On Debt and the Illusion of Free Will

-- By WhitneyLee - 18 Feb 2016

The desire to attain social status and to repay debt leads law students to trap themselves in meaningless careers.

Social status is important in societies such as ours that are stratified along class lines and so, for many, the possibility of one day being admitted into the upper echelon of society is incredibly tantalizing. Law students, who are already by and large a risk-averse group, tend to believe that the best way to climb the social ladder is to follow the “proven path” to success: attending a prestigious law school, then trading a few years of their lives after law working at a white-shoe firm in a large legal market in exchange for some added clout. I don’t think that most lawyers realize that the extent to their conformity, but I think that to the extent that people do recognize the ways that they conform, they justify it to themselves by believing that because conformity has always worked for them in the past, it will work for them in the future. In a way, it is as if law students and young lawyers try desperately to set themselves apart from the pack by doing the same thing that everyone else is doing. From what I have seen so far, many Columbia students are very comfortable making this trade off… but it seems ridiculous in a way, as people are trading their time, the most precious thing that any of us have, doing something that they are not passionate about, just so that they can gain the requisite credentials to impress other people trapped in the same system – and people become very attached to the images of themselves that are created this way. Egos inflate, and people get used to the comfort that a high-paying firm job affords them. I believe that it’s usually not until much later in life that people in this position look around and notice that they have not really contributed to the world in any meaningful way, that all of the time and energy that they could have spent bettering the world was spent collecting accolades, and material possessions… and I think that the realization that their lives lack meaning is maybe part of the reason why lawyers develop drinking problems, and end up wrapping their cars around telephone poles.

So I think that the most important question is, assuming that some of us accept the idea that chasing after social standing and conforming at every step along the way is detrimental in the long run how do we change? (Robinson) Also, what do we do with the limitations that restrict our ability to change? (ie. Family obligations, & debts)

First, on the debt point, I’m beginning to believe that the debt (law school debt from student loans) is perhaps an instrument used by law schools to force our hands.

The debt creates fear and also puts students in the position where they are beholden to the school. Then the school (used in this sense to mean all top law schools), rather indelicately, guides students towards careers in Big Law, reinforced subtlety by the firm branding all over the law school (i.e. The Skadden Stairs, the Weil conference room, etc.) and the events sponsored by large corporate law firms. In time students not only begin to think of a career in Big Law as a good way to pay back the debt, but the only way to pay back the debt – and although it seems sort of perverse, many students feel a sense of gratitude to the school for leading them to the “correct” path. I think that this is what is meant by the illusion of free will. Everyone believes that they are acting autonomously, but in reality the school has been herding everyone, like sheep, into the Big Law pen since Day One.

But for those of us who want to change, what are we supposed to do?

Debt is real. Family responsibilities are real. Although I don’t have a complete answer to this, I think that the answer is, in part, about presence and absence. On presence, I think that if we are in serious debt or we have family obligations that require a sizeable Big Law salary, we have to do what we have to do in that regard. We should show up and do the best that we can. As for absence, I think that while we are “showing up and doing the best that we can” we should not lose sight of our purpose, if we know what our purposes are, or alternatively, we should not close our eyes to the opportunities around us to change our circumstances and actually do something worthwhile. Essentially, we should try to not get trapped by the comfort and the money and in the process miss out on opportunities to break free of the machine and do something different.

I think that presence and absence have to be balanced. I am not certain but perhaps this is part of what Prof. Moglen was getting at when he spoke about Robert Frost and the white spider (“Design” by Robert Frost). Too much presence, say if Frost was focused on whatever task he was supposed to be doing in that moment, he would have never noticed the spider; he would have missed an opportunity to create. But with too much absence, he would have not had the wherewithal to actually put pencil to paper and make a note of the experience. If we have too much absence, we wont actually get anything done, but if we have too much presence we will feel stuck. We will feel like we do not have options. Too much presence and we will close your minds to everything outside of the situation we're in, we’ll lose perspective… and perspective is key for lawyers and for anyone hoping to do anything meaningful in this life.

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