I am really enjoying reading ‘The Man’. You are obviously a man of many talents.
I thought I would just make a few philosophical remarks about your analysis of chapter 1. Towards the end of the analysis you pose the following question in regards to the moral assessment of the narrators act of paying for the aboriginal woman’s medicine, “So does that count [ is his action morally praiseworthy] or do you only get kudos when you perform an act of kindness?”.
The Two Schools of Moral Philosophy
Before giving my own answer to that question i would like to give a little philosophical background for any readers not familiar with some of the technical terms used within moral philosophy. There are, broadly speaking, two main schools of thought within moral philosophy.
Utilitarianism which originates from the English philosophers Jeremy Bentham and James Mill. Utilitarianism is an ‘externalist’ moral theory which locates the moral worth of an action in its consequences. De-ontological theories developed by the German philosopher Kant are ‘internalist’ and focus on the Subjective intentions of an agent.
When is an Act of Kindness Not an Act of Kindness?
With that out the way let us return to the ‘Man’. An internalist would say his action [paying for the medicine] was praiseworthy if he acted from some genuine empathy or sympathy (although the latter can be seen as patronising) towards the aboriginal woman.
Kant on Moral Kindness
Kant would say that for praise to be attributed to the action the Man’s internal reasons should be aimed at the welfare of the woman and not for any personal aggrandisement. (i.e. to be seen as a good man by others in which it is his own and not the woman’s welfare that is the ultimate target of the action).
Kant even goes so far as to say that to be morally praiseworthy the action should be contrary to the agents well being. for instance if I give some money to a beggar because of a genuine heartfelt concern for his welfare and happen to receive a tax deduction on the ‘donation’, then it is not a truly moral action. This seems to me to be a step too far.
Internalism Vs Externalism
Why can’t it be that a good man is rewarded for his goodness? If he acts without concern for possible rewards then he still meets the internalist criterion of moral action.
Of course at this stage in the story we can not be sure of the man’s true motives for acting as he does. so from an internalist perspective the jury is still out.
Now to externalism. An externalist would say that the moral worth of the Man’s action is determined by its consequences. But this is ambiguous. Of course, the woman’s daughter needs the medicine and so, on one level the action is good irrespective of the Man’s actual intentions because it results in a greater balance on the whole, of pleasure over pain in the world.
But as with all forms of moral accountancy the credits and debits are never simple.
For example, why is it that the cancer drugs are not free from the national health service. Maybe they are but the women does not know it. Maybe, if she did not get help from the Man and the chemist that she would be forced to look into the matter and receive free medication.
If that was to happen then it would be a better world than the one in which she gets handouts because she would not have to rely on strangers for sympathy and the strangers would be left with more money.
So on balance the utilities are maximised by not giving her money. My view is that like all moral questions there is an eliminable complexity and that true evaluations are hard to come by and require careful reflection on and understanding of all relevant conditions relating to the action. That is why I dislike any simplistic fundamentalism with the one answer fits all attitude.
So in regards to the ‘Man’ and the moral evaluation of his action. I think the jury is still out due to a lack of evidence.
Anthony Bell
Editor’s Note:
Thanks Anthony, you have raised some interesting points.
I wonder if the world would be a better place if no one ever had to think about other people because the state took care of all our needs. Might we not become very selfish and self centered?
I think being able to put oneself in the position of another and being capable of being moved by that experience is a very important trait in a human being and a person not capable of doing that (and there are many people in that position) experiences a sense of lacking or loneliness or a “hole” in their life.
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The Man – A Philosophical Story About the Search for The Meaning of Life
We live in a world that is overcrowded and yet most of the time we live alone. I don’t mean that we live on our own I mean we feel we are on our own. This is what troubles our minds and hurts our hearts. It has been called the human condition.
Have you ever felt real desperation? Some people feel desperate because their life is boring but to the person who has nothing, no job, no money, no home, no safety net and sometimes, little mouths to feed as well (or any combination of these); a boring life would be regarded as something to aspire to.
So far we have met at least three people in this philosophical story who are desperate, I would hazard a guess that the girl in the supermarket, the car salesman and the bush copper all struggle with their own fears as well, we are just not aware of them.
The Bogeyman in the Cupboard
In your life probably everyone you know has a pit of fear somewhere deep down that they don’t let you see. That is why they feel they are alone. They deal with it alone, just like you do.
