Endtown by Aaron Neathery for July 15, 2013

Oh man. D: Bye, Octavius.

One of the rats from security?

I have to agree. I don’t think many of us like the greater good very much.

A whole hour late. Wow this really worries me. Something might occur that I didn’t anticipate. Hmm. Best trip to the oracle finally. How did the rat excape from being sillywalking? Boy o boy. getting good Aaron.\Blessed Be

Did Jackrabbit win? Did Marx assist? Did Allgood die, or are these just potential futures?And at this pivotal, climactic moment, we are introduced to a new main character. Aaron Neathery, you are doing serious things to my head. Okay, I trust you. I REALLY, really trust you. Lead on, but please don’t hurt me too much.

The greater good, is a philosophically concept, that is misused by politics that have no real understanding of it. But as most people don’t have, it’s good for selling crap that no one, right in his mind, would accept. Simmiliar to God.Sadly, Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.(Henry Ford)

Are the lamp posts back to their original shapes?The Oracle seems to be revealing a potential future to our new monk rat which will achieve the greater good. Since this future does not appeal to Monk Rat very much, will he/she seek an alternative solution?

Now it’s time to wait and see where the story will take us.

“Is that the same critter that carries the Oracle on its head when it needs to move around?”I think it might be.

This knot isn’t untangled yet.

This knot isn’t untangled yet.

It is sad, this new “Future that Could”As the monk-rat sees some “greater good”But that good — who decides?Jacob snidely deridesOther’s needs. The rat fears this, and should.=|====/ Level HeadVote for Endtown 2.0And for Doc Rat, tooVote for Endtown ClassicThe Endtown ForumThe Endtown AuctionThe Endtown Books

Well! It was all a dream. Sort-of. Nice to see the oracle. Glad to that Marx hasn’t reappered in the continuity, yet. Is that a rat in the hood? Looks like long fuzzy ears folded down? With a long nose. Looks like Allgood was lynched for his trouble. I agree, this looks like a possible future, and it would depend on a key decision to be made. I think it’s been shown that the Oracle shows a future and not the future. But where does this leave us now?

Hey, I know! It’s glasses rat, a few months after “The Great Riots”, asking the Oracle “where it all went wrong”. The only rat to survive “the Purge”.

I am now totally confused. 8(

My take: we’re looking at an image of a descendant one of Endtown’s rats, in Endtown’s future. No doubt the other voice is Marx’s. Marx is a typical trickster god, and anytime of them does something for the greater good (the means), it’s going to be a hell of a ride to the ends.

Is this the guy who carried the Oracle in (in a glass) during the “trial” of Albert and Gustine?

Considering what the mayor said I wouldn’t expect them to lynch him. But I agree – the greater good usually suck getting to.

I am suddenly reminded of Hot Fuzz here…

“The greater good…”

A detail about the “monk”. Are those his ears hanging to the sides behind him? If they are, it’s not a rat we’re looking at.

“The greater good” has been an excuse used by just about every political and religious power since the dawn of mankind, including Christianity to use and destroy others they deem " in their way".

Everybody raise their hands. How many have felt like the monk’s statement in panel four for a number of days now?{MINE!}

Hey, Oracle-dude, why the long face? :D

Sorry, couldn’t resist.. I am seriously saddened by all the deaths here, and Allgood’s was not absolutely necessary, I think. A group of people that could mob and hang one person, for “perceived” crimes, is not one I would like to live with.

I feel too bad to make any witty 80s one-liners right now. And that’s a real shame, on multiple levels.

Oh… $#/%. It seems to me that this timeline started when Linda was allowed into Endtown. Is the Oracle consulted for each new admission? (If so—was Flask examined? Maybe. After all was done, was Endtown harmed by her actions?) And judging by this story, it all might have been averted if Linda didn’t enter. Yes, other choices were made after, but all would have been avoided by no Linda. Would she be sacrificed “for the greater good”? Heh….don’t mind me.

I don’t think the wise monk is a rat, it looks more like a bilby with those ears

Or is the keeper seeing what has happened? I haven’t read any comments yet, I don’t have time till later. Or Is this the future, that the keeper of the oracle keeper sees?

The quote was “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Spock added “Or the ONE.” His last statement was referring to Kirk needs of Spock as his friend. It was to let Spock go so the ship and crew would survive. As Spock would say “It was the logical choice.”Like in war, one may come up and say things like I will lead them off or I will stay behind and hold them up. You others run to survive.On the story.Allgood’s fate was sealed. There could be no other ending. Are you sure he was strung up by the mob or did he do himself? Say what you will about him to the end Allgood was a brave man.Hard choices in a hard world. Not all choices are good ones with happy, happy endings.This was one of those choices.I can agree with many as not liking the choices but like LIFE you have to take what is given you and learn from it.It ended where it began.Like the song by Bob Seger says “Turn the page.”

This outcome was needed. If you remember the town was basically subsisting on BEANS and throwing away perfectly good food because it came from their own bodies. This will give them a chance at survival.

The big question is what are we seeing? Are these images of the potential future? If so, the trial might have been part of these images (though I doubt it). Are these images a synopsys of things that have happened? If so, why would the oracle be showing them? Curiouser and curiouser. The story is getting good again.

I guess the question is: Where in the storyline did the present stop and the Oracle’s prognostications begin? Was there ever a cake? Were the Milk Three ever arrested and tried? Did the panda, the weasel, and the rabbit actual commit all their subterfuge? Or is the Oracle showing the keeper something that already happened? Oracles generally concern themselves with the future not the past. So tell me spirit are these shades of thing that have been or of the things to come?

Yup, it’s the aardvark keeper of the Oracle.

