Saturday, September 27, 2008

Witch-hunt

"It's them."

"Their doing."

"Their fault"

"It must be."

"It has to be."

"It stands to reason."

"It's obvious."

"How else do you explain it?"

"How come they're not suffering?"

"When we are?"

"Why don't they help us?"

"We'd help them."

"Of course we would."

"In a heartbeat."

"But they're not like that."

"No."

"They're mean."

"Greedy."

"Selfish."

"Heartless."

"You have only to meet them to tell."

"They want us to suffer."

"They're probably laughing at us right now."

"It's all part of their plan."

"It's a conspiracy."

"They're in league with each other."

"They're in league with the devil."

"How else can you explain it?"

"It's their fault."

"They're the ones who brought us to this."

"Took advantage of us."

"Cheated us."

"So now they're sitting pretty."

"While we suffer."

"The bastards."

"The bitches."

"Who do they think they are anyway?"

"We don't need them."

"What makes them think they're better than us?"

"Just because they're better off."

"Because they cheated us."

"Because we let them."

"Because we're too kind-hearted for our own good."

"We should show them."

"Hold them accountable."

"Punish them for their misdeeds."

"Run them out of the village."

"Burn them."

"Hang them."

"It'll serve them right."

"It's what they deserve."

"It's better than they deserve."

"Besides, it'll put an end to the trouble."

"Stop it from happening again."

"It's for the good of the village."

"It's Justice."

"It's necessary."

"Let's do it."

"I'll get the torches."

"I'll get the pitchforks."

"I'll get the rope."

"We're really going to show them now."

Note: This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to arguments living or dead are purely coincidental. Because, of course, mature, intelligent people would NEVER act like this.

12 comments:

km said...

oh yeah.

Falstaff said...

km: Dammit! I cannot believe I missed that. I kept thinking of Crucible when I wrote this, but totally forgot the Pythons. I must be getting old.

Salil said...

Influenced and subtle! :)

Ana said...

Seize them (1), cut’em in pieces and then sell the remains! Yeah!(2)


(1)http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/business/26wamu.html

(2)and from words to facts

Anonymous said...

Oh I thought you were talkign about voters reaction to bailing out Wall Street...

n!

Anonymous said...

Oops scratch that. It WAS about WS.

The dissertation has got my head muddled.

n!

Falstaff said...

salil: Thanks

annamari: Yes, that too.

n!: Not necessarily. It could be about Wall Street. It could be about the Salem witch trials. It could be about the rise of anti-semitism in post WW-I Germany, or the Hindutva's rabble rousing against minorities. It's all the same pathology.

Anonymous said...

Yeah. You do realize on the Ws one you are never going to win right? Because you are adopting the Nash Rational Man approach which everyone knows worked only for Nash (or maybe not!). Emotions count even if they seem irrational - otherwise why do you think people refuse even 30 cents in those dictator and ultimatum games when they should be accepting 1 cent?

n!

Falstaff said...

n!: That's okay. I don't really hope to win. Though it's not really about being rational vs. being emotional. It's about whether emotion has to be transformed to blame, whether holding the first available Other responsible for the situation is the only possible response to one's own negative feelings.

Naveen Roy said...

Beautiful.......

and quite sad!!

Anonymous said...

Hah. And here I was thinking of a Dalit vs. Landowner caste riot in eastern Bihar.

Anonymous said...

And this is a meta witch-hunt, looks like.

amen,
asuph