That works in our day to day lives because it would be hard to function on a daily basis if you were so plugged in to every one that you felt and worse, experienced their deepest fears. Some people are that sensitive and they usually end up going crazy.
Secondly, it is important that we learn how to cope with our own demons. When you were a child in bed trying to sleep and you thought there was a bogey man in the cupboard, it was okay to get up and tell your mum or dad and get them to go and have a look; that is how you learn they love you. If they love you, you must be worth loving and so we learn to love ourselves.
The Aboriginal girl is loved by her mum. Her love for her daughter motivated her to set out to do the impossible, to get her daughters drugs with no money in her pocket, only a determination to succeed. When she did, she felt no need to be grateful to anyone else for her success because she knew she was responsible for making it happen.
Success or Failure – Either is Acceptable
How many times have you felt the same in your business? You don’t know how you will do it but you are determined to succeed. And somehow you do. How much harder it is when you don’t know how and you don’t believe you will succeed. I would say it is impossible. That is how the Man feels.
The message here is, when you have done everything you can do to bring about success you owe nothing to any one and if you fail there is no disgrace in that either. Doing nothing is not an option to the person who really wants to succeed.
Nietzsche had a strong view about this as Ruth Abbey, Associate Professor Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, pointed out in a recent radio interview:
“Great people, according to Nietzsche, don’t seek power over other people, they might achieve power over people, but that’s never their goal. Their goal is always something outside. They’re not interested in insulating or putting other people down, they’re always aspiring for some form of greatness – cultural, political, artistic, literary, whatever. They’re not driven by the desire to be judged by the standards of others, and this is one of the things that distinguishes masters from slaves. So the ubermensch (Superman) is not motivated by control over other people, he might achieve that, but that would never be his primary motivation.”
She goes on to say:
“But it’s also important to acknowledge here that great people can fail, according to Nietzsche, without that
Friedrich Nietzsche - it is important to acknowledge that great people can fail
making them any less great. So their greatness shouldn’t be measured by objective standards, or external achievements or deeds. And there are many very poignant passages where Nietzsche talks about the fragility of the great human being, particularly in the modern world where all the forces of conformity, uniformity and mediocrity, are striving against the realisation of true individualism.”
Nietzsche is very worried about the fate of great individuals, he knows they are just as likely to fail as they are to succeed, so we can’t necessarily measure their greatness by their deeds or by their achievements, it’s more a psychological disposition to doing the things that are necessary for success.
So what can we learn from this? A lot, I hope
How to Get Close to Someone You love
First, if you want to get close to someone, you have to be able to walk a mile in their shoes, which means you have to be able to experience what they are experiencing, to genuinely share their happiness, their disappointments, their wins and the demons that scare them to death. We each have the power to lift the veil of loneliness from the ones we love. We can exorcise the bogey man from the cupboard by letting them know that as long as we are there they will never walk alone.
When you can do that; you too will never walk alone because you will always have a loved one by your side.
This is what Anna, the little Aboriginal girl teaches the Man, he learns that he can get close to her and more importantly, he learns that only by genuinely sharing himself with her is he able to get close enough to give her the courage she needs to go to sleep. That is a RELATIONSHIP, the kind we all want but are not always prepared to invest enough of “ourselves” in to get.
If I never wrote another word, I have already told you all there is know. But if it is so easy why aren’t we all happy?
Because you can live a whole lifetime without ever experiencing this vision of love for each other and if you can’t see it or feel it, you can’t share it with one who loves you. And if you can’t share it then the relationship is not as complete as it could be.
The greatest gift a parent can give a child is to let them share and participate in the vision which the parent’s have for the family. As they become a participating member of the family they feel respected and valued and truly experience the love the parents have for them and they learn how to return it and then how to give it. All else is secondary and believe me, I know.
Secondly, we can lose sight of the vision and when there is no vision the spirit will perish. The Man has lost his vision and with it his belief in himself. The Chemist still has his and it helps him live a fruitful life that gives him little pleasure other than that which he creates by giving to others.
That is one aspect.
How to Apply this Philosophy to Business
This philosophy also has great application to our business life as well. I’m running out of space in my self imposed limit but let me point you in the direction I believe leads to success.
Most of my readers have their own web site or blog and some have asked how to get more readers, more comments or how to be successful which I presume means how to make money.
