Indignation Page #5

with spiritual sustenance?

To whom do you pray

when you need solace?

I don't need solace, sir.

I don't believe in God

and I don't believe in prayer.

I am sustained by what is real.

Praying, to me, is preposterous.

Is it now?

And yet so many millions do it.

Millions once thought

the earth was flat, sir.

Yes, that's true.

But may I ask you, Marcus,

merely out of curiosity,

how do you get by in life...

filled as life is inevitably

with trials and tribulations

lacking spiritual guidance?

I get straight A's, sir.

I didn't ask about your grades.

I know your grades.

You have every right

to be proud of them,

as I've already told you.

Well, then you know

the answer to your question

of how I get by just fine.

Well, if I may say so, it doesn't look

to me like you get along just fine.

It seems to me as soon as there's

a difference of opinion,

you pick up and leave.

Is there a problem with finding

a solution in quietly leaving?

But look

where you've wound up...

in the least desirable room

on the entire campus.

Frankly, I don't like the idea

of you up there alone.

But I did not end up there because

of lack of religious beliefs, sir,

if that is what you are

suggesting in a roundabout way.

Why is it, then?

As I explained

to you before,

the living arrangements

I was given were intolerable.

Tolerance appears to be something

of a problem for you, young man.

I've never heard that

said about me before, sir.

There appear to be several things you've

never heard about yourself before.

But before, you were living

at home,

in the bosom

of your childhood family.

Now you are living

at Winesburg as an adult,

and aside

from mastering your studies

your task is to learn

how to get along with people

and to extend tolerance to those who

may not be carbon copies of yourself.

Tolerance? How about extending

some tolerance to me, sir?

I don't mean to be brash

or insolent

but what exactly is the crime I

have committed? Here? Today?

So I've switched rooms.

Is that considered a crime

here at Winesburg?

Has anyone said

it is a crime?

You display a fondness

for dramatic exaggeration.

It doesn't serve you well.

It is a characteristic

you might want to reflect upon.

Now tell me, how do you get

along with your family?

I see from the form here,

you also have no siblings,

so it's just you

and your parents at home,

if I'm to take what you've

written here to be accurate.

Why wouldn't it

be accurate?

I was accurate when I wrote

down my father is a butcher.

He is a butcher.

It isn't I alone who would

describe him as a butcher.

He would describe

himself as a butcher.

You described him as a kosher butcher.

Which is fine.

But that's not grounds for

intimating that I've been in any way

inaccurate in filling out...

If I may interrupt, Marcus.

How do you three get along,

from your perspective?

That's the question I asked.

You, your mother, and your father:

how do you get along?

A straight answer, please.

My mother and I get along perfectly well.

We always have.

So have my father and I

for most of my life.

[inhales]

[clears throat]

From my last year

at grade school

until I moved to Winesburg

I worked part time

for him at the shop.

We were as close as

father and son could be.

Of late there's been

some strain between us.

Strain over what,

may I ask?

He's been unnecessarily

worried about my independence.

I think it has to do with many of my

cousins having died in the last war.

You say unnecessarily worried about

you because he has no reason to be?

None at all.

Is he worried, for instance,

about your inability

to adjust to your roommates

here at Winesburg?

I have not told him

about my roommates.

I did not think

it was important.

Nor is 'inability to adjust' a proper

way to describe the difficulty, sir.

I do not want to be distracted from

my studies by superfluous problems.

I wouldn't consider your having

to move out of your room

a superfluous problem,

and neither would your father, I'm sure,

if he were apprised of the situation

as he has every right to be,

by the way.

But be that as it may...

have you gone on any dates

since you've been to Winesburg?

Uh, dates?

Dates.

Uh. Yes. Yes, I have.

A few? Some? Many?

One.

Just one?

Sir! I object to being

interrogated like this!

I do not see

the purpose of it.

These are

my own private affairs,

as is my religious life and my

social life and how I conduct it.

I have broken no laws, I've

caused no one injury or harm,

and in no way have my actions

impinged on anyone's rights.

If anyone's rights have been

impinged on they are mine.

Sit down please,

and explain yourself.

I also object to having to

attend chapel forty times

before I graduate in

order to earn a degree.

I do not see where the

college has the right

to force me to listen to a

clergyman of whatever faith,

even once, or listen

to a Christian hymn

invoking the Christian deity,

given that I am an atheist

who is, to be truthful,

deeply offended by the practices

of organized religion.

I am altogether capable

of leading a moral existence

without crediting beliefs

that are impossible to

substantiate and beyond credulity.

I take it you are familiar,

Dean Caudwell,

with the writings

of Bertrand Russell.

Bertrand Russell,

the distinguished

mathematician and philosopher,

was last year's recipient

of the Nobel Prize

in Literature.

The work of literature in which

he was awarded the Nobel Prize is

his widely read essay entitled

"Why I Am Not a Christian."

Are you familiar

with this essay, sir?

Marcus, please sit down...

Sir, I was asking

if you are familiar

with this very important

essay by Bertrand Russell.

I take it

that the answer is no.

Well, I am very familiar

with this essay

because I set myself the task

of memorizing large sections of it

when I was captain

of my high school debating team.

Now, if you were

to read this essay,

and in the interest of open-mindedness

I would urge you to do so,

you would see that Bertrand

Russell, undoes with logic

that is beyond dispute

the first-cause argument,

the natural-law argument,

the argument from design,

the moral arguments

for a deity,

and the argument

for the remedying of injustice.

Having studied these arguments,

I intend to live my life

in accordance with them,

as I am sure

you would have to admit, sir,

I have every right to do.

Please sit down.

I'm sorry.

I see here that you are studying

to be a lawyer.

On the basis of this interview,

I think you are destined

to be an outstanding lawyer.

I can see you one day arguing a

case before the Supreme Court,

and winning it.

I admire your directness,

your diction,

your sentence structure,

even if I don't necessarily choose to

admire whom or what you choose to read

and the gullibility with which you

take at face value

rationalist blasphemies spouted by an

immoralist of the ilk of Bertrand Russell,

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