Page 60 - Big Idea

The Big Idea – Act 3

RIVAL 1: Patience, patience; they are so well-balanced that they will
cancel each other out.

CLOWN 2: Now, that’s not fair. If I say I do know those things,
then I’m admitting I know less than you do; if I say I don’t know
those things, then I’m also left ignorant of two things that you say
you know.

CLOWN 1: It’s perfectly fair. I’d say knowing it’s fair is yet one
more thing you don’t know, but I’ll be generous: after all, fairness is
really a generality.

CLOWN 2: Not if it’s applied to a specific case!

CLOWN 1: Oh, all right, then, if you insist: I know three things in
particular of which you are completely ignorant.

CLOWN 2: Aargh! How could I be so stupid? Of course, let’s
follow the course you have already established. I clearly haven’t
enough information to do otherwise.

CLOWN 1: Excellent! We shouldn’t sustain more than a few minor
injuries on the rocks. (they exit left, arm in arm)

RIVAL 2: (goes to stage left, peers down) There they go. Oops! One
of them stumbled, and he pulled the other guy down with him.
Anyway, they won’t be back in a hurry, boss.

RIVAL 1: They were easy. Let’s see who’s next.

(DEFEATIST and INTELLECTUAL enter right)

DEFEATIST: Ah, this does provide temporary relief from boredom.
I doubt if I could have found any compelling reason to come up here
on my own.

INTELLECTUAL: But you did come on your own; there was no
compulsion.

DEFEATIST: Uh-oh. I sense a lecture on free will about to be
delivered in a spirit of ill will. All I meant was that if the meeting
hadn’t happened, then probably no other external influence would

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