I look at every web site that we link to in the comments as you know, and often I see web sites that try to deliver good quality information but more often I see a web site or blog that is designed as a platform to serve up Google Adwords. There are Ads at the top and in the middle and at the bottom and in the end it is hard to find the content for the ads.
If a reader is served that kind of page what is their immediate reaction? I believe they think, this web site is primarily designed to make money for the web master not to solve my problem.
When I was new in sales there was a guy who was a master salesman, he made huge sales and spoke at all the conferences and I was in awe of him (when I didn’t hate him to pieces out of jealousy). One day on my way to a client, I got in a lift and who did I find there, the master salesman.
He pressed level 5 and when the door closed (I wanted to be sure there was no escape) I said, very fast “Hello my name is Ric Vatner and we only have 30 seconds, I want to know what is the secret to success?”
He was startled but I indicated time was running out and I needed an answer. This is what he told me;
The Secret to Success – Really!
“When you go into a sale there are two problems to solve, One, you need to make the sale to make money. Two, the client has a problem that they want solved. If you concentrate on solving your problem the client will see you are not genuine about solving their problem and they won’t buy from you. If they don’t buy from you, you both still have a problem. And next time bring some toilet paper, you scared the shit out of me”
And that was the last time I ever met him.
I have found over the years that he was spot on and it works in all areas of our life, business and personal . For example, if you are in a relationship, put the other persons feelings before your own, if you both do that you will love each other for ever. It even applies to writing an article or blog post, write it from the reader’s perspective. What do they need to know to make an informed decision? Do this and your readership will multiply even if you know nothing about SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
I know the SEO experts will disagree but I think the moment you look at a blog post that has been fully optimized to maximize CPC and CPA you know whose problem the writer is concentrating on and you are less likely to click through.
Recently I read an article on one of the web sites we link to in the comments forum and I noticed that throughout the latest article there are random links placed in the middle of sentences saying things like “buy steroids”. The article was not about steroids but there were at least 10 links in it to a web site that sells steroids.
Okay, imagine one in a thousand people click the link, do the maths, how many people have you irritated along the way. Will they ever come back? And I can tell you that the other posts on the blog were not like that and are all quite good. I saw this as a sign of desperation, a sign of trying to solve the wrong problem.
What they should have done is write an article that answers the reader’s questions and doubts and then offered a link.
However, and I hope you won’t think I am sermonizing here, I think it is important to believe in your product and if it can do harm or it is demeaning to some people maybe you should look for another product to sell, one that you can be proud to write about. I think you will find that a lot easier to do and ultimately you will be more successful.
I know, I can talk the hind legs off a donkey, that’s why I set a limit for each post and lucky for you, I have reached it.
Don’t forget to come back for Chapter 3 and then vote for whether we continue the story or not.
And to finish off I hope you don’t mind if I take this opportunity to play one of my all time favourite songs. Please join me in singing as loud as you can (If I can’t hear you it is not loud enough ):
The flame is not so bright to itself as to those on whom it shines
Chapter 2
The man sat in his car; he fought the rising wave of panic. He knew this feeling very well. It had accompanied him through the whole saga. It woke him at night. It gave him hot flushes when every one else was cold. It ambushed him before he went into a meeting and slowly screwed his stomach as he received bad news. It made him procrastinate but often, it was the only feeling he had. It was the only thing that reminded him that he was a human with real feelings.
When it passed, he felt weak but he knew he had to do something. He had no money and he needed food, a place to stay and cash for expenses.
His only asset was the car. It was a BMW 3 series, 2 years old and covered in dirt from the trip but otherwise in good condition. He remembered he saw a car yard and tractor sales office at the bottom of the street. He would sell the car and buy a cheaper one. The difference would keep him going for months, maybe a year, if he was not extravagant.
He pulled into the yard and the salesman looked up from reading his newspaper in his warm office. He looked surprised; it had been a while since anyone had come into the yard mid week. He rose half annoyed he had to move at all and half excited in anticipation of making a sale. When he stood in front of the man he clapped his hands in front of his stomach and smiled that car salesman’s smile that says “have I got a deal for you” just before they sell you a wreck.
The man tries to smile back. “Hi, I want to sell you my car and buy a cheaper one and take the difference in cash. Can you do that?” He asked half hoping, half matter of fact.
“Well sir, it’s a nice car. I’m rather partial to BMW’s myself too. But I don’t think we could sell that kind of car round here. Not these days. That would be a bit luxurious and” he paused not sure if what he was about to say would offend the man “it would be a bit useless around the farm don’t you think?”
“Oh”, the man said. “Do you know where I could sell it?”
“Well you would need to go to a bigger town” the salesman said.
“How far is that?” the man asked “200 ks give or take” the salesman replied, losing interest in the conversation. “I don’t have enough petrol to get that far” the man said to no one in particular.
The salesman looked at him suspiciously. He looked like a businessman albeit, he was unshaven and his hair was matted but the car was worth a bit, how could he not afford petrol?
The man said “Look, I don’t need to get top dollar for this, just make me a fair offer. I’ll swap it for a small car with a full tank and some cash how about that?”
The salesman felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. Something didn’t feel right and he was sure this man was either a con man or a thief or worse. He told him he would have to discuss it with his partner and asked the man to come back in a couple of hours. Maybe he could leave the car here so his partner could inspect it. The man agreed and walked back into town.
The last few days had flown past in a blur that felt like an instant. Now with no where to go and no money if he did, two hours seemed like a very long time. It was going to be a long wait.
Exactly two hours later he headed back to the car yard. His car was still where he left it. He had expected to see it up on the hoist being checked out by a mechanic or maybe driven around town to get a feel for its power.
He stood at the car and could see the salesman talking to someone in his office. When the salesman saw the man he motioned to the other person who stood up and looked through the window at the man. It was the town cop.
He came outside and approached the man with that don’t do anything silly look on his face. When he got to the man he said “I hear you want to sell your car. Can you show me your driver’s license please?” The man took out his wallet under the watchful gaze of the cop who made a mental note that there was no money in the wallet. He looked at the man checking for any sign of nervousness.
The man gave the cop his driver’s license upon which he invited the stranger to accompany him to the police station. “Why?” asked the man.
“Well we just have to conduct a few inquiries” the cop said.
“What if I don’t want to” the man said.
“Well you do have a couple of outstanding parking tickets” replied the cop “would you like to pay them now” he said. “No” said the man, defeated.
“Ah, well I may have to detain you for a while then” said the policeman.
He took the man by the arm, it wasn’t a threatening hold but he held it firmly above the elbow and led him to his police car. “Okay if I leave the BMW here Alan” he called to the salesman who nodded obsequiously fast too many times.
The man was shown into the cell where he had to wait for another agonisingly slow few hours. All he could think of was that he was hungry and that he had never been in a cell before.
He was cold but the hot flushes kept him warm and filled his stomach with fear but at least it kept the hunger pains away.
When the policeman came back he collected the man from the cell and took him to his office.
“I don’t understand” he said. “I checked and you are the boss of a big company. You own the car outright. You paid for that Abo woman’s drugs at the chemist and your card was declined at the supermarket? There’s no warrant out for your arrest but you have accumulated a few parking tickets in the last few months”, he said reading from his notes. He looked up, “which you have not paid. What’s going on?”
The man just looked straight ahead. The policeman could see the red blush rise in his face, the man looked done in but he was not talking.
“Hungry?” asked the policeman. The man nodded, his eyes still fixed on some spot, a place far off that only he could see. The cop got up and left the room. The man felt the tightness across his chest ease up when the policeman left.
The policeman returned about 25 minutes later with a meal and a cup of luke warm tea. He set it down on the table and sat back in his chair. The man looked at it then looked at the policeman who nodded indicating it was for him.
He ate in silence. He tried to eat slowly savouring each bite but old habits die hard and he scoffed it down. He was always in a hurry and food was fuel. It was something you had to take on board that interrupted your schedule so you ate as quickly as possible and got on with the important things in life.
But he was not in a hurry any more. He just hadn’t got used to that yet.
Maybe he was in a hurry to be gone from here. He was embarrassed. He had been arrested in public and the people and the shopkeepers had seen him being led to the car and driven through town to the police station.
He looked at the cop. His face was bright red under the stubble; his eyes were blue, bright and worried. He took a deep breath and assembled his thoughts. “ I’m okay.” he said as much to himself as to the cop “I have not robbed any one, well at least not in the eyes of the law. I’ve committed no offense, at least, that I can pay for by going to jail.” He stared into that distant place, saw the chaos and it disturbed him.
“I need to go now” he said to the cop.
It was not an order, there was no anger in it but it was not pleading either. It was a simple statement of fact. The policeman thought about it for a few minutes and then rose. He reached into his back pocket for his wallet and said “Can I lend you a few bucks to keep the wolves away?” The man smiled, a few hours ago this same copper would have been happy to lock him up and throw away the key. He was the quintessential Australian bush copper tough as nails but fair and now he wanted to show that there was no hard feelings.
“Thanks”, he shook his head, “I’m okay”.
The cop put his wallet away quickly, embarrassed. This man could probably buy and sell him many times over so how much could he lend him that would be of value, $10, $20 maybe at a pinch $50 but that would hurt and Karen, his wife, would be angry. She could do a lot with $50. He asked the man if he wanted a lift back to his car. The man politely refused, he preferred to walk. He needed to clear his head.
It was only a short walk back to town; little did he know how much it would affect his life.
In a field of barley the tree stands out but it is lonely. In a forest it is anonymous but it is content.
The reaction to “The Man” chapter 1 has been interesting and immediate. I have fielded a number of calls from friends who rang to discuss it. So I thought it might be worthwhile for our readers if we discuss some of the issues here on the web site.
I am a firm believer that the writer of a story is not necessarily the best interpreter of that story and certainly their view has no more credence than that of the reader. I think writers often enter a zone where the story pretty much writes itself. I know when I was writing this one, I was sometimes surprised to see where it went. For that reason I hope you will share your views about what you get out of the story because you may see things completely different to me.
I don’t mind telling you, when I was writing chapter three I cried like a baby which was quite embarrassing because I was at work. To make matters worse, I had a visitor who thought I had just received some devastating news.
But we will get to chapter three soon enough. I look forward to hearing your reaction to it. I know, you already think I am just a big sop. A baby. Well I admit it! Interestingly the visitor who caught me crying over a silly piece of fiction told me that as we get older we are more able to cry because we have experienced so much and we feel things more.
So there is our first piece of philosophy. Don’t put all the oldies out to pasture too quickly as the young turks may not have the emotional maturity to feel the situation. They may not be able to cry, for example over the injustice we see all around us, over the refugees who get thrown into detention camps sometimes for years or for the millions of indigenous people that live in squalor usually on the very edge of our rich cities.
Some of the people that have read all three chapters think that chapter one is the least interesting of the three, but I don’t agree with that. I have tried to make each chapter a stand alone story but also a part of the whole. It was not my intention to reveal everything about the man; I want him to unfold before us. I want to get to know him as you do a friend, slowly and I want us to discover what he learns as he learns it.
I say us because as I said above, I think the story is to some degree writing itself and I am just as interested to see where it goes as I hope, you are.
The Man is not a true story but of course there are elements in it that are based on true life experience and it includes incidents that will help us understand philosophy or the meaning of life. I think a good story can explain philosophy much better than an academic treatise (I am not claiming that this is a good story that is for you to decide). I have read some great novels that have had a major impact on me, for example;
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
Sons and Lovers by D.H Lawrence
The Great Women of China by Xinran (Not fiction but very powerful)
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
In chapter 1, we find out that the man has driven for a long time almost in a dream because he doesn’t know himself, how long he has been driving.
Is he on the run? If so what from?
In the chemist shop he buys the woman’s drugs but I didn’t feel that he did it with passion or from any altruistic belief. It was almost mechanical. A sort of “Look, here is the money, can we get on to me now!”
I found the Pharmacist interesting (We call them a chemist in Australia). He is Mr Average. He is the archetypical man next door who is not a loser but he is not a winner either. The interesting thing was that he lives in a town where Aboriginals are most likely looked down on yet he has obviously been paying for the drugs the woman needed for her daughter. And I got the feeling she was not the only one.
But he is not the type to want a park named after him, he is not a public philanthropist like the ones that sit on the stage and pretend to be shy and retiring. He is a good hearted quite man that does not think in terms of good deeds only in terms of what needs to be done. He probably doesn’t think of himself as a do gooder, in fact I think if you asked him to describe himself, he would say he was a soft touch, a fool who has his vices. We know he likes to smoke and to bet, I know many fundamentalist religious people that would scorn him for that and yet he is in many ways more honest, more genuine than they are.
It is through the chemist that we first see that the man has a redeeming side to him. I trust the chemist and he saw something in the man that I don’t think the man sees in himself.