“The greater good” is usually just someones excuse for breaking the rules when it is convenient for them.

I’m pretty sure it’s an aardvark.

My interpretation is that aardvark-guy (or gal) has been watching these events unfolding on the Oracle’s “reflective surface” as they happened and we’re just now finding out that he knew what was going on and what would be the result, and that he chose not to interfere because the Oracle said it was “for the greater good”.

Happy Trails, Octavius.

This has me wondering about how much of what we’ve been reading the past several weeks was real or part of the Oracle’s vision. Where did reality end and the vision begin? For all we know, the three girls may still be in lockup.

I guess that since the Oracle is showing the aardvark Octavius hanging from that lamp post that it hasn’t necessarily happened yet, but I’m guessing that it has. I really thought the mayor, and others, would have prevented his lynching if only to question him first.

We still don’t know what happened to the Milk 3.

Of course if this is only a vision.It can be said and what Jacob did.“You give a person enough rope and they will hang themselves.”If it is real. Allgood knew his fate when he left Jacob. He had a choice. Go topside and probably die later. Go to Endtown and die now.In away I feel sorry for him. That was death by strangulation. It is not the same as a professional hanging. His pain mingled with the pains of the others.Of course, justice served, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.Lets move along now folks, move along, nothing else to see here.Ohhhh by the by, Meet the new boss.

The oracel has no personal interest (as far as we know) in whatever becomes of Endtown. The “greater good” may be the best future for Endtown over any other that there may be. And the Oracle’s vision may be as it stands now without some unforeseen and unexpected involvement.

I look at it as changing lanes on the continuum. Each lane either goes on or dead ends. Marx saw a dead end coming so he took it upon himself to change lanes.

The more I think of it, the more I think Allgood was correct.

There a phenomena in history called the can-should-must evolution in which what looks at first like a freedom from a existing restriction eventually evolves into just another restriction in which the individual has little choice.

(Dates of change tipping point approximate)

The most accessible example would be the cultural evolution of women working outside the home. It started in the 1920s as the idea that women “can” morally and practically work outside the home. Then the great depression and WWII froze it for the 30s years only to resume in the 60s.

In the 60s it was argued that women should be able to work at home or work outside the home with no cultural or legal bias either way. By the late 1970s, that was largely true. A women could easily shift back and forth with no judgement and her mate and children would support whatever decision she made.

By circa 1990, however, the cultural message was that although women “could” stay home they really “should” work. Men began to prefer women who contributed substantially and constantly to the families financial success. It became harder for any individual woman to find a mate willing to be the sole support. Many women found themselves pressured by society and culture to work away from the home and their children more than they wished.

Today, women “must” work i.e. they no longer have much more choice whether to work at home or away from home than men ever did. Unless a woman belongs to a traditional religious subculture, she will trudge to work all her days like a man.

“Can” work, became “should” work and now is for all practical purposes “must” work. What was briefly a free choice by individuals between two equally culturally/socially supported options has merely tilted over to the opposite extreme, stripping choice from the individual. (Whether any individual or group judges this outcome superior in all or most cases isn’t really the point. The point is that individual’s lost the freedom to choose for themselves.)

In the case of end town, using products generated by mutant bodies, eggs, milk, spider silk etc could evolve through the can-should-must chain to end in horrific slavery.

At firt individual mutants “can” offer their bodies products for the use of others. Eventually, just to replace the calories lost in the production they will have to sell the products. Over the years or decades, it will become an accepted and EXPECTED practice. Other mutants will see their access to such products as an entitlement. Social pressure will be brought to bear on bio producing mutants that they “should” provide their bio-products to the general population. After an even longer time, other mutants will become to view themselves as so dependent on the bio-products that they will view any withholding them as extortion or a form of holomodor. At that point, bio-producing mutant “must” offer their body products to others. An society and the state will take concrete action to see that this is so,

Once the greater population sees that they have a right to control the very bodies of a sub-population, a form of slavery is the inevitable result. Allgood is correct. Using the bio-products of mutants, will lead the culture to use bio-producing mutants as the mere animals they are patterned on.

This plot is definitely starting to feel more complicated than necessary.

I hate to say it, but I am missing very much the intimate nature of Holly/Wally’s introduction story and Al and Gustine’s story.

“Greater good” can be pejorative. Allgood thought he was acting for the greater good. It is often used by nanny despots to justify their control over people. And self-serving relatives to get power of attorney over competent elders. Sometimes the greater good is worse than the lesser evil.

Here’s a dreadful thought…I got the idea the Oracle might be showing a complete “what if” situation—-which means maybe none of what we’ve seen these past months “happened,” all the way back to Linda’s release into Endtown.#Or maybe what’s shown in this strip—-Aaron Marx’s intrusion, the fate of Allgood—-is the “what if” and just one possible way of how things will wind down.#I think it’s up for grabs what we’re seeing here…the silhouetted guy hanging from the lamppost could be Allgood…but then the guy silhouetted against the other lamppost could be Allgood, too…besides, what happened to the guy who got behind Allgood with the gun?#Of course, the last arc, the end of Flask’s Story, ended with a session at the Oracle, too…

Oh, yeah…it looks like Jake Jackrabbit is speaking from behind some podium. Announcing the end of the High Council and the Rule of Jacob the First, King of Endtown?

Query: If all of this was to stop Allgood’s side from winning, but it was Jacob who had to fill up the ranks of Allgoods’ supporters in order to make him comfortable with his degree of popularity, then exactly what danger did Allgood ever truly pose that would make all of this necessary to stop him?

Another layer of raw confusion. :(

Too bad, that many think that their good is greater good.