Defacing the Currency

One of my favorite scenes in The Fight Club is when Tyler Durden, working in the projection room of a theatre, stitches some footage from a porno movie into the broader tapestry of a Disney-style family film. The audience is not quite sure what it has seen, but it suspects that something is not quite right. In an age of fiat currencies and electronic debits and credits, Durden's little act of rebellion will have to stand in for the old Cynic Diogenes of Sinope's original defacing of the currency.

I'm a consumer pariah. I don't use debit or credit cards to purchase a Hostess Fruit Pie down at the Speedway. Every time I dare pull out a twenty for gas or possibles my paper is subjected to an eraser test. Meanwhile, somebody is probably driving off without paying at all. Gasoline at $3.45 a gallon is a crime against humanity for most Americans, though they have no problem paying $3.99 for two ounces of 5-Hour Energy Drink. It's a Bear Market for Dog Philosophers all around.