I was shocked when he went to the supermarket and his card was declined. My first thought was, so how was he going to pay for the drugs? I felt he was going to let the chemist down and I was sorry for the chemist because I think it happens to him a lot.
But I also saw it as part of the chaos of the man’s life. I felt that he did not intend to let the chemist down on purpose. He genuinely meant to pay for them.
So does that count or do you only get kudos when you perform an act of kindness? Even if for example, you pay for them because you have the money but you don’t really care about the person or their situation. What I’m saying is, what is more important, that I feel your pain and want to help you or that I help you because it is easy for me to do so but I don’t care a damn for your situation?
How many times have you given money to a beggar just to get rid of them not because you want to make their life better? Who is the real philanthropist, the person who gives thousands of dollars because they have millions or the one who shares their last fifty cents with a beggar?
Well I hope these notes help you get more out of the story. I’ll be back on Monday with chapter two.
The road into town was long, straight and dusty. The kind of road you knew would lead to no where special and the reward for arriving was less than his lowest expectations.
Good.
He spat the word out though there was no one to hear it.
First order of business he thought, get some headache tablets. He had been driving for a long time. How long? He had no idea.
He found a chemist shop, entered and stood behind an Aboriginal woman who was swearing at the chemist. She was wearing an old beanie, yellow with green strips interrupted with holes where a moth had carelessly eaten the line and part of the yellow. Her jacket was an equally old and shabby track suit top that had once been colourful but was now as faded as the jaded look on her face.
“I’ll get me money in a few days but she needs this shit now. Don’t be a bastard all your life. You know she needs it”
Being a shopkeeper in a country town is not as straight forward as it is in the city. When the countryside has been in drought for years and the bank and the post office closed down yonks ago, they are the de facto bank, credit agency, Para-psychologist, social worker and when all else fails; whipping boy.
His face was ……….. impassive. He looked like he wasn’t really there. Where was he right now?
On a beach? No, that’s not his style.
In the garden pulling weeds with a ferocity that he couldn’t bring to work? Maybe.
In the TAB (the ubiquitous betting shop) listening to his horse running a poor race as usual. It didn’t even have the grace to come last. Just one of the pack, like him, ordinary, average, never a winner but not a complete loser either.
“G’on you bastard, you couldn’t deliver milk on time” he would shout to no one in particular. In the betting shop he is one of the boys, he doesn’t lose too much and he always has a funny quip to make when his horse loses. Yes this was his favourite place, the place he goes to in his mind.
The argument went back and forth and the man’s headache was pounding. He stepped forward, “excuse me”
“Piss off” she spat at him.
“Look maybe I can help”
“Oh yea of course. Who the fuck are you. The cops?”
“No” he said hurt. What’s the problem?” He looked at the chemist
“She already owes me more than the money she gets on benefits and now she wants more. I don’t get this stuff for free to distribute to the bloody community” he said. “I have to buy it and pay for it” he said looking at the woman.
“What does she want?” the man said
“Oh, morphine for pain, sleeping tablets, and some heavy shit that costs a fortune”
“Is it for her?”
“No, for her kid”
“Look I’ll pay for it” the man said as the woman looked at him suspiciously. “What do you want?” she asked accusingly. “Like a bit of black do you?”
“No” he answered meekly.
“Oh, your a racist. Black not good enough for you your majesty” she made every word a dagger and threw them all at him with as much brutality as she could muster. She hated the world and right now she hated the two of them the most.
The woman snatched the medicine from the chemist’s outstretched hand. She showed no sign of gratitude. She needed it and they had it but they didn’t need it. Why shouldn’t he pay for it? He’s white and haven’t they caused us black fellas enough trouble. He’s got the money to buy the stuff but he doesn’t need it. She needs it but has no money. “It’s a shit world. If you don’t take what you can get, you don’t deserve it” that was her considered opinion.
She walked out of the shop, her head high. She had got the drugs her daughter needed. It was an unexpected win; you never get anything if you don’t try she thought. The woman, who could have been thirty but looked more like fifty headed home. Along the way she wondered, would her daughter miss just one vial of the morphine? She deserved some too, wasn’t she hurting as well? Why shouldn’t she have just one hit to help her cope.
The man turned to the chemist, “What’s wrong with her daughter?” he asked.
“Cancer” the chemist said. That one word tells the whole story, it is the one word in the English language that is guaranteed to send shivers down your back. It speaks of pain and terror, of sleepless nights and worry filled days. It recounts a tale of hopelessness, of going into battle with spears to fight an enemy that arrives in Planes and rides on tanks.
