:18:01
We hear a lot about
the great social mobility in America...
:18:04
with the focus usually on
the comparative ease of moving upwards.
:18:08
What's less discussed is
how easy it is to - to go down.
:18:12
I think that's the -
the direction that we're all heading in.
:18:15
And I think that the downward fall
is gonna be very fast.
:18:18
Not just for us as individuals,
but the whole preppy class.
:18:23
Where do you get all this?
:18:25
Well,just look around. Take those
of our fathers who grew up very well off.
:18:29
Maybe their careers
started out well enough...
:18:32
butjust as their contemporaries
really began to accomplish things...
:18:35
they started to quit...
:18:37
on rising above office politics...
:18:39
or- or refusing to compete
and risk open failure.
:18:42
Or not - not doing
the humdrum part of the job.
:18:45
Or only doing the humdrum part.
:18:47
Or gradually spending more and more time
on something more interesting -
:18:51
um, conservation, or the arts...
:18:53
where even if they were total failures
no one would know it.
:18:56
Okay.
:18:58
I guess we all know
who you're talking about.
:19:01
I can't deny your point, but...
:19:03
unlike you, I've always
assumed I'd be a failure anyway.
:19:07
That's why I plan to marry
an extremely rich woman.
:19:11
Pretty depressing.
:19:13
A bit overstated, don't you think?
:19:16
- I'm not so sure.
- ''Doomed.''
:19:19
Even if he were right...
:19:21
it wouldn't be any great tragedy if some
of these people lost their class prerogatives.
:19:24
''These people'' are everyone I know.
:19:26
And besides, it's not a question of losing
class prerogatives, whatever that means...
:19:31
but the prospect of wasting
your whole productive life...
:19:34
of personal failure.
:19:36
That's so melodramatic.
:19:38
Life is melodramatic,
if you look at the whole sweep of it.
:19:41
I don't know.
:19:44
I think my father
considers himself a failure...
:19:47
although I don't think he's one.
:19:50
I guess few people's lives...
:19:53
match their own expectations.