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? - 02 May 2009

If you get a bad grade in property, I doubt you will feel empowered.

-- WilliamKing - 03 May 2009

Dear Will: Your comment is an adventure in logic. I did not say that a bad grade in Property would result in my feeling empowered, but rather that feeling empowered to determine the content of my education results in my not caring about a possible bad grade in Property. Also, what's up with the bitterness? If you're going to make a comment like that on the wiki, I think you should explain it. Right now it just comes across as a lame smack in the face.

-- AnjaHavedal? - 03 May 2009

I can't speak for Will's intention to smack or not to smack you in the face, Anja, but I read his comment as acknowledging the reality in which we live: we will all be graded, and there's someone in your class making sure that she knows the rule against perpetuities so she can get those points that you will miss. It doesn't seem fair to reduce that observation to "lame." I think it's great that you came to the conclusion that you either don't care about your property grade or, perhaps more realistically, think that not knowing the R.A.P. will not result in a loss of a critical number of points on the exam. If it were me, I would make a post like this, feel good for an hour, and then realize that I am a Type A perfectionist personality who will not feel comfortable until I have a passing understanding of the course material, and I'd go back to the books. I related to Will's comment not out of bitterness, but because I am aware of that tendency in myself, and the comment seemed to be a good answer to the bright idealism of your first post. (Fortunately, we didn't really cover the rule against perpetuities in my section )

As far as the logic goes, does it really make sense for you to feel empowered at a decision that might result in you feeling less empowered (getting a bad grade)? Unless getting a bad grade would ultimately make you feel more empowered because you owned the bad grade and created it for yourself because you refused to learn something irrelevant.

I have felt all semester as though the real value I'm getting out of this class may not be reflected in my performance. This course, and Eben's influence, may very well help me save myself from an unsatisfying career, in a way I don't think I would have been able/aware enough to do without it. Still, I haven't evolved enough not to care about doing the best I can to understand the material and score well on exams. I admire you if you have. However, if my interactions with classmates are any indicator, one of the things we all do is lament how unprepared we are, and how much we don't care about any of this grading crap, and then we secretly run home and stay up all night adding flowcharts to our outlines. They are color-coded. None of us are very good at being transparent about how much we really do care about this stuff, and I suspect that tendency may be worse in this class where we've discussed at length how stupid and irrelevant the grading system is to our worth and education.

...Finals time is stressful. If you've found enlightenment, Anja, then go with it. It shouldn't matter who is skeptical and who is not.