Good points, Lurker. It's just one philosophical way of looking at it, that's all. I do not feel sympathy for forgers generally, since most of them are motivated by thoroughly dishonest impulses like antisocial laziness and greed...but this guy was a special case, and I could not help but sympathize with him, given the circumstances. He was not trying to hurt anyone, but just to survive.

The FBI financial crimes unit is no monster, but it works for the great heartless System, and it's that system I was referring to as a monster. You know, the one that has managed, through appealing to every human greed and weakness, to pretty much destroy Nature, the traditional family, the traditional community, and the spiritual and moral strengths of society. The FBI guys are employed directly by and for the maintenance of that System, as are the military, the bureaucrats, etc... Doesn't mean that as individuals they are bad people. Most of them are good people, as I well know.

If you're in a place where everyone helps and cares for everyone else on a daily basis, you can see the difference right away. The System divides people against one another, armours them in their useless possessions and their loneliness, and conquers them by making sure that the right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing, no power to change it anyway, and apparently no time to bother finding out about it either. Eat, drink, and be merry...for tomorrow you will die in an old folk's home...or an alleyway...depending on whether the money holds out.

- LH