A Stab at Extra Credit

1) Descartes contends that founders are ultimately most important in creating important social
and political change. Legislators, he suggests, work within the frameworks of whichever mode of
thought their governing body is based upon, and thus that any change that they effect will be
incremental and none too significant. Founders, he argues, are able to catalyze and prompt more
important social and political change in that they are (mostly) free from the restrictions legislators
face and can synthesize their own novel modes of thought and political/societal principles.
2) the protagonist of our story, Mr. Robert Devigne, clad in sunglasses and stiff-rabbit-filled
Macys bag in hand, proceeded to leave his abode under cover of dawn. Doubtless, his mind was
racing, a dozen thoughts and possibilities for each step he took. What was there to do with a dead
rabbit in New York City? What clandestine act could save his child from misery, his own dignity
(having written such a vehement letter!) from death? Only a select few know what truly
transpired that day, but seeing as I am desperate to get some extra credit on this exam, and seeing
as how this story is the stuff of urban legend, the version I like to tell goes something like this:
Queens is no stranger to dead rabbits, thought the Professor. He stood in front of a snow
bank, a fresh snowfall giving him just enough matter with which to hide Timmys corpse in one of
New Yorks less affluent boroughs. He buried Timmy without fanfare, taking time only to whisper
cest la vie as he looked at his handiwork. Walking away from the scene, in the direction of the
nearest pet store, he marveled at the social progress that had allowed human beings to escape
Timmys fate, and at how even the comforts of domesticated life could not save the rabbit from his
ultimate fate. Perhaps Rousseau was correct in suggesting that the state of nature was optimal
for existence? Perhaps Timmy would have found some way to survive longer in nature? But even
so, running from fate does not constitute an escape. It was as the nihilists foretold: all of life is
but a flicker in the flame of existence, come and gone before the universe has time to sneeze. And
without further ado, the Professor strolled into a local pet store, purchased an identical rabbit to
replace Timmy, and returned home, none the wiser as to the fate of Timmy the Rabbit.