Sympathy for the Devil – Guest Post
February 10, 2009 by admncc
Here at The Constant Complainer, in addition to my own posts, readers can submit Guest Posts on topics they would like to complain about. Tristan submitted the below-Guest Post. As he explained it to me, his complaint is the unwillingness of people to see faults in themselves, with the underlying theme being that we’re headed for an economic depression and everyone is too busy pointing fingers to worry about lessening the impact of it. This is a complex and well written piece. Enjoy and without further adieu, here’s Tristan…
No one likes the wretches of society. Killers, liars, cheats; Godless people who serve only their own twisted, sickening interests of self-gratification. Look at the drug addict. So engulfed by lust for his vice that family, children, and anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path would be pushed under the bus for the promise of another quick fix. We the people live in fear of his shadow.
How could anyone tolerate that existence? I’m too good of a person to be an addict. I would never sell my dignity for another high while my child stands by, too innocent to comprehend the scene in motion. I do my job. I provide for my family. My path is straight and true.
The prospect that anything is really wrong is laughable, just look around you. All good people are like me. As the wretches pile up, we shoulder the burden and march on. We are the drivers of the system, we are the strength. No level of wretch will stop us.
But every one of us has the Devil inside. We live in blissful denial of our own flaw: Prosperity. Prosperity is the high that drives our ever growing ambition, and our addiction to prosperity will lead us right over the edge.
Naturally, denial is the initial reaction of any addict, but on reflection I see that my own ambition serves only to leverage the future of our children for a small benefit today, just as my father’s generation has done to me. It isn’t that I have done something wrong per se, at least not above and beyond any other, but that I am complacent in a society of sinister direction, reaching for a fatal overdose.
Now I will sacrifice my child to feed my insatiable desire for prosperity because I fear detoxification. I am so deeply addicted that I believe in my heart that it will work. I can take another pill and it will work. His suffering will be brief and this is the last dose that I will need. Everything will be normal again. I promise it will be normal again.
But that is not the nature of our world. Sympathy is a human condition, not one of the natural order. History will smile if we accept this truth and accept our role in its course. This is a fight we cannot win. If Depression will take us, we are powerless to stop it.
This isn’t to imply that we are hopeless, only that fear and arrogance diminish our future. I’ve heard declaration that the very act of birth at the proper range of coordinates on Earth is sufficient to lead us beyond any obstacle. We are invincible, yet we live in fear of mortality and failure. As any good addict would, we must confront our fears if we hope to survive them.
The choice is ours. We can trust that someone of mythical heroics will save us from our own folly or we can face our fears and follow implications, lead where they may. Discretion is the better part of valor, though in our age of instant glory how many will have the courage to see the Devil in himself and choose the former?
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Tristan,
I’ll handle this one as how I’d think an English teacher would. While it was very well written, I believe you were very convoluted with your point. If it weren’t for the CC’s opening remarks, I wouldn’t have the slightest clue what you were writing about. This is supposed to be a forum for complaining, not preaching. To me, it seemed like I was sitting through a morality lecture or a church sermon.
What exactly are you complaining about? Is it that we’re all human and have our own faults? Or is it that people don’t recognize their own faults? If that is your premise, I disagree. I think most people realize their own faults, but they may just be afraid or unwilling to admit them to others. Even the lowliest of drunks or drug addicts will probably admit to his or herself that they’re messed up. In my experience, there are only a handful of people who DON’T realize they have faults. They even have a word for those people, elitist. I have faults, you have faults, and even the CC has faults. I’m not sure if Don has faults though…(ROLLING EYES).
I think maybe I’ll write a guest post where I complain about nothing…or something that is stretched so thin that the premise is actually wrong.
I’m sorry you didn’t get anything out of it.
Well I did try and say something nice. It was written well.
I’m going to take a stab at this one. This is just excellent writing, and I’m going to look at it as a puzzle where I get to pick out the final picture.
