Sarcasm Alley

I have a head for business. I understand it's all about the bottom line. I also understand it's about relationships, that if you get people to trust you that creates a positive momentum. And I also understand that chasing money at the expense of quality will leave you with neither (Hello, General Motors). So I don't need any lectures on capitalism from those who think they've been around the block and have such great insight into human nature - as long as their eyes are shut.

At 17 I was a daily subscriber to the Wall Street Journal, owned stock, read books on investing and bought Milton Friedman's "Free to choose". I like the mechanics and logistics of doing business and I also understood that, unlike war, there's no taking prisoners if you want to survive; generosity means death. But like I said, I keep my eye on the bottom line and the bottom line is either a system works for us or it does not.

If it does not, then you chunk it. Despite what we tell ourselves, thinking is not only allowed, but mandatory to survival. The Light Brigade chose not to question why and they ended up dead losers. Nobody gets a free ride to not question what they do. That's how the bad guys take over - like now where we don't question each other's greed but complain bitterly how the greediest rule and spread misery.

Truth is, it's everyone's fault things are like they are. But you knew that already.

Here's another story about another guy who understood the bottom line. He had to make a business decision and was forced to let some people go if his business was to survive. And mankind has deemed it a religious fact of life that business survival is mankind's survival, so how could anything be wrong if it serves the greater good?

It came to be known as the Zong Massacre, the Zong being a slaver ship sailing from Africa to Jamaica in 1781. Due to bad weather, overcrowding and poor navigation, 60 of the slaves had died with many others seriously ill. But the captain had a dilemma on his hands: if the remaining sick slaves died onshore the ship-owners were out the cost of the slaves. But if they drowned at sea they were insured for 30 quid a head.

So the answer was obvious!

Over the next three days, the captain and crew picked out 122 slaves to throw overboard and into the shark infested waters. Nothing personal, of course. It's just business, the cult of mad men and bad men. Another ten slaves, outraged by the crew's conduct, threw themselves overboard in the same way a samurai retainer attempts to shame his master by committing seppuku in protest. Not that it did much good to the cultists' minds.

To a mind uncontaminated with our principles and mores, to have watched the people being drowned it would have appeared murder had been committed on those three days. After all, what else is one to think when seeing a live body thrown overboard to die? But the brainwashed brain sees something else:

No officers or crew were charged or prosecuted for the deliberate killing of 133 slaves. Indeed, the Solicitor General, John Lee, declared that a master could drown slaves without "a surmise of impropriety". He stated:

"What is this claim that human people have been thrown overboard? This is a case of chattels or goods. Blacks are goods and property; it is madness to accuse these well-serving honourable men of murder. They acted out of necessity and in the most appropriate manner for the cause. The late Captain Collingwood acted in the interest of his ship to protect the safety of his crew. To question the judgement of an experienced well-travelled captain held in the highest regard is one of folly, especially when talking of slaves. The case is the same as if wood had been thrown overboard."

Of course, one court case was filed: the insurers wanted their money back. Can't have people cheating the holy system, now can we?

And we are brainwashed to this day. When people are thrown out into the street and denied the right to work, we think nothing of it. That's just a business decision, nothing personal. These things have to happen, sort of like a thousand years ago when a bad harvest meant no food. Now, no mythical profits means no food. We have equated the two in our minds, absolving ourselves of all guilt of who the profit axe casts adrift.

But I say it's murder. It was murder then and it's murder now. I know the lie you tell yourself, I lived it too. But I don't like being played for a sucker (unlike you, dear Light Brigaders). The bottom line is eliminating human misery, to build our house on the rock of truth - that's the true law of nature. Only question is: how many people have to die before we admit that?

In the meantime, all I have to say is: FUCK YOU! Fuck you to hell!

__________________

So before you go making fun of ancient people who worshipped wooden idols to ensure their welfare...