delusional and naïve idealist. So the more she protests that she doesn’t value what the majority values, the less credible she sounds. Welcome to the loony bin.
-- LeslieHannay - 04 May 2009 | | |
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FuckThisStupidRule 9 - 04 May 2009 - Main.EbenMoglen
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| | Fuck This Stupid Rule
Yesterday I spent what felt like an eternity - probably around 6 hours - trying to learn how to apply the Rule Against Perpetuities. Over and over, I thought I had it, but when I got to the next fact pattern I fell on my face again. Admittedly, math is not my strength, and my ability to imagine people dying at age 5 or procreating at age 80 just doesn't cut it. What's wrong with my brain, I thought, why can't I understand this? Then it happened: I realized that I don't have to learn the Rule Against Perpetuities! It's my education, damnit, and I don't give a shit about this stupid rule! I'd rather learn more about the tragedy of the commons or the public trust doctrine than wrap my brain around some legal fiction that all but a handful of jurisdictions have done away with. I think I just might write in my exam that I - along with the vast majority of US jurisdictions - think this is a stupid rule, and that perhaps it's time to strike it from the standard 1L Property syllabus. So what if I get a bad grade in Property? I feel empowered. | | | against one another and shouldn't be helpful to one another"
bullshit? | |
<
< |
- I don't agree with this last point. After reading a post about how happy Anja is that she's decided she doesn't care about the Rule Against Perpetuities, and she feels empowered by ignoring it, we're supposed to respond by explaining it? I don't mean to make this about me and Will, since our class didn't learn the rule (although admittedly this sounds defensive), but in general, such a response doesn't seem to get at the revelation that motivated Anja's post - namely, she doesn't want to learn something stupid and antiquated, regardless of what it could mean for her grade (which, I agree with you, is probably quite little). - MF
| >
> | I don't agree with this last point. After reading a post about how happy Anja is that she's decided she doesn't care about the Rule Against Perpetuities, and she feels empowered by ignoring it, we're supposed to respond by explaining it? I don't mean to make this about me and Will, since our class didn't learn the rule (although admittedly this sounds defensive), but in general, such a response doesn't seem to get at the revelation that motivated Anja's post - namely, she doesn't want to learn something stupid and antiquated, regardless of what it could mean for her grade (which, I agree with you, is probably quite little). - MF
- Well, I'm certainly not criticizing you for not explaining something you didn't learn, and I'm glad there's at least one Property teacher still working around here who can dispense with the rule. But it seems far less counterintuitive to me than to you that a student proclaiming empowerment from not learning is actually seeking reassurance and assistance. I run into that situation fairly frequently around this time of the year, though rarely more than two or three times a day.
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FuckThisStupidRule 8 - 04 May 2009 - Main.MolissaFarber
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| | Fuck This Stupid Rule
Yesterday I spent what felt like an eternity - probably around 6 hours - trying to learn how to apply the Rule Against Perpetuities. Over and over, I thought I had it, but when I got to the next fact pattern I fell on my face again. Admittedly, math is not my strength, and my ability to imagine people dying at age 5 or procreating at age 80 just doesn't cut it. What's wrong with my brain, I thought, why can't I understand this? Then it happened: I realized that I don't have to learn the Rule Against Perpetuities! It's my education, damnit, and I don't give a shit about this stupid rule! I'd rather learn more about the tragedy of the commons or the public trust doctrine than wrap my brain around some legal fiction that all but a handful of jurisdictions have done away with. I think I just might write in my exam that I - along with the vast majority of US jurisdictions - think this is a stupid rule, and that perhaps it's time to strike it from the standard 1L Property syllabus. So what if I get a bad grade in Property? I feel empowered. | | | against one another and shouldn't be helpful to one another"
bullshit? | |
>
> |
- I don't agree with this last point. After reading a post about how happy Anja is that she's decided she doesn't care about the Rule Against Perpetuities, and she feels empowered by ignoring it, we're supposed to respond by explaining it? I don't mean to make this about me and Will, since our class didn't learn the rule (although admittedly this sounds defensive), but in general, such a response doesn't seem to get at the revelation that motivated Anja's post - namely, she doesn't want to learn something stupid and antiquated, regardless of what it could mean for her grade (which, I agree with you, is probably quite little). - MF
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