Charter

“They say 'Violence is the last resort,'... but they don’t really mean it. Violence is the easiest solution. They say it like they’ve tried literally everything else, but we all know they haven’t. I mean seriously. It’s like we’re smart enough to figure out how to get off our own planet, but we can’t figure out how to deal with any conflict without immediately blowing each other up. ...'Last resort' my ass!”

“Well, come on. We only resort to violence when it’s absolutely necessary,” the cute blonde guy was saying. I could hear Charter winding up. I knew what was coming next.

“Oh really,” said Charter. “So like no other options huh? Nothing? Come on man, we’re smarter than that. So how about this,” here it comes, the moon arithmetic.

“How many people have ever stepped foot on the moon?”

“I don’t know.” Says cute blonde.

“I’ll tell ya. Twelve. Twelve humans have stepped onto an alien world. And how much did it cost to send them there?” Cut blonde just stares. Charter is really riffing

“About 25 billion dollars circa 1962 through 1974 all told. And what would that be in today’s dollars adjusted for inflation?”

“Shit man, I don’t know.” Blondey.

“Just over a 100 billion dollars. Approximately. And, follow me here, before we invaded Iraq how many members of Saddam Hussein’s Bath party were there?”

Blondeylocks is not tracking; I can see he’s beginning to wander.

“About one-hundred and seventy four loyalists,” says Charter. “and how much I ask you, have we spent to date on the Iraq war?”

This one Blondey knows. “Over two trillion!” He shouts.

“Exactly! Now, it cost one hundred billion to send twelve people to the moon, and we’ve spent over two trillion to remove one-hundred and seventy for from power...”

Blondey does the math. He finally catches on. This is my favorite part; I love watching their eyes goggle. “It would have been less expensive to send every member of the Bath party, to the moon.” He says, rather slowly, rather stunned.

“Precisely. And you have the audacity to tell me “Violence is the Kat resort.” Hogwash says I. Until you’ve revoked their terrestrial passport, and hit the eject button to send the bad guys to the moon, you haven’t tried everything.”

“And if you really think about it,” charter continues, self satisfied ” if you really think about it, aside from a few terse conversations, what else have we actually tried? No, violence is the easiest option. It’s easier to kill people, and accept it, than to really try.”

And here is where most people ask for the check, or get off the bus, cause it’s incredibly hard to argue with Charter, incredibly frustrating, and yet almost everyone knows he’s wrong. They just don’t know why he’s wrong.

But, I don’t think he is wrong. We’re true believers. I believe him. Even if he is batshit crazy.