For me, everything centers around my family and politics, so those are the only analogies I’m able to draw, although there could be others.
First off, if you tried to write this in Cuba, Venezuala, China, or even Russia today, you’d be jailed or murdered. Socialism and communism do not allow you to question their leader’s actions, or spread hope and visions of prosperity, even if hope and prosperity are the lies that the evil socialists use to implant their agenda.
Let’s go down the list. “Wretches of Society.” To me, that means the liberals, socialists, and the liberal fascists. Liberals believe in the communist concept of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” They are generally very sympathetic people, and think that helping people means giving someone food instead of showing them how to grow it. Socialists operate under the same idea, but ascend to power by getting around their democratic rules…i.e. stealth legislation. Liberal Fascists are potential tyrants because they develop ways to become wealthy on an issue while implementing policy in the stealth way socialists do, and then refuse to debate the issue claiming the debate is settled. Al Gore and global warming is a perfect example. Where King Barry stands on things is still up for debate, but I would conclude that since he grew up politically around Marxists, he’s at least a socialist, and sounds more and more like a liberal fascist every day. I think he wants more and more unemployment so he can easily implement socialist healthcare by removing the need for a debate.
When I look at “my father’s generation”, I look at the voters in and around the baby-boom generation. I believe they have failed miserably as a generation by leading our country down the path of senseless borrowing – their visible form of prosperity, and also their addiction. That addiction was fueled by liberalism in gov’t allowing (sometimes forcing) banks to make bad loans. This current spending bill could be the “fatal overdose” you’re referring to…or the perpetual behavior of borrowing and spending. Eventually our politicians need to learn that you can’t borrow your way out of debt.
I see the “mythical hero” you’re referring to as King Barry, who is also looked at as FDR re-born. With our children not being taught the truth about the New Deal, there is no wonder people are excited about the new spending bills. Because I understand the failures of FDR, and I’m watching the exact same thing happen again, I’m going to choose “discretion”…I’m going to choose patience instead of quick reactions, and I’m going to choose certain liberty and certain freedom over unknowns like hope and undefined changed.
The United States will be alright, even with the likely depression. King Barry was wrong when he said that only gov’t can solve this problem. The solutions to our problems lie in the hands of WE THE PEOPLE.
I see mike and NCD beat me to the punch here. It was fun to read. I think Tristan is correct that we are teetering on a depression, and it will be determined by this spending bill. It’s funny that NCD brought up the ‘stealth legislation” becuase there is so much in this bill…like gov’t control of physician decisions, and anti-religious legislation, and pro-union legislation. Three months from now, when this bill doesn’t work, the gov’t will just pass another one, and then another. New Deal all over again.
As individuals, how do we battle through it? Save money, and do everything you can to keep working. Make yourself the most valuable person at your company so you can’t be fired. Also, develop a skill that can make you income in case you lose your job. You can do this by reading a book, or taking a class, etc. Be willing to barter with other businesses for goods or services. Also, develop a plan of how you’ll budget your money if you do lose your job, and decide what assets you’ll sell, like cars, boats, campers, etc. You might need to dump cable, or your cell phones for a while. If you think you’ll lose your house, talk to family members and develop an emergency plan for where you might need to live. Also, don’t be afraid to pack it all up and go somewhere else. There are 3 states that are under 4% unemployment, and 7 that are under 5%. 17 states are at 6% or under when it comes to the unemployment rate.
There is always income out there. YOU need to find, not gov’t.
Well if Don’s going to turn this into another liberal, fascist, socialist, and communist debacle…then count me out. I have no desire to listen to his misinformed and close-minded ramblings any longer. If that means vacating this blog, then so be it. Don and Otis are political elitists who know nothing about politics. It’s irony at it’s best/worst. Take your medication boys… If the topic is about politics, from here on out you two are ignored. If you try to make a topic about politics, you two are ignored.
One more thing before I go…
If any of you are curious as to why I hate the ramblings of the two idiots Don and Otis… Look no further than their responses to Tristan’s post here. Tristan said NOTHING about politics, the stimulus/spending bill, a depression, legislation, socialism, communism, liberals, conservatives, or Obama a.k.a King Barry. Yet both of these two idiots bring these topics up time and time again, even when they’re not related to the original post. Why? Because they both love the sound their keyboard makes when they type. I think it’s obvious what their faults are… And Tristan, I think it’s fair to say that they both fall into the category of people who cannot recognize their own faults. They’re too bull-headed, close-minded, and ignorant to have any real vision…probably because their heads are stuck up each others’ butt.
DONE!
Libby,
You really need to request a refund for that edumacation of yours…It’s called symbolism, but you admitted to not getting it at all in your first comment. Quit being so closed minded and try it…pick a topic and put the puzzle together. I have 3 other topics running through my head right now, but I’m tired and I need sleep so I can create new ways to expose King Barry’s administration as the fear-mongering, lie producing, Marxist regime it wants to become.
I think Otis hit the nail on the head with his solutions. Another one he didn’t mention is to make sure you do not count on credit over the next year or two, even if your credit is excellent. With all of the nations in the developed world that are planning to implement similar wreckless spending there will likely be less credit available, even though Obama said the spending bill will free up credit. The problem is that most of the countries engaging in spending will need to borrow the money, and the lenders will lend to gov’t before anything else. Since there’s not enough money in existence to pull from, nations will begin printing money. Sometimes I wish the morons in Washington would realize that we’re getting ready to re-live history and we’re doing the exact same things Hoover and FDR did to make things worse.
Wow, Tristan, this was heavy, but good. And Mike, come on, he was complaining, just in his own way. I don’t think it sounded like preaching. And NeoConDon, seriously, knock off trying to make everything about politics and the new administration. It is getting old.
OK Don and Otis. I hate to have to put limitations out there, but I have to agree. We don’t need to make every single post about politics and what’s wrong (as you see it) with the liberals. Sometimes I enjoy the exchanges, if the posts are political in nature, but recently, you two have made every post about politics. I encourage your feedback on the discussion board, but perhaps (on some of the non-political posts) with less pushing of your arguments against socialism…
I would be very happy to read someone else’s interpretation of this piece. But, since the underlying theme is the upcoming economic depression, I can find no other way but to express it politically. The only way to determine how to lessen the blow of the collapse is to first understand how we got there…that would be liberalism. I guess I could use Tristan’s post to interpret the current MLB steroid scandal or the pending Live Nation/Ticket Master merger, but what fun would that be? Those events aren’t stealing my liberty in the cover of night like the morons in Washington are.
I’m guessing the reason Mike won’t get involved in this (beside the fact that he doesn’t have the ability to interpret things and read beyond the words) is because of how I spun him around in circles with my last column. He took his ball and went home…poor baby. Mike, you need a big hug.
Of course Don took his interpretation a little beyond what I would have expected while writing, but that is half the point in an abstract piece and I thought it was a solid interpretation.
Politics are certainly relevant to the issue, though in my view blaming liberalism, even if justified, is still more finger pointing and focusing blame a bit too narrowly. (On that topic, the future being what it may be, I expect that socialism will be inevitable, particularly in appeasing the unemployed masses and controlling civil unrest.)
I’m personally more aligned with what Otis had to say. We need to fend for ourselves for once. Help family, friends, and neighbors if they need it and don’t expect that nothing about your life is going to change. If you’re in debt, the clock is ticking.
Most importantly, we need to seek the truth and face it with courage. Many economists subscribe to ideologies that are being proved wrong after decades of apparent success. This is an example that shows we may need to unlearn what we think we know and a show a little humility to improve the degrading spirit we’ve seen in modern times.
