A question to Scottie

Laughing Man (the_laughing_man@hotmail.com)
Wed, 29 Sep 1999 09:35:10 -0700 (PDT) 

Finally getting through the pile of mail, I have a question to Scottie, 
neatly tucked into my (as usual) crystal clear writings:

[Scottie wrote:]
>     You're quite right about me though, Colin.  Years of toiling
>     away with my fellow crazies have rendered me grossly
>     insensitive to another's pain.  Perhaps even, as you say,
>     perversely sadistic in my enjoyment of it.  But there you go.
>     It's a tough old world.

Scottie, I’m wondering: “perversely sadistic in my enjoyment of it”, in your 
version, seem to imply causing this “pain” yourself. I can see how too much 
“toiling away with [your] fellow crazies” can make one “insensitive to 
another's pain”. But to actually cause it?

Maybe being a “good guy”, full of empathy for his fellow man, is just as 
false as being the opposite (whatever that may be described as). Maybe real 
empathy is a gift few of us *really* can extend to a wider circle than our 
loved ones. Maybe the rest is a social construction. But to be mean for 
meanness own sake sounds like something genuinely bad.

Scottie, you write with inspiration. Could you enlighten me/us as to your 
own ethics? Most intelligent people I know are just so “nice” as you try 
really hard not to be, I have no good clue here. And I’m curious.

Corr:
Many of us enjoy the gifted “bastard”. In Miller’s Crossing, in The Fabulous 
Baker Boys, in Reality Bites, the bastard character is the main character, 
the energy center of the movie. Among the three mentioned movies, only in 
Miller’s Crossing does he not turn out to be this frightened little boy in 
the end. Self-identification is oh so important. “The bastard within us” and 
the following explanation of “the frightened little boy” inside us.

Yet, it is also the easy way out. I like it when we don’t always end up with 
that convenient easy-to-fold-and-put-in-your-pocket picture. As a character 
in a play, you are truly a round one. A grumpy old man, a shy victim of the 
“tough old world” blowing out steam on the Internet, a genius writer in 
disguise, a sharp critic of PC mannerism – what have you. Would you care to 
throw in a bone for us wondering ones?

Scottie: ‘Cuse me, what was the question again?
TLM: Do you, and in that case, how do you, describe the ethics guiding you 
in this tough old world, helping you to behave properly (according to this 
ethics of yours)?

/TLM

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