Short piece
October 6th 2006 07:01
... picks the girl up from a group of others, and takes her to an alley. “$100,” she breathes into his ear. This seems expensive to him, but he’s easy, and he begins between her breasts, then kisses his way up to her chin, and she lets him kiss her lips, and she kisses him back. At this point he stops, looks her in her eyes, and says, “Don’t I know you? Didn’t I go to school with you? Your name’s Megan, right?” She is quite astonished. “I’m Donald -- Don. I wasn’t sure if it was you. I had a crush on you for years.” She remembers him, and her face lights up. “So how the hell have you been?” says Megan, as Donald continues licking her collar. “Not bad,” says Donald, running his hand down her thigh. “I’m a manager now, at a publishing company. I’ve been working there since after college. The hours and pay are good, but the work’s killing me.” “I know how it is,” says Megan, between moans. He gets her to go down on him, then pulls her up again to fuck her, and brings himself off in a series of steady, regular strokes. He holds her, shuddering, for a while after. “We should do lunch some time,” says Donald, pulling his trousers up. “I don’t know,” says Megan, cautiously. She feels a little embarrassed, and Donald seems to be a world apart and above her, a success, and entrenched in corporate structure. “Don’t you get any breaks?” says Donald, feeling superior, but suppressing it, and annoyed at himself for the feeling. “I’m only here for about another week,” says Megan, in half-apology, “and then I’m moving somewhere else.” Donald looks at her, trying not to look pitying, and thinking that maybe she was quite happy, and everyone chooses their own life. “Anyway,” says Donald, paying her, “anyway, I better get going. Talk to you again soon.” He checks to see if his wallet is still in his shirt, then walks away.
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Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
That is one of my ultimate fears, and what I worry is that it might happen, I have already seen 2, yes 2 (or I think 2) guys from school during my time, once it was in highschool I think this girl came for like a day she was from my primary school, and only recentlyat uni this guy, must have been a second year, gave me a peculiar look and has convinced me he is someone from back in my highschool at Perth who went to queensland (I live in melbourne now so he must have moved).
But yeah... umm... come to thinka bout it, they might not have even been who I thought they were anyway.
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Me -- I'm a typist.
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
how did you find out about everyone else then? You must have gone to a private school...
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Incidentally, if you ever do get a job as a bum, think of things this way: why the hell should anyone define themselves, or others, in terms of their job? Why should your self-worth hang on something as superficial as that?
The enlightened individual should be entirely unaffacted by whatever anyone else thinks, whether in praise or blame, right?
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
In one important sense, it's not important. -- You, not your community, are the arbiter of right and wrong. You have to stand before the court of your own conscience, and you can't pretend to yourself that the community's voice is a substitute. What's right for you to do is what you think is right. If you believe slavery is wrong, then you have to act as if it's wrong, even if it loses you the respect of your community.
So what the community respects and doesn't respect has nothing to do with what's right and wrong. But it's true that having respect in the community is important for practical reasons -- if, say, you want social power. But, unless you want to be a politician, should you desire the things that communal respect brings. Should you desire social power?
Personally, I applaud people who have the strength to defy the pressures of conformity, break free of the herd, and follow their own consciences.
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Just saying, in a regular, decent, community which shares my beliefs roughtly. I'd rather be a respectable person in this community so when ethical questions do in fact arise what I say will have weight on it, rather than a dope smoking hippie yelling out 'save the cows man'.
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
I enjoyed the piece, it shows how small small-talk can be in any situation....especially an unusual one like this one...
Comment by Damo
Is it the only arbitor of truth?
If so, how anyone be described as unconsceinable?
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Dear Tracy -- I often find small talk quite horrifying. Refusal to take anything seriously...
I can't quite remember why I wrote this piece in the first place. I think part of what interested me were various differences, for instance the difference between speech and their act, and between intention and act.
Dear Damo -- What arbiter of moral truth (the right thing to do, for yourself or for others) is there apart from conscience?
I think people act contrary to their consciences all the time, and in that respect are unconscionable. The adjective doesn't mean much otherwise except when grounded in someone else's point of view.
I enjoy using pseudo-moral words, incidentally. I enjoy baiting conservative types by declaring, "That's absolutely outrageous/inappropriate/etc" -- categories that don't really hold any moral significance...
Dear last Anon -- it's truth that absolute encasement in your own world is madness, and absolute indifference to other people's feelings is sociopaths. But surely there's a strong sense in which you shouldn't let your moral beliefs be dictated to you by other people?
I think I could play the Nazi card here...
Comment by Jas
Stories: Put Them in Your Brain
Food, Wine and Coffee
One Planet
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
Comment by theadora
at the boardroom
Ad Magnum Opus
these are my thoughts, yours to use or lose.