“How bad is it?” he asked. “Pretty bad. I’m surprised she is still alive. Sometimes I think she just hangs on so I go broke supplying her drugs” the chemist joked. “I don’t want you to think I’m heartless but if I give in too easy, I’ll have the whole lot of ‘em in here demanding free drugs. I’m not the national health system you know”. He said defensively.
The man asked how much the drugs cost. He pulled out his credit card and told the chemist to bill the drugs to his card. He asked him not to tell the woman. “And don’t go crazy with it, I’m not rich but whatever she really needs, just put it on this” he handed the chemist his card.
The chemist shrugged, took down the details while the man swallowed a couple of headache tablets the chemist gave him and washed them down with a plastic cup of water. They looked at each other, no words passed between them but there was a mutual understanding that from now on they shared the burden.
The man left without looking back.
He walked through the drab sun burnt town now descending into the cold dreary months of winter. It was quite empty other than the shopkeepers, two drivers in the garage getting petrol and some mothers pushing strollers aimlessly window shopping and talking to their children who had already learned not to listen.
He felt hungry and seeing a supermarket he decided to buy some supplies. He did a modest shopping and took it to the check out. “Do you take credit cards” he asked. “Sure” came the brief but not unfriendly reply. He handed his card over and waited.
“It’s declined” she said looking at him with a frown. “Do you have another one?” “No” he replied almost dreamily. “Do you want to pay with cash?” she asked summing him up in her practiced way. “No not now, I’ll come back later”
He knew it wouldn’t take long but he had hoped the card would last a little longer.
He sighed. Looked for his car and when he saw it he walked towards it. For a few brief seconds he had a sense of purpose, he knew where he was going but as soon as he arrived it disappeared and he felt emotionally drained.
Once upon a time there was a sweet shop next door to an infants’ school. One day a big poster appeared in the shop window advertising a new chocolate bar. It looked scrumptious and all the children would stop on their way to school and drool over the picture of the chocolate bar cut in half with the red white and blue cream dripping to the floor.
It came in three sizes a very small “kidsbar”, a family size block and a party pack which was huge.
First one boy bought a kidsbar and took it to school and the next day almost every child had pestered their parents to give them enough money to buy one. There were some very ingenious stories told that night.
Soon one enterprising lad realized that if 5 kids put their money together, they could buy a family block and each one would get more pieces than if they bought a kidsbar. He convinced four of his friends to join him and together they purchased a family sized block.
They all got four extra squares but they found there were two left over and five of them. Then the enterprising lad said “well seeing as it was my idea I should get the extra two squares”. No body liked the idea much but neither could they think of a better excuse to claim the extra squares for themselves so they agreed.
This set the precedent so every time they bought a family block the boy got two extra squares, which he sold to kids who could not afford to buy their own bar.
Greed or Good Business Sense?
One day he worked out that if he got two more people to join the group they could afford to move up to the party pack and they would all get two additional squares for the same money but with the money he had earned on the extra two squares he had been selling he could buy two portions.
So he got one more person to join the group and paid for two portions himself. Then he found that there were four squares left over but as he was paying for two portions and the group purchase was his idea he claimed the extra squares. No body could think of a good reason why they should get the squares so they agreed.
Now he had one big portion plus four squares to sell and at the price he was getting for each individual square he found he got all his money back and he had a portion to eat.
Competition is Good – Right?
Soon the other boys in the group realized they could make money selling some of their squares of chocolate and still have a kidsbar’s worth to eat themselves. The enterprising lad saw this competition and realized he was “losing money” because they were making sales from his idea.
So he sold all his chocolate for one week until he had enough to buy three party packs and then announced that the partnership was over. The boys thought they could compete but the enterprising lad dropped the price of his squares and they lost money because they couldn’t sell their squares and then to add insult to injury, they melted.
With the competition gone, the boy raised his prices and added a new brand of chocolate bar, a very expensive Belgian chocolate that the kids loved. Every one knew that Belgian chocolate was much more expensive so they didn’t mind paying more for a square and the boy found he could make more profit selling less of this one than he did on the other bar.
With his thriving business the boy attracted a lot of friends who he would reward with the odd square of chocolate if they pleased him. But if someone didn’t please him, he had lots of friends willing to make their life a misery.
Life was good. He was now the most popular boy in school. The kids looked up to him and he kept the teachers happy with a regular present, of chocolate of course. He was in the perfect business, no matter what ethnic background, what color or religion everyone liked chocolate.
While the other children were out playing he was at home dreaming up ways to expand his empire.
The Business Expands
One night he realized that he was not the only one making good money from his sales and the next day he made sure the sweet shop owner appreciated how much his efforts had increased the shop’s sales. He didn’t need to stress how many other shops sold chocolate.
The shop owner offered him a discount and the boy accepted but added that he would, from now on, pay for all his purchases at the end of the month. Every day the boy would pick up his chocolate order but because he didn’t have to pay for it until the end of the month he started to see his money pile up. He found it more exciting than sport or girls.
His mind turned to how to maximize sales and his profits. He realized that many of the kids couldn’t save the money to buy a square because they would spend it on something else before they had saved enough. So he offered them a savings plan. They could give him the money and when they had “saved” enough with him he would give them the chocolate. Getting his money in advance also meant that he could pay his monthly account without dipping into his cash that was accumulating in the tin. Life was good.
One day a lad asked the boy “Why do I have to wait? Can’t you give me the square now and I will pay you off”. The boy could see that the lad really wanted the square now and asked if he was willing to pay a little bit extra as he had to outlay the money today but would not get repaid for over a week. The lad readily agreed and the boy found he could make more profit selling the pieces this way.
Soon everyone was getting their chocolate and sweets from the boy on credit. His motto was “Eat Now Pay Later” and it proved to be very popular.
Some people wanted more chocolate but they hadn’t paid off the previous purchase so the boy, not wanting to miss out on another sale, sold them more and increased the period for making the payments – adding one extra payment to cover his “costs”.
Houston We Have a Problem
Then one month he got his bill from the shop but found he didn’t have enough cash to pay it. He talked the shop owner into giving him extra time and took more chocolate to sell.
He realized that he could not give more credit to people who already owed him for past purchases so he told his customers they had to pay off their loans to get more chocolate. This made them very unhappy and some of them decided not to pay at all which had a bad impact on the boy’s cash flow. He also could not sell the new chocolate he had taken from the shop and one day it melted.
Now he couldn’t sell it and he couldn’t give it back but he had to pay for it.
As more kids saw that they could just stop making payments the boy’s cash flow dropped dramatically and he lost a lot of his friends. When the shop keeper came looking for him he appealed to the kids to help him by paying what they owed but they couldn’t think of a good reason why they should suffer to help him.
The head master got very angry when he heard what had happened and gave a stirring speech about greed at assembly. He threatened the boy with expulsion but didn’t get the support of the school board who thought the boy had learned his lesson. To protect the reputation of the school they paid the shop owner and told the boy he could pay them back – out of future profits.
During all this kafuffle the supply of chocolate had dried up. The teachers missed their presents and no one would dare sell chocolate on credit.
Houston You Have a Problem
On reflection the boy realized that nothing had changed. The demand for chocolate was still there. His punishment, an embarrassing lecture in assembly was long forgotten and the school had picked up his losses.
He began to see the “incident” as a mere hic cup. It was not a knock out blow just a temporary set back. He had learned a valuable lesson and every one knew that an education was expensive, although luckily, he didn’t have to pay for it.
He determined that next time he would go even bigger and now he realized the school was his semi-official backer, why not expand to other schools? The profit potential was huge and the risk, well, he would keep his fingers crossed but at the end of the day, surely, protecting their reputation was the school’s problem not his.
Ric Vatner
Note from the Author:
This is a short parable to get you thinking about the recent banking crisis and what is wrong with the system that allowed or even made it inevitable. My aim is to help you understand how the banking system developed, why it failed and why the government response will probably not work. I also want you to think about the ethics and morality of those involved.
I am very interested to hear your views about the story. Who do you think the Head Master represents? What organization is depicted by the school board? What did you think of the boy in the beginning and how do you think of him at the end?
Do you see any parallels with real life?
Have your say in our comment section or if you would like to write a longer response send it to the editor at shadow in the flame dot com. All genuine responses will be printed and we intend to do a story on this in eSTV so you will get publicity there as well.
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Editor:
Yes but I don’t know anything about Hemorrhoids. Mind you I could write about being a pain in the ass I suppose.:-)
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