Jeez, I'm happy I've been busy with other things the last week or else I might have spent all this time replying in this forum. Bender, I get your point, but maybe you should expand your consider quoting other philosopher/thinkers as well as those you have already. Kafka and Orwell had great points, but the rest of the twentieth century did as well. One point that Orwell was making in 1984 which I think you are glossing over is that you can't give absolute power to the state. The Party. I did not take the law into my own hands, I aided law enforcement agencies too over worked/underfunded to pursue my case. I asked for and received help from the community. 1984 is a community of people without trust. The community here trusted me, offered me their assistance. Winston Smith lived in the kind of world you are advocating, where there is no trust, only the official word of The Party. I prefer to live in this world, where I can count on my community to come to my aid and assistance.
I agree with your general sentiment, that the government should be the ultimate arbiter in the pursuit of justice. But the sad fact is that, (whether you wish to believe it or not), law enforcement really does choose not to pursue cases like mine. The FBI has published guidelines for every field office regarding minimums for cases that they will and will not accept. Ditto for the Secret Service. I'm one of over a dozen (that I know of) victims over the last 1.5 years of Mr. Christmas, and the Chicago PD has complaints filed in all of them. Not a single of the cases has been pursued. Period.
The Chicago PD finally called me today. The detective suggested I setup a controlled delivery like the guy he read about in the Tribune over the weekend did (I kid you not). I almost fell out of my chair. He didn't even know that the person he was talking to was the person he had read about! My name was printed in the paper and at the top of my filed complaint. When I did tell him that we were one in the same, he asked me if my computer had been recovered and then wished me good luck. I tried to tell him that there were 12 other cases that I actually had Chicago case numbers for that he could also close or at least inform the detectives in charge that the perp had been caught. He declined. I have faith in the system, but I think that faith is placed in some future revision of the system, not this one.
While skepticism is always appreciated (somebody's got to look out for the rest of us sheep), I think you should avoid an argument of semantics and stick to the reality of situations. Sorry if my statement came off as offensive, I honestly mean no offense. As I said, I generally agree with what you had to say. I only believe that in general, there comes a point where you should concede that the other side might be right...
Eric Smith
[edited out a possibly malicious comment (not meant as such, but could be read as such)]
P.S. Thank you everyone (Bender included) for your support and help. This would not have been possible without at least the supportive comments I received from this trusting community. I, like the other victims, might have simply chalked this up to experience and not pursued it any further. You all deserve a hearty pat on the back and cold beverage of your choice.
Bender, if you're ever in New Orleans, look me up, I'm in the book, I'd love to buy you a beer or two (or coffee or whatever) and talk philosophy.
