balance sheets and conrad

Have you ever wondered why the balance sheet in accounting does not really balance at all? It all lies with the Net Income/Loss section to make everything "balance" up in the end.

It suddenly occurred to me (8 years after the POA exam) that in order for a balance sheet to be "good" and "balanced", there must be a Net Income (meaning the gain to the business, profit) section to it. The Net Income entry thus makes the BS look "normal" as opposed to being "unbalanced" in which students have to pull their hair out looking for what went wrong, or "showing red" in which then the student has an uneasy feeling that something went wrong...

So to be psychoanalytical, modern man always proclaim some kind of equality for all, championing phrases such as democracy, egalite, suffrage, or what have you in any number of languages; but in actual fact as Napoleon the Pig proclaimed, "All animals are equal, but some animals are MORE equal than others". "Equality" seems only possible when someone gets PERSONAL gain no matter how meagre the gain is. And somehow under some innate accountant instinct, what is unfair and a gain somehow gets buried under logical rationalising and repackaged. Everything turns out equal and the moralising person can then say look, "I am Fair".

Ever wondered how come people can do gross inequalities under the rubric of a relationship and yet hold themselves up high as the ideal boyfriend/girlfriend or spouse? "Circumstances dictate that I do this", "I can't help it", "It is the correct thing to do BUT i know where i stand on this matter (always good)", etc; all this "balances" out the net gain and then like how the BS shows the health of the company, the BS of the person shows the ideal-ness of his/her relationship.

In other words, many would only define being fair and just ONLY when they stand to gain. No doubt there will be some who actively seek to conceal gain under the veneer of fairness, but I think the majority do not even see the inequalities they perpetuate, covering them under lofty titles like the entries in a BS and showing a healthy outlook with regard to their actions. Unless you are a POA student (yea i am not a good one. but i try) or a qualified accountant, would one even understand how to search for discrepancies in a BS? And how many know that BEFORE reaching the BS in book-keeping one must finish the Profit and Loss Account? The accounting metaphor may not be the best for illustrating the illusory and self-defeating nature of equality in basic human relationships. But what i realised is that...

Man is innately selfish most of the time.

Call me cynical, but the only truth one can give is the truth of how much one stands to gain or lose in a specific situation. The movie romantics will lave praise on the emotions and feelings, ("I love cos the feeling is right"), and nothing else. But the Romantics (note the capital) will often steep into self-destruction and doubt and the rest of the hurtful stuff only because they know how the deal stands.

Conrad's Heart of Darkