[UA] [UA} The UAest profession ever

[Kevin Elmore]

> Thanks. I sort of remembered the Fight Club buy's job
> being similar but
> not identical to an adjuster's. Adjusters seem to do a
> lot more
> face-to-face interviews and investigation, and they have
> to negotiate
> with people a lot instead of just doing forensic
> research.

And for the 47th Memento reference in a month, I'd like to
point out that Lenny of Memento was one such person.  Or,
rather, I guess he was a claims investigator.  The subplot
of the movie does a good job of showing how such a person
has to put all emotional involvement aside and stick with
the facts.

And the story of Sammy Jenkins is a good anecdote of how
Lenny's decision impacted a couple who could have tried
living a quasi-normal life.  And all it took was one little
distinction:  Sammy's impairment was psychological and not
physical.  The insurance did not cover psychological
damage.  If it wasn't for that one little loophole that
Lenny exposed, then Sammy and his wife would have entirely
different lives (more could be spoken on this, but I want
to keep this surprising for those who haven't seen this
glorious movie yet).

Also related to insurance was an episode of CHiPs that I
caught the other day.  The villain (man, that show had some
hokey villains) was a man who was pissed off at the
insurance companies.  I forget why exactly, but I can
imagine dozens of ways insurance companies rip off the
common man.  So this angry man vindicates himself by
purposely causing highway accidents so that insurance
companies would have to pay for the damages.  He even hunts
expensive cars.

Of course, the villain doesn't consider how his actions
ultimately hurt the common man.  Most insured drivers have
deductibles which come right out of the pocket.  Also, if
insurance companies take large losses, then they jack the
premiums up.  But that's pretty UA in itself.  Here you
have a man who has snapped.  However, he's not the
stereotypical postal worker going on a shooting rampage. 
He attacks the system itself rather than the people in the
system, unaware that the system is attached to the
population and that making the system bleed means severing
its ties to people who may rely upon it.  Kinda like Fight
Club.  

I don't see UA obsessions as inherently being bad, but some
people just have bad obsessions.  They may focus on
something without considering the hypocritical nature of
their obsessions.  The man vindicating the common man by
damaging insurance companies.  The zealot protecting God's
commandment against murder by murdering an abortion doctor.
 And so on.

Kevin



=====
WWJD?
JWLOL at U!

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua