About a month ago, I was asked at a party, "Jay, you give all sides a fair shake, what the fuck do YOU actually believe?"
After a pop culture filter, I've decided that if Abby's avatar of justice is Julia Sugarbaker, then mine is Sam Vimes.
The bugger of it is, I do give everyone a fair shake. I'm not one to take down a bastard just for being a bastard ("No, Carrot, you can't arrest the head of the thieves' guild for being a thief."). No matter how much of a shit someone is, I can't abide seeing them being taken down for something they didn't do.
From finding the truth..
“It wasn't by eliminating the impossible that you got at the truth, however improbable; it was by the much harder process of eliminating the possibilities. You worked away, patiently asking questions and looking hard at things. You walked and talked, and in your heart you just hoped like hell that some bugger's nerve'd crack and he'd give himself up.”
- Feet of Clay
...A conservative's distrust of groupthink...
“Odd thing, ain't it... you meet people one at a time, they seem decent, they got brains that work, and then they get together and you hear the voice of the people. And it snarls.”
- Jingo
...A serious distrust of any asshole convinced that they're on the right side of social change...
“People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.
As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn't measure up. What would run through the streets soon enough wouldn't be a revolution or a riot. It'd be people who were frightened and panicking. It was what happened when the machinery of city life faltered, the wheels stopped turning and all the little rules broke down. And when that happened, humans were worse than sheep. Sheep just ran; they didn't try to bite the sheep next to them.”
- Night Watch
... A still higher distrust of anyone whose solutions can fit on a bumper sticker...
“Cheery was aware that Commander Vimes didn't like the phrase 'The innocent have nothing to fear', believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like 'The innocent have nothing to fear'.”
― Snuff
...and a deep and abiding intimacy with the darker side of humanity...
"You saw how close men lived to the beast. You realized that people like Carcer were not mad. They were incredibly sane. They were simply men without a shield. They'd looked at the world and realized that all the rules didn't have to apply to them, not if they didn't want them to. They weren't fooled by all the little stories. They shook hands with the beast.”
― Night Watch
...And the knowledge that oversight is useless without personal integrity.
"‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? Your grace.’
‘I know that one,’ said Vimes. Who watches the watchmen? Me, Mr Pessimal.’
‘Ah, but who watches you, your grace?’ said the inspector, with a brief smile.
‘I do that too. All the time,’ said Vimes."
- Thud
Pretty much sums it up.
After a pop culture filter, I've decided that if Abby's avatar of justice is Julia Sugarbaker, then mine is Sam Vimes.
The bugger of it is, I do give everyone a fair shake. I'm not one to take down a bastard just for being a bastard ("No, Carrot, you can't arrest the head of the thieves' guild for being a thief."). No matter how much of a shit someone is, I can't abide seeing them being taken down for something they didn't do.
From finding the truth..
“It wasn't by eliminating the impossible that you got at the truth, however improbable; it was by the much harder process of eliminating the possibilities. You worked away, patiently asking questions and looking hard at things. You walked and talked, and in your heart you just hoped like hell that some bugger's nerve'd crack and he'd give himself up.”
- Feet of Clay
...A conservative's distrust of groupthink...
“Odd thing, ain't it... you meet people one at a time, they seem decent, they got brains that work, and then they get together and you hear the voice of the people. And it snarls.”
- Jingo
...A serious distrust of any asshole convinced that they're on the right side of social change...
“People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.
As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn't measure up. What would run through the streets soon enough wouldn't be a revolution or a riot. It'd be people who were frightened and panicking. It was what happened when the machinery of city life faltered, the wheels stopped turning and all the little rules broke down. And when that happened, humans were worse than sheep. Sheep just ran; they didn't try to bite the sheep next to them.”
- Night Watch
... A still higher distrust of anyone whose solutions can fit on a bumper sticker...
“Cheery was aware that Commander Vimes didn't like the phrase 'The innocent have nothing to fear', believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like 'The innocent have nothing to fear'.”
― Snuff
...and a deep and abiding intimacy with the darker side of humanity...
"You saw how close men lived to the beast. You realized that people like Carcer were not mad. They were incredibly sane. They were simply men without a shield. They'd looked at the world and realized that all the rules didn't have to apply to them, not if they didn't want them to. They weren't fooled by all the little stories. They shook hands with the beast.”
― Night Watch
...And the knowledge that oversight is useless without personal integrity.
"‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? Your grace.’
‘I know that one,’ said Vimes. Who watches the watchmen? Me, Mr Pessimal.’
‘Ah, but who watches you, your grace?’ said the inspector, with a brief smile.
‘I do that too. All the time,’ said Vimes."
- Thud
Pretty much sums it up.
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