Mordack wrote:I spent £500 on a mahogany trouser press last week; an investment with which I am duly pleased. To give the purchase some background, over the last few months I have become increasingly concerned that, although my suits, jackets and ties are always immaculate, the creases in my trousers haven't been anywhere near as sharp as I'd like. I like my trouser creases sharper than a cavalry officer's sabre. I want you to bleed if you look at them too quickly.
When I met up with my friends last Friday for a drink, they were all aghast at my purchase:
Friend A said it was a 'colossal' waste of money. Two months ago, he took out a high interest loan in order to buy a Toyota Prius. Taste issues aside, he already had a perfectly workable four year old Ford KA. For some reason, having a 'good' car is important to him, although I would not have gone into such heavy debt, personally, to acquire one.
Friend B said it was a 'bourgeoisie' waste of money. However, I happen to know that he spends an average of £50 a week on recreational drugs. Not even sure I need to caption that one.
Friend C said I had more money than sense, and was clearly getting paid a lot. I found it odd that he should be the one to use the 's' word given that when we all went out to a strip club for a friend's birthday last November he ended up getting smashed and spending £800 on a 'private' dance.
I don't know where I'm even going with this long stupid post, except to say that (a) I have terrible friends and (b) none of us can really judge the 'worth' of what someone spends their money on because it is a very specific thing to each individual person. I like my trouser press, and I am sure that some people like their stats.
Bollocks, I absolutely can judge the worth of it as it effects me too! Judgement is who we are as human beings..with 'Occupy' and all these ridiculous protest's i've had just about enough of this BS everyone has an opinion tripe and should be allowed to do as they want. Over half the planets population, if left to their own devices would end up committing murder for a can of baked beans or joy and then spend the rest of their time fornicating with anything that took their fancy and lavishly spending anything they had until they needed to kill some other poor sucker (most likely you or I) to get more.. assuming they didn't just kill the owner of the thing they wanted in the first place. We can all judge the worth of something, someones actions and make sure they know it, it's our right as much as it is for the aborigine to express their base desire to pursue a false path of aggrandisement in a fictional universe using authentic currency. At the rate society is going with this train of thought..I might as well throw the law system out the window eventually.. as i'm sure someone will be saying it's their right to commit mass genocide as they find it a worth while pursuit because it makes them feel all fresh and tingly inside and heaven help us if someone with half a brain thinks that might be wrong, unjust, ridiculous or the likes.
Expression of judgement is integral to scientific advancement, ironically enough directly responsible for the internet, the ink, the paper and ergo the platform by which the entire stem of this debate derives from. Go tell the BPS that they should let someone experiment classical conditioning on a human being because you can't see how it's their right to judge the 'worth' of a humans life, or primary sources for your paper because it and the ability to express ones desires no matter how they effect others is subjective to each individual.
All this 'I can do what I want, i'll spend $40,000 on a text based series of lines' is a massive part of the downgrade of this game and had there been a reasonable limit on it from the start the divide might not be so much to put people off, or make people give up. To deny that and even attempt to justify this with the notion of free rights astonishes me as their waning libido's have directly contributed to the ruination of what was a good game for hundreds, if not thousands of other players. Judgement is good.. it provides outlook, a route to empathy and dare I say actual advancement through cooperation when respected. Worth is regularly bigger than subjective opinion as a single man's assignment of value can effect more than just himself and such selfish pursuit without review or opposition can breed chaos so I absolutely can and will evaluate a players assignment of 'worth' in regards to their recent purchase so long as it could effect someone I respect or know who I think has 'worth'.
Controversial Counter-attack - Check.
Playing Devils Advocate - OmniCheck
The likely troll feeding - highly optimistic
That aforementioned tingly fresh feeling - priceless.