Record some interesting ideas

Alexandria 2022-12-08 22:19:07

After watching the dialogue between Ali and Ru three times, some points are really interesting. "The very fact that you start destroying your life after exposure to drugs is an addiction. It's a disease that no one in the world thinks you're sick except for the pain of addiction. Instead, they think you're selfish, weak, Callous." "The punishment for doing something wrong is to judge yourself unforgivable, which is too deep and too cheap. That way you can continue to do whatever you want without repentance, because you think you deserve it." "Real The revolution lies in the reconstruction of the spiritual level", "believing that the supreme power beyond the self will bring us back to the right path". Why is it that only by believing in a being stronger than yourself can you get out of the quagmire? Is it because virtual gods are perfect, relatively immutable, and better understood? "Believe in a force stronger than yourself, not the ocean or songs, not sports, humans or language, you have to believe in poetry", this sounds really romantic, but isn't poetry also a language category? That said, believing in the ocean and believing in nature is the greater force. "When my dad died, a lot of people used to say that his death was justified, and that kind of thing made me angry. But I think what they were trying to say was, you have to give it a reason, you have to find a reason for this shit. That's why I don't get stuck in this emotion forever." "Some people think I'm a good person and it's the motivation for me to keep trying to get better."

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Extended Reading

Trouble Don't Last Always quotes

  • Ali: Why'd you relapse?

    Rue Bennett: I don't know. Couldn't stop my mind from racing.

    Ali: Racing about what?

    Rue Bennett: Everything.

    Ali: Hey, hey. Get specific.

    Rue Bennett: [the shrugs her shoulders] All the things I remember and all the things I wish I didn't.

    Ali: Okay. I get it. Why didn't you call me?

    Rue Bennett: [scoffs] Just... honestly, I wasn't really trying not to relapse.

    [Ali laughs]

    Rue Bennett: [Rue bites her lip and chuckles]

    Ali: Yeah. Man. Okay. Where'd you get the drugs?

    Rue Bennett: I had some pills for emergency purposes.

    Ali: Fuck. So you never stood a chance.

    Rue Bennett: Nope.

    Ali: Do you wanna get clean?

    Rue Bennett: No.

    Ali: You sure?

    Rue Bennett: [whispers] Yea.

    Ali: [exhales] I get it. I get it.

    Rue Bennett: Is that fucked up?

    Ali: What? That you don't want to get clean? Yeah, yeah. Of course it's fucked up.

    Rue Bennett: Ah. I'm a piece of shit, huh?

    Ali: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're a piece of shit.

    [Rue exhales]

    Ali: All right, but, uh, here's the silver lining. You're not a drug addict because you're a piece of shit. You're a piece of shit because you're a drug addict. You follow?

    Rue Bennett: Mm, I don't really...

    Ali: Okay, all right. What I'm saying is, you didn't come out of the womb an evil person. You, Rue, came out of the womb a beautiful baby girl, who unbeknownst to her, had a couple of wires crossed. So when you tried drugs for the first time, it, uh, set something off in your brain that's beyond your control. And it isn't a question of willpower. It's not about how strong you are. You've been fighting a losing game since the first day you got high. So you can destroy your life, you can f*ck your little sister's head up, you can abuse and torture and take for granted your mama, and sit here and look me in the eye, and say, as calm as can be, as cool as a cucumber, "Imma keep usin' drugs." Ha. That is the disease of addiction. It is a degenerative disease. It is incurable. It is deadly. And it's no different than cancer. And you got it. Why? Mm. Luck of the draw. But, hey, but the hardest part of having the disease of addiction, aside from having the disease, is that no one in the world sees it as a disease. They see you as selfish. They see you as weak. They see you as cruel. They see you as, uh, destructive. They think, why should I give a fuck about her if she doesn't give a fuck about herself or anybody else? Why does this girl deserve my time, my patience, my sympathy? Right? If she wants to kill herself, let her. All reasonable questions and responses. But luckily, you aren't the only person on planet Earth who has this disease. There happens to be people like me, who understand that you aren't all that bad.

    [Rue chuckles]

    Ali: Probably underneath all this busted-ass, chaotic energy, you might even be a good kid. Who knows? And that is why we are eating pancakes on Christmas Eve. Despite the fact that you don't want to get clean.

  • Rue Bennett: Wait, but haven't you been, like, clean for 20 years? Nah, nah. I was clean for seven years. Wait, really? Yeah, well, I had 12 years before that, but you know, I got cocky. Started to walk around thinking I was invincible. So, now I got seven years. Oh, sh1t. Right. Wait, how do you... How do you relapse after 12 years? You forget how bad it is. Damn. How, how long did you relapse for? A... year and a half. Oh, f*ck. Yeah, f*ck. Yeah. Right. Oh, sh1t. Damn. I thought, I thought you were gonna say, like, a day or something. Nah, nah. Once you get back in that cycle, you know, using and abusing, it's inescapable. Especially if you've been clean for 12 years. That's when the disease starts talking. "Twelve years, Martin, and you ain't never getting that far again." Aah. Wait. Martin? Uh, yeah.

    [both laugh]

    Rue Bennett: Who's Martin? Martin is me. What? My name. Your name is Martin? Well, it used to be. What? Before I converted. To what? To Islam. Ali, I'm super f*cking confused right now. What am I, your first Black friend? What'd you think, I was actually from the Middle East? I'm from south Philly. What...

    [laughs]

    Rue Bennett: Yeah, but you, you just don't, you don't look like a Martin. You don't. I didn't think so, either. Do women ever convert to Islam? Very few.