Freaks, Perverts, and Ordinary Folks

So I was reading the previous publishing, and that got me thinking. Society of today, you know, has a lot of scapegoats when it comes to sex. Pedophiles, rapists, all of those people have come to represent that which we hate the most, because people do hate pedophiles and rapists, very intensively. But why are we all so antagonistic towards them, specifically? I mean sure, there's talk about how sexual abuse ruins peoples' lives and all that jazz, but - newsflash, people - murderers end peoples' lives. Shouldn't we be more scared of those?

So now I'm thinking: Maybe what we fear in the abusers is more about ourselves. I mean, it stands to reason that none of us have seriously considered, you know, killing someone. But I bet pretty much everyone's had some sort of weird, sexual, deviant fantasy - and there's why it's so scary when others act on them. We know that, if circumstances were difference, that could be you on the tabloids. Then again, sex is a pretty open thing today, nothin' you have to sneak with usually. It's been stated numerous times that your sexual orientation ain't nothing you can change, at least not for most people - and so it's okay to be queer or date two people at the same time. But what if you are one of those people, the bad people, the people who get horny from watching little boys undress? What's there to do about it?

One outta two things, it seems. Either you push it down, ignore it, and spend your life hating perverts for acting on what you're pushing down, or you become the pervert.

Man. I'm glad I ain't no pedophile. That would really make existence suck.

Modern Witche Trials

Lawks!

Witch trials never go out of style, mark my words. What am I thinking of now? Just another little controversy, that might be brough up for discussion, namely how To Catch a Predator. This is an American show, in which television helps the Law to catch sexual predators. Now, that's all fine and dandy since they're sexual predators, which are dangerous people -
hold your horses, TV people can become the law, now?

There's an old Very Wise saying about such a system: In America, you watch television. In Soviet Russia, television watch you!

So now television watch us. Or at least, people who are suspected sexual predators. They don't have any actual authority, but who cares? If you get arrested, your identity is protected (more or less) and you're placed in a prison cell for a few years. It's probably going to ruin your life, to a great extent. If you get revealed as a sexual predator on live television, though - wow. If that's not a great motive for suicide, I don't know what is. In light of how difficult it is for some of us to sympathise with Mr. Flinga, these people must be ostracized for life.

So what? They're bad people, right?

Disregarding the risk of innocents being caught - which is probably possible, if not likely - you're still overstepping the boundaries of what you legally can and cannot do. Exposing a person's crimes publically and then so utterly ruining their lives might be seen as "just", in light of what crimes they've not yet committed (mind you, all they have actually done is shown the intent of having sex with a minor), but it's still something that the Law should handle, not the media.

You have a right to a fair trial, sure. You do not have the right to escape forever becoming branded as a sexual predator, which - second to terrorists, of course - are the worst people on earth and deserve to be killed in nasty ways.

Witch trials, indeed. Lawks.

Beautiful Madness

I'm terribly sorry about the double-post, you guys, but if I could rant a little about how difficult it is to design cults and do horror, I think I should rave a little about how intoxicatingly addicting I find Changeling: The Lost to be.

Changelings are threatened by insanity, especially in the form of a fractured and slowly decaying personality. That this appeals to a favourite theme of mine (the destruction or altering of someones' identity) is only the first part of the equation.

Changeling manages to take the social/political approach to plotlines possessed by Vampire, and mingle it with the mysteries and close brushes with the supernatural of Mage. Add to this the element of fairy-tale magic, and there's a perfect recipe for a game system (and setting) that can be tweaked and altered according to the wishes of those who tell the story. There's no real problem to make a society of changelings bent on controlling mortals - they have good reason to, and can be just as abusive as vampires, meaning the social aspects can be highlighted. You can also twist the tale the other way, making the changelings relatively benevolent and unified against the mysteries of the World of Darkness.

So why do I post about this? Because it's a problem. It's too big for me to use. It's a giant-sized palette, and whichever way I do it, I feel as though I should use slightly more or slightly less of some hues. Too much of something good...

I think my inspiration is on fire.

World of Darkness

So I've been working on how to portray cults in a good light as of late, and I gotta say, I need to study up on my Call of Cthulhu. Cults are fascinating, but I can't get them just right - either they wind up too much hoods-and-robes á la Indiana Jones, or they become too harmless to really seem like a threat.

The difficulty, I think, lies in trying to portray the Evil that Men Do, for after all, not every threat has to be supernatural. So I drop them into a creepy little place and have a sacrifice or two - and then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like "CTHULHU". Honestly. I have too much a pull towards portraying the supernatural, but I could use a healthy dose of just good old humans doing some good old evil. If anyone has suggestions for how tell a story about a cult (aside from Eyes Wide Shut), feel free to add in a comment.
Otherwise I'm working on stories for Mage, but I keep getting tangled. Somehow I'm not entirely pleased with myself. Mysteries are like ketchup - first it's simple, then it's simple, then suddenly you've lost track of the storyline yourself. And then in the process of cleaning it up, things go back to being simple again. Something tells me I should just improvise.

Spoiler alert: There will be cults in the Mage game too. Yeah. It was the best idea I could come up with, after having worked on cults all day.

Bread

What if bread is the meaning of life?

No, seriously. Bread.

I mean, imagine the universe really was created by an omnipotent artist, an aesthetic God, who said to himself "This universe will beget a race, a race will which invent and enjoy bread for all eternity."

I mean sure, it seems pretty far-fetched, but heck, why not? Everyone admits God, if he exists, must be pretty damn mysterious. And sure, bread seems like a pretty mundane meaning compared to love and faith and hope and sex and so forth, but being simple doesn't stop something from being important. Think about it: Bread.

To some person, maybe, bread is life. Maybe he spends all his days testing new recipes, tasting and enjoying various kinds of bread, and baking wonderful loaves and cakes and dishes and... bread-y things. To this person, bread could really be the meaning of life, as plain as day. Bread. Seriously. If something as simple as bread could be the meaing of life, why couldn't, say, socks? Clowns, boomerangs, bus engines, that cute guy on the subway, your neighbours, or even you yourself. The possibilities are endless.

The meaning of it all could be hiding in plain sight, all around you. Think about it.

Bread.

Life is its own reward.

There are many who forget it. Life is its own reward.

Don't look for purpose. You're wasting your time. Life isn't in spirit. I don't believe in spirit.

Life is in flesh. Life is meat. Life is concrete and strong and tastes good. Life is the ultimate reward. Of all your fathers' seeds you were the strongest, the fastest, the most worthy of life. Among all who have died, you survived. Life is real.

Nothing is worth more than life itself. Never forget this. Never.

It's been a long, long time...

It never seems to end. I don't know if I want it to end, or how it would end, or if there is such a thing as a happy ending.

I'm tired. I'm so tired, and so consumed by all these feelings that aren't really feelings, they tell me, but they seem so real I can't help but believe it. It's like my very blood was about to be torn through my skin. She's so indecisive. I can't really help her; I only want to get away, only want to stay with her, but she's consumed by ambition.

I love her.

I love him, too. My father, my flesh and my blood and my family. And yet... I keep confusing responsibility and love, and I want to flee from both, because love is a cruel master, much worse than responsibility. All I want is to forget.

And she keeps reminding me.