Bill Duke, actor/filmmaker/author: Well the system is set up for the youth and all the
older ones who have survived, all the wisdom we have now is irrelevant. I just have to
go ahead and say Good luck.
When I was a young man there was a saying I never forgot and it was When I was a young
man, I thought my father to be a fool. Now that I am older, oh how wise he has become.Because
when you’re young you think you know every damn thing until life smashes in the face,
the truth of the indifference toward you and all those old people you think are two dumb
to listen to, once you get a couple of scars you’ll see how stupid they really are, but
you’ve got to be scarred first.
Because us talking, you know They don’t know nothing…nah…nah…nah…yap…yap…yap.
Your generation is in the past.But when you get crushed, and by crushed I don’t mean not being
successful. Ask what the cost today of being successful is? It’s coming out. So you have
success but you paid for it and so with that success comes shame because you wanted success
more than your self-respect. You notice all these people coming out now
and saying This is the price I paid. I’ve been this miserable for all these years. But
thank goodness I can say Me. They took something off me. Can you imagine being successful and
knowing the price you paid and choking on it for the rest of your life.
Hey everybody I’m just fine. I’m great…I don’t care about what I had to do except
when I sleep at night or can’t sleep at night. Yeah, right.
Film Courage: What about wanting notoriety?
Bill: Notoriety…these days there are people who will do anything for notoriety. Some of
the things I see on the Internet I say Are they really doing this?
He just pointed out to me yesterday [points to a person off screen] a friend of his is
an artist, has been accused of it. But he pointed out to me one of these women has a
website. And she has hundreds of pictures of herself on the website, the most pictures
that you can imagine, the victim of the due (who is getting no due process by the way)
because she said so he’s guilty.
A friend of mine worked at a company for 15 years and a woman said that five years ago
he looked at her in a suggestive manner that made her feel uncomfortable. They fired him
on the spot (they didn’t want the publicity).
So…these day people do things…acts…this was on and he put up a selfie talking about
how he people and how he did it.
Then there are kids now and doing other kinds of things online, saying how brave I am. Little
girls going to school (12-year-olds) with in their backpack, people getting, being famous
now has taken the place of being of any kind of self-worth. As long as you like me, I’m
okay. I don’t have to like myself because you like me.
When you’re alone, doesn’t that bother you? I don’t understand how
just having recognition or having people know who you are or having a million eyeballs,
I guess that gives you identity these days. And that’s just the beginning of the next
to generations.