Reverse Rorscach

[Cain]

Woke up with a blinding headache at 6am this morning.  Turned on the news, more warnings of possible summer riots.  This country's afraid of me, I can tell.  I've seen its true face.

The streets are extended gutters and the gutters will soon be full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown.  Along with us.  The accumulated filth of of all their lies and murder will foam up around their waists and all the whores and their paymasters will look up and shout "save us"...and I'll look down and whisper, "no".

They had a choice, all of them.  They could have followed in the footsteps of good men, like my father, or Clement Attlee.  Decent men who believed in a days pay for a day's work.  Instead they followed the droppings of lechers and bankers and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late.  Don't tell me they didn't have a choice.

Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody hell, all those bankers and economists and smooth talkers...and all of a sudden nobody can think of anything to say.

[Jenne]

Greed is a powerful drug.  I think people WANTED the "easy way out" so badly they had no idea how much they were miring themselves in deep deep shit.

And yes, they are totally afraid of anything resembling violent change and chaos.  Even though they created it themselves.

[Richter]

Well spoken.

[Thurnez Isa]

 
good not only as a rant but a short piece of writing

[Jasper]

More of Rorshach's writing voice!

[Cain]

Uh....not precisely the reaction I was expecting.

Explanation: I think Rorscach's moral absolutism is repugnant and stupid.  His boneheaded insistence on doing what he percieves as right overrides common sense, decency and indeed survival instinct.

Now, would it be right to go out there and hang a few bankers?  Maybe.  It certainly would be less overall damage than has been done to people by their actions.  But is it smart?  No.  Schadenfreude and thoughts of revenge are all nice and well, but with no way to effect them, are nothing more than hot air.  The "summer of rage" that has been talked about so much over here will only achieve what is normally achieved when people without tanks and helicoptor gunships go up against people with them.

Furthermore, while its all good and fun to blame the bankers, they're not the only bad guys here.  Where were the economists?  The government?  The regulators?  Its not like they weren't gorging themselves on the same lies.  How are you going to get back at all of them.

I worry.  I worry because the same sort of psychopaths we've had in government will be the ones leading the charge against it.  Look how quickly the fascists both in the UK and USA moved to get their claws into workers movements.

The world is complex.  It doesn't need simplistic reactions.

[Jenne]

For the UK, those answers are a bit more puzzling than they are over here.  We have a very simple scapegoat:  Bush and his people.

But really, his PEOPLE are THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Hence my answer--choosing greed, the opiate of the masses, to further the agenda past the watchdogs, was really the overarching sentiment behind the last decade or so.

[Aufenthatt]

2000 "Capitalism may not be perfect, but look at the collapces caused by communism"

2003 "The free market is bringing the greatest prosperity we have ever known

2006 "You can use greed to incentivise your workers"

2009 "Yes, well it was all the banks fault for taking our advice and following our system"

[Thurnez Isa]

Uh....not precisely the reaction I was expecting.

Explanation: I think Rorscach's moral absolutism is repugnant and stupid.  His boneheaded insistence on doing what he percieves as right overrides common sense, decency and indeed survival instinct.

Now, would it be right to go out there and hang a few bankers?  Maybe.  It certainly would be less overall damage than has been done to people by their actions.  But is it smart?  No.  Schadenfreude and thoughts of revenge are all nice and well, but with no way to effect them, are nothing more than hot air.  The "summer of rage" that has been talked about so much over here will only achieve what is normally achieved when people without tanks and helicoptor gunships go up against people with them.

Furthermore, while its all good and fun to blame the bankers, they're not the only bad guys here.  Where were the economists?  The government?  The regulators?  Its not like they weren't gorging themselves on the same lies.  How are you going to get back at all of them.

I worry.  I worry because the same sort of psychopaths we've had in government will be the ones leading the charge against it.  Look how quickly the fascists both in the UK and USA moved to get their claws into workers movements.

The world is complex.  It doesn't need simplistic reactions.

and I thought it was a piece about alienation and lack of relations between society and the individual...


though I have to ask, what is probably a stupid question
who's Rorscach? - I thought it was just a fictional character

[Jasper]

My last comment wasn't well thought out.  While I like the idea of repurposing Rorschach's writing voice, that wasn't the topic.  Trying again:

Uh....not precisely the reaction I was expecting.

Explanation: I think Rorscach's moral absolutism is repugnant and stupid.  His boneheaded insistence on doing what he percieves as right overrides common sense, decency and indeed survival instinct.

His views are unrealistic and his solutions aren't even feasible in a comic book.  But I think people still like him because of that same crusaderly attitude.  People want there to be simple solutions to messy problems.  However I can equivocate that he doesn't have real answers to any of society's ills.

I worry.  I worry because the same sort of psychopaths we've had in government will be the ones leading the charge against it.  Look how quickly the fascists both in the UK and USA moved to get their claws into workers movements.

True.  Level headed people will probably not be involved in the right causes.

The only real way to solve the problems at hand is to start a real dialogue with the institutions that have the leverage to solve large issues.

[rong]

i thought this thread would be something along the lines of someone saying "clown"

and then someone submits this:

[Pope Lecherous]

except that's not a clown.  It's obviously a flower who's roots are some kind of futuristic upside down city.

[rong]

i dunno - looks more like the roots are upside down gnomes playing cards to me.

[Pope Lecherous]

i dunno - looks more like the roots are upside down gnomes playing cards to me.

Why did you just make me turn my laptop upside down?

[P3nT4gR4m]

2000 "Capitalism may not be perfect, but look at the collapces caused by communism"

2003 "The free market is bringing the greatest prosperity we have ever known

2006 "You can use greed to incentivise your workers"

2009 "Yes, well it was all the banks fault for taking our advice and following our system"

This totally made me laugh. Given that capitalism appears to be in the death throes of it's own, inescapable, conclusion, suddenly all those assholes who screamed "capitalism is the best system we have" look as dumb and shortsighted as all those assholes who said "communism is the best system we have"

Bottom line - we don't have a workable solution. Simply being the most successful of a bunch of dumb ideas =/= workable