Tristan,
This isn’t an interpretive writing blog…it’s an outlet for complaining. I shouldn’t have to interpret what you’re complaining about. Do you understand why that doesn’t work? Everyone who reads an interpretive post will only get out of it what they choose to see. It will have absolutely no bearing on what you were originally complaining about…which apparently you’re not even sure of.
Hey I got an idea, since we’re on an interpretive writing kick here, I’ll post up some Ralph Waldo Emerson poems and we can take turns explaining what we think he meant.
CC, I apologize if I’ve assumed wrong that interpretive writing shouldn’t actually be considered a complaint.
Tristan, I realize you probably went into this guest post with a point and purpose, but I think it got lost along the way. The worst part of an interpretive piece like this is that it allows people like Don to take liberty into what they THINK you meant.
Putz Libby,
Only the CC can determine what goes on and does not go on this blog. You’re opinion doesn’t really matter.
The point of a piece like this is to write what it means to ME, not the writer, and then people can debate and discuss it. It’s fun and it’s challenging. It is also very exciting for the writer to hear what people think and to engage. I think it’s very refreshing to have another open-minded and thought provoking person like Tristan, providing content to this blog, unlike Mike and Zig who are close minded linear thinkers.
Wanting a better life for our children that we had is something that has been instilled in many of us. Of course we want to do better than our parents did. Who really wants to stay at one level for their whole life?
I didn’t really get the last four paragraphs of the post. Are you saying that if we want more (more things, more money, more out of life)then we should be considered an ‘Addict’?
NeoConDon,
WTF? Blah, blah, liberalists…..blah, blah, socialists…….
DOES EVERY POSTING NEED TO INCLUDE POLITICS?????
The funny thing about an interpretive “Thought provoking” post like this one, is that logic tells us nobody can have a wrong answer…Yet somehow Don manages to always defy logic.
Here’s a quote:
“If you’re gonna spew…spew in this.”
-Garth from “Waynes World”
I’ll bet Don could ramble on for hours about how Garth was really talking about how liberals constantly retard the growth of America. When all Garth really intended was to be helpful in giving his friend a place to spew.
That’s what I’m talking about Libby…closed minded linear thinking. At least you stopped whining and decided to come back to the playground. Did mommy fix you some soup while you were home?
I think you’re being a little hard on Mike, NCD. I wonder if he realizes that Animal Farm is more than just a story about some pigs.
There ya go Don, talking about yourself in third person again I see.
And I never left, I just refuse to get into a political discussion with you, especially when it’s not a political thread. I’m done with that.
Or…maybe you accidentally wrote that last comment as NeoConDon, instead of an alter ego. Are you really Tristan?
nah, that was my wife making a comment…she’s getting mad at me for badmouthing you around the kids. Guess she didn’t realize that she had to clear the cookie in the reply screen. She did make a good point though, don’t you think?
Maybe you should go back and read the thread “Watch what you say”.
And no you/she didn’t make a good point. The reason being that yes, I have read Animal Farm and completely understand the premise of the book. I know very well that it isn’t just about some pigs. That’s a creatively written story…not a complaint on a complaint blog.
Linear Libby,
I still can’t figure out why you don’t see Tristan’s complaint.
Because there isn’t one. You’ve admitted yourself that it’s an interpretive piece and everyone can take their own guess as to what he means. Now, how can you complain about something and expect anyone to know what that something is when you allow them to interpret it how they want?
Complaints cannot be interpretive writing, otherwise everyone can interpret their own complaint from the story, which completely diminishes the initial need to complain. Even you should be able to see the loop-back problem there.
You really need to get a refund for your “education.”
Sugar, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Always wanting more of something and always being insatiable in that something is an addiction. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about cocaine or food or sex or money.