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Dear Ahmed, one important rider to add to your comment is that one should be careful not to think an ought can be derived from an is. Just because something is the case doesn't, without more, mean it ought be the case, that it should continue. Just because a society practices slavery doesn't mean that slavery is good.
So while it might be genetic that we like to follow the herd, and like to conform, this doesn't make it a good thing... If we had murderous instincts by nature (as we probably do), this wouldn't mean they were good things.
Dear Jas, interesting question. Can we be indifferent to the opinions of others, is it possible?
There's actually a shitload I could say in response to that. I wrote a mini-essay, then decided to simplify.
Basically, I think
-- yes, it is possible (monks and serial killers are examples),
-- but yes, this ability to be indifferent is individual-dependent, and we probably do have a genetic bias to being swayed by peer pressure and parental authority,
-- but just because there might be limitations on our ability to be indifferent, doesn't mean we shouldn't aim at being indifferent. Our moral systems might set a high bar for us to live up to you, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to live up to them.
Incidentally, if the ability to be indifferent were more common, or more easily attainable, maybe we would see more loincloths. But then again, ability must be distinguished from choice. Just because I can choose to drink milk doesn't mean I'll drink milk; and just because I have the power to be indifferent doesn't mean I will be.
Dear Theadora, your comment provoked a long conversation between me and a friend.
The first problem in responding to you is this: I'm certainly not making a claim for "genius"; and I'm not even making a claim that the piece (why the quotation marks) is any good. I might agree with you that it's crap.
You're forcing me into a position I don't want to argue when you ask me to prove to you that there is something about the piece that is worthwhile. It's just not my desire nor place to do this.
The second problem is this: I don't entirely understand where you're coming from. It would take a lot more questions and answers between me and you for me to understand how you're interpreting the piece, and what you object to in the craft and content, etc. Such questions come to mind as, Why exactly do you think it ill-crafted? How do you judge good or bad craft? Do you read the piece as satire? Do you think it condones or condemns what it describes, or simply observes? When you say the piece debases, do you mean that it makes claims about humans and human nature that just aren't true? What are these claims? Do you mean that it encourages attitudes that are wrong or are based on falsehoods? Do you think the very description of such an incident is for some reason objectionable? What do you mean by individual worth, and do you read the piece as claiming that the two characters are of high individual worth? What sorts of acts count as paying for affection, and why is it the case that paying for affection zeroes one's individual worth? What exactly makes a prostitute lacking in virtue, and why does absence of virtue zero one's individual worth?
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Comment by Damo
I didn't ask what is the arbitor of my truth (Subjective) but what is the arbitor of the truth (Objective)?
Saying that pesonal conscience is god is probably as subjective as anyone can get. I equate it with the 'If it feels good do it' generation. Taken to the extreme we end up with alienation of an individual.
My opinion does still falls towards there being some objectivity in determining what is good for you.
Some say that 'conscience is but a compass to point a direction'. Put a big magnet beside a compass and the needle moves. You keep happily following the compass and crash your ship on the rocks.
Comment by Justin
It reminded me of how I have acted in the past and the regret I felt afterward from pretending to be a bigshot to friends from high school for no other reason than some comfort or identity in an awkward situation. I feel miserable and apologetic soon thereafter and I know I shouldn't have acted that way if thought on but for some reason can't help myself at the time. Guess it makes me a jerk.
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Incidentally, I've never rented out an old classmate myself, but there have been plenty of times when I've encountered friends working in some sort of lower power position (at the train station, as ushers at a theatre, at the post office), and the situation has felt really awkward. You can't help but use them, even as you lie to yourself and pretend that you did it in the nicest possible way.
Dear Damo, we'll have to have a longer conversation about the grounds of morals sometime. But, very briefly, my position is this.
Pick any moral commandment (and there is a discussion here about how to define "moral", but anyway) -- "Thou shalt not murder", "It is good to seek happiness", etc. I'd assert that such a commandment is traceable, ultimately, to subjective, individual feeling (eg, one's empathy for others, one's drive towards pleasure), and if there's an objective truth out there, it's not accessible.
And why pretend that there is? Why should there be a fact to the matter of ethics, in the same way that there is a fact to the matter about the frequency of the colour blue? "You should" is a fundamentally different type of claim than "It is".
Now, the only non-feeling-based schools of ethics I know of are: religious ones (where ethics comes by fiat), Kantian deontology (where he claims to derive ethics from pure reason), and "contract theory" (where one also claims to derive them from reason). I have my opinions on these things, but perhaps you belong to one of these schools...
Another way to put this point is: try to prove to someone that murder is bad. On what facts can you stand to ground your proof?