Dimitri

Turns out that while I explained the origins of Anoikis and Skyzer I haven't mentioned Dimitri at all. I dont think Dimitri is as old as Frog, I seem to recall searching Dads flash bookshelf that stood at the entrance to the manse for the book "War and Peace" to check the spelling. We only got these books after grandpa died. But I don't remember exactly when that was. But that makes it ~2003 when I started to use the tag Dimitri Raskalnickoff frequently. The problem with frog is that such a short easy to remember name is often taken by other people. So I wanted something new that I could be unique in using. Occasionally it has been too long to fit as a username but I do use it a lot still, eg here. I wonder if VRBones prompted my search for a unique name to use? I dont think I knew him then, but he did motivate me to make it my own.

Other that that back in primary school I read War and Peace, I enjoyed it but didn't really figure out who the characters were until near the middle, how the various stories related to each other and all that. One of the characters had the name Raskalnikov or something like that, although after a quick google maybe the book was Crime and Punishment? At any rate I used the name with the phonetic spelling of what I remembered. Dimitri was added where a first name was required.

And so now when I google Raskalnickoff I am pleased to see results only about me and the places that I have been.

Are kittens evil?

Are kittens evil? Well that makes for an interesting pun in Japanese because Kawaii (cute) sounds just like Kowai (frightening). So even though Ratman may work for an “evil” organization, they still play with kittens. Thus the heroes, the so called “good guys” will end up being pompous, arrogant self-righteous fools. Then there will be the good natured klutz that always makes things worse even though they have the best of intentions.
It’s just a small change of viewpoint required to allow a “good” nation to declare war on an “evil” one. Once you have those distinctions it is easy to justify breaking any on the Ten Commandments, and say “I am excused”. They are my evil enemy so it’s OK for me to steal, kill, rape and pillage. When you have done that enough to be the winner then you can wright the history books and tell the whole world how “good” you were. After all isn’t it obvious that they suffered more from Original Sin than me?
Then what are “good” and “evil” but labels? They might easily be replaced with "Us" and "Them". The protagonist is always "good" they are one of "Us". Tales are always told from the point of view of the winners and of course they will portray themselves as the good guys.
After changing to “us” and “them” you can use the power of Empathy to transmogrify the titles to “them” and “us”.  Now with a change of perspective the “good guys” are evil. They are powerful bullies that blew up my home and destroyed my business. All my friends and business associates are in their prison and I no longer have a safe place to raise a family. They are a chaotic force that upset all my plans and go out of their way to make my life miserable. I’m also curious about how we decide who is “Us” and who is “Them” But I’ll muse more on that later.
So what do you think; Are kittens frighteningly cute? Or are they the embodiment of evil overlords hiding under a fluffy coat?