From Ralph

10/10/08

Wall Street

'On account of the lovely atmosphere abroad in our lands and our kingdoms,  it seemed right and proper to send you these images to spread through the site,  I think they are pertinent and can also make you laugh - cry, cringe, hyperventilate, wince and rage- just a bit.  We are the guilty and the innocent. We are the fodder.  I am sure you are all doing fine and that you have so much money you dont know what to do with it..... I knew it would be boring when it  arrived and instead of happiness would bring lethargy and blame -  arrogant denial and filth as the human kind we are.  We are guilty , of course, as I have said, because we are culpable. We let it happen because all we ever do is mind our own business- which of course, becomes theirs- whoever they may be.

We took no interest, carried on doing laudible things, scrounging if necessary, to get by, but claiming to know nothing of the 'goings on'  in the city or on Wall Street because , we thought, it was none of our business. We have pretended that what we do- or did- was above such scrofulous, tawdry bum-snuffling.  We never sold out, ever.  WE  wished to lead clean lives and bring up our children to be the same.

A lot of those who fed at the trough and cheated and grovelled with slimy deals which they accepted because it seemed like easy money, sold themselves on that basis because it appeared to be the answer to an age old problem-  how to emerge clean, rich, respectable and smelling of Roses. Some did- and have emerged and they keep very quiet. We don't use the Stocks in the village square anymore to pillory and pelt with bad fruit and offal. WE don't express that unbounded freedom now, because we have become civilised and restrained - in public. But it appears that in private- or within a 'respectable' Corporation to whom we have sold our souls, we can hide , go about a daily routine of  gentle bonhomie, ask about how we are, make plans to meet, slap each other on the back, generally co- exist, love one another forever and cheat the shit out of anyone who may be in the way of a lucrative scam, simply because everybody else is doing exactly the same- and for the very simple and elementary reason that everyone else is doing the same.

Shit! We say, we 'd be a fool not to!!  Of course we would, mainly because no one is really minding YOUR back. We're all alone.  We put our faith in that. Some call that Christian faith and some call it any other which faith you want to name it. We convince ourselves that we believe in something far grander than ourselves and we get all emotional and self-righteous. We really believe that there is a GOD- and he is watching over us - personally- feeding our vanity and sense of ME.  This present predicament must surely demonstrate that there is indeed no one out there who is going to save us and that the only way any salvation is possible is simply to restore a simple, almost primitive regard for each other as creatures who regard ourselves as above the animals. But don't even count on that as something that will last forever......

OK

Ralph STEADman