When the Devil comes a calling
When the Devil decides to be friendly, you’d be wise to bat away his proffered hand and return his smile with a scowl.
The con-man seeks out the gullible rather than the cynic.
Is it a sign of decency that we see – or, at least, look for the good in everyone? Certainly, it would be a queer do if we only saw the bad. I am firmly of the belief that most people are probably quite decent, though, by no means, perfect. Even a person who has committed the odd crime or two is not necessarily a bad person. I have met, in my time in the prison education department, some who have committed the ultimate crime of murder and yet remain pretty decent human beings.
I have also met a few who were just out and out bad. There are, whether we choose to accept it or not, some of us who lack any sense of decency.
There was this one guy, for example, let’s call him Devil for convenience, who choose to sit my course in personal psychology. Without him completing a single test or questionnaire, I felt this Devil’s badness. He was the kind of human being – and I use that term reluctantly – who just made one’s skin crawl. As Oddball, in ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ would say, you could just feel the “negative waves”.
This particular Devil was a child molester who, for his own reasons, choose not to take Vulnerable Prisoner status, preferring to chance his luck on the wings with the ordinary cons. If they ever found out what he was in for his life was forfeit. Yet, each day, he sat in my classroom for three hours, wasting his time and mine. Never was there a person less likely to benefit from a course in personal psychology.
One day, as is the way of things in a local nick, the Devil was transferred. We all, teachers and cons alike, heaved a big sigh of relief. Even the drug dealer and the somewhat prominent gangster attending the course hated being in the same room with this guy – though, of course, they didn’t know what he was in for.
It isn’t the Devil’s way to leave us in peace and, sure enough, sometime later – might have been a year or so – he returned. Not only that but, as my manager informed me with a certain relish, he wanted to complete my course. Fortunately, and I have no reservation saying so, the night before he was due to attend class, he ‘committed suicide’ in his cell. That is all I was ever told. I have no idea whether he did or whether he was ‘topped’. I do know that such people are not prone to taking their own lives. I also know that when the news reached the Education Dept. there was a general air of relief, with one person heard to say, “Oh, thank God!"
My point is simply this, there are monsters in this world and they look very much like us.
TV is not real life and so, when Scully allows herself to be cajoled into taking a trip with the Cigarette Smoking Man, as she does in ‘En Ami’, we must allow for dramatic license, however much it lacks common sense. I always imagine the CSM as I remember that Devil from my classroom – I cannot, for the life of me, think of one reason why anyone would be gullible enough to fall for his sly, smarmy cajoling. As great as it is to see Scully out of the office and dressing for dinner, I cannot but wonder about her judgement of human character.
I can answer affirmatively to the Joker’s question, “Did you ever dance with the devel in the pale moonlight?” But I had little choice. Scully should have known better and shame on her for taking his proffered hand. She deserves the humiliation she undergoes at the end of this episode. Mulder is perfectly justified in his little rub, “His sincerity was a mask, Scully. The man’s motives never change.”
The con-man seeks out the gullible rather than the cynic.
Is it a sign of decency that we see – or, at least, look for the good in everyone? Certainly, it would be a queer do if we only saw the bad. I am firmly of the belief that most people are probably quite decent, though, by no means, perfect. Even a person who has committed the odd crime or two is not necessarily a bad person. I have met, in my time in the prison education department, some who have committed the ultimate crime of murder and yet remain pretty decent human beings.
I have also met a few who were just out and out bad. There are, whether we choose to accept it or not, some of us who lack any sense of decency.
There was this one guy, for example, let’s call him Devil for convenience, who choose to sit my course in personal psychology. Without him completing a single test or questionnaire, I felt this Devil’s badness. He was the kind of human being – and I use that term reluctantly – who just made one’s skin crawl. As Oddball, in ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ would say, you could just feel the “negative waves”.
This particular Devil was a child molester who, for his own reasons, choose not to take Vulnerable Prisoner status, preferring to chance his luck on the wings with the ordinary cons. If they ever found out what he was in for his life was forfeit. Yet, each day, he sat in my classroom for three hours, wasting his time and mine. Never was there a person less likely to benefit from a course in personal psychology.
One day, as is the way of things in a local nick, the Devil was transferred. We all, teachers and cons alike, heaved a big sigh of relief. Even the drug dealer and the somewhat prominent gangster attending the course hated being in the same room with this guy – though, of course, they didn’t know what he was in for.
It isn’t the Devil’s way to leave us in peace and, sure enough, sometime later – might have been a year or so – he returned. Not only that but, as my manager informed me with a certain relish, he wanted to complete my course. Fortunately, and I have no reservation saying so, the night before he was due to attend class, he ‘committed suicide’ in his cell. That is all I was ever told. I have no idea whether he did or whether he was ‘topped’. I do know that such people are not prone to taking their own lives. I also know that when the news reached the Education Dept. there was a general air of relief, with one person heard to say, “Oh, thank God!"
My point is simply this, there are monsters in this world and they look very much like us.
TV is not real life and so, when Scully allows herself to be cajoled into taking a trip with the Cigarette Smoking Man, as she does in ‘En Ami’, we must allow for dramatic license, however much it lacks common sense. I always imagine the CSM as I remember that Devil from my classroom – I cannot, for the life of me, think of one reason why anyone would be gullible enough to fall for his sly, smarmy cajoling. As great as it is to see Scully out of the office and dressing for dinner, I cannot but wonder about her judgement of human character.
I can answer affirmatively to the Joker’s question, “Did you ever dance with the devel in the pale moonlight?” But I had little choice. Scully should have known better and shame on her for taking his proffered hand. She deserves the humiliation she undergoes at the end of this episode. Mulder is perfectly justified in his little rub, “His sincerity was a mask, Scully. The man’s motives never change.”
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