Wanting (expecting?) more for our children is harmful in my view. Of course we want our children to be happy, but if they are happy with less, that should be fine. We do not often give them that opportunity because we try to instill values in them that insist that they have more money, a bigger house, and what we consider to be more “success”. We glorify salaries over purpose. In my opinion, this is a primary reason why we as a society have worked so hard to create wealth out of nothing and why we now we have to answer for it. Addiction to wealth and prosperity caused us to heavily leverage our future. Imagine having a credit card balance that’s 350% of your salary–that’s where we are today.
Mike, I think Don and I have enough differences to tell us apart. Maybe you could submit a guest post complaining about posts that are not complaints and comments that are not relevant to the post, that would solve this.
That’s not a bad idea Tristan, however I couldn’t complain too much about comments that aren’t relative to a given post…because even I’m guilty of that. I at least admit to it, where some people continue to go on and on about how a post is really about politics when no one else who reads it sees an ounce of politics.
Linear Libby,
Let me guess….”Lord of the Flies” was really about a bunch of kids on a deserted island…???
This post is about the upcoming depression, which is a political issue. Why is it so hard for you to admit that you’re wrong? You are too closed minded. Get your refund dude, you deserve it.
Tristan, the mark of a good writer is how well he or she can be understood by any audience. I have been listening to all these idiots tell you that your rant was well written. It sucked! I am an English major. I have been trained to believe that all written communication is pretty much “art” and to search for meaning in and through writing. I struggle to believe that you are even awake when you stumble through your rants! Wake up! You can’t write!
My problem with this post is that “Kristen” doesn’t know that everyone doesn’t share his moral compass. For example, in his post (below), he wonders how any drug addict could tolerate “that existance.” What a load of Don. What makes “Kristen” to good of a person to “tolerate this existance?” Apparently, “Kristen” has never heard of social relativity… Kristen has been blessed with good parents with the monitary where-with-all to provide a good life to him. But, other children haven’t shared the same benefits. He is a product of his environment. That’s great that you “do your job.” Don’t you get paid for that? Do you wnat something extra because you follow the law, too” You already admitted that you sell your dignity. Who’s moral compass are you using when you say, “My path is true?” I think it’s great that you provide for your family. I am assuming you are talking about money, right… Let me ask you this…Are you any better than NCD, because he let’s his wife provide (Monitarily) for his family? See, your rant is poorly written, poorly conceived and is full of SHIT! Your rant is full of “I wouldn’t,” but you DO sell your selfesteem everyday you go to work and work in your capitalistic cubby. You don’t know “what you’d do” until you’ve been presented with the situation, idiot! You like to belive you’d take the correct path (accoring to the Juedao-Chistian tradition traditions), but you have no idea!
Can I get a sip of what you’re drinking Zig?
Zig, you had no problem detecting the irony in my post, but you didn’t quite identify it as such. I think if you read again you’ll see that my point of view isn’t so different from yours…
That being said, you actually did a great job of interpreting what I had to say and received my point quite well.
Don, you’re the only one who actually thinks this post was about politics.
It doesn’t matter what Lord of the Flies was about. We’re not talking about a book or story here, we’re talking about a complaint blog. Complaints should have no room for interpretation, otherwise they’re not complaints. For example, if you had a horrible stay in a hotel one night… Would you tell the manager of the hotel about the problems you encountered in the room, or would you tell him metaphors and an interpretive story about why your wife might leave you? Chances are you’ll stick to the straight forward complaint if you want it to do any good whatsoever.
Also, Lord of the Flies is a great book. You can keep throwing out literature to me Don, but I believe that I’ve read more classics and have a much better educational background than yourself. I’m mostly modest, but when my intelligence is called into question it bothers me. What’s your degree in Don? It certainly isn’t political science. If it were, it’d be easy to see why you don’t have a job. I have a BA in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Ohio State University.
Don’t question my intelligence, because most people would rate it fairly high. If you’d like to talk about literature for the sake of literature, let me know. That might be one discussion/argument where we won’t resort to name calling. Anyone read Wuthering Heights or The Count of Monte Cristo?…My two favorites.
Perhaps you’d like to explain how a post about the upcoming depression has nothing to do with politics…???
Hmmm, maybe because because the upcoming depression is only listed in the CC’s opening remarks. The actual post says nothing about the depression. Regardless though, your attacks on Obama for the upcoming depression make no sense anyway. Considering he’s only been in office for less than a month, but your buddy GWB was in office for 8 miserable years. I think it’s clear to everyone but you who’s really responsible for the upcoming depression.
This wasn’t a post about the upcoming depression. You read “Upcoming depression” in the opening remarks and immediately skipped down to throw a comment out about “King Barry”. If you had actually read the thread, you would have realized that even Tristan had no idea what his post was about.
I seriously think you have a legitimate case to sue OSU. You’re right about that though…liberalism will be the cause of this upcoming depression, and was certainly the cause of the housing bubble, the burst, and the recession. GWB has always been a liberal except for his foreign policy…the one bright spot. His economic liberalism and refusal to identify the cheaters in Washington have casued a lot of this. I just can’t figure out why King Barry and President Pelosi are continuing with the same old liberal policies…??? The last administrations you’d want to mimick is FDR’s, Carter’s, and GWB’s when it comes to economic policy.
Um, and I’m sure that the housing crisis has nothing to do with de-regulation…which Republicans are notorious for. (That was sarcasm. I feel the need to point that out because you are not intelligent enough to understand that.)
Give me FDR, Clinton, JFK, or Obama over any President you’d rather have.
Also, I seriously think you have a legitimate case to sue whatever doctor is prescribing your meds. You clearly need a higher dose to treat your schizophrenia. As for everything else…you just can’t fix stupid.
At least your idiocy is comical…except you’ve stolen everything in your show…just like a good little liberal democrat in love with commie-wood.
This coming from the guy who steals his material verbatim from the conservatives guide for dummies. I’m done with this one. It’s new material time.
The call that The Constitution. You libs should actually read it.
For the record, and in an attempt to clear things up for the liberal kook and the right wing nut job, Tristan said this about my comment:
“I’m personally more aligned with what Otis had to say.”
I certainly don’t want to take anything away from NCD when Tristan said this about his comment:
“and I thought it was a solid interpretation.”
This was clearly about the economy, and the writer was suggesting that instead of looking to gov’t to get us our of our lot in life, we need to identify what we did wrong and how we can best ride the storm. If you’re in a boat that is going to sink, you save every life you can and then build a bigger and better boat. You don’t try to fix the boat as it is sinking.
Today is certainly a turning point for the socialist movement. Only time will tell how many of our liberties were stolen today. I think we’re at the top of the first hill of a very tall roller coaster and the slope is slippery, steep, and fast.
“We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism.”
– Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev, 1959
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” – Ronald Reagan
Mike, every single other person posting a comment on this thread was able to interpret my post. You can keep insisting that it had no content but you will still be mistaken. I’m sorry again that you didn’t get anything out of it, but so far you’re the only one.
Otis, at times it seems we value the boat more than our lives and would rather go down with it than admit that there is a leak.
Tristan, good post! It started a great debate, although you still can’t write!
Tristan,
The only people who agree that your post has anything to do with politics are Don and Otis.
You don’t count because you can’t write coherently anyway. You use big words to hide the fact that your post has no point. If the CC hadn’t put something about the “Upcoming economic depression” in the intro, even Don wouldn’t have had a clue what you were talking about. He still would have said some BS about politics because that’s what he does, but that’s the only reason. Your post says absolutely nothing about the depression, politics, or your secret lust for Don.
If I read a story and the introduction tells me that the story is about bank robbers, I sure as hell expect the story to be about bank robbers, not some convoluted mess about nothing.
Seriously, Mike. You deserve a refund.
Zig, glad you liked it.
Mike, after a couple of drinks I am enjoying your responses immensely!