The Right Question

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The Right Question

Eavesdropping in the Film American History X (1998)

Dr. Bob Sweeney: I need to know the truth about how you feel.

Derek Vinyard: ..I don't know. I don't know what I feel... I all... I feel a little inside out. I... I don't know. There's some things that ... that don't fit.

Dr. Bob Sweeney: Well, that happens... but Derek, you are too damn smart to be floating around here pretending you don't see all these holes in this bulls**t! 

Derek Vinyard: Listen, you see I said I was confused. I didn't say I didn't believe in it.

Dr. Bob Sweeney: .. Right now your anger is consuming you.You anguish is shutting down the brain God gave you.

Derek Vinyard: You know man, you've been talking about what's going on with me since I was in high school. How the f***  do you know so much about what's going on inside me?

Dr. Bob Sweeney: No. I know about me. I know about this place. I know about the place you are in.

Derek Vinyard: What do you know about the place am in?

Dr. Bob Sweeney: There was a moment, when I used to blame everything and everyone for all the pain and suffering and vile things that happened to me; that I saw happen to my people. Used to blame everybody. Blamed white people, blamed society, blamed God. I didn't get no answers coz I was asking the wrong questions. You have to ask the right questions.

Derek Vinyard: Like what?

Dr. Bob Sweeney: Has anything you've done made your life better?

(Derek shakes his head and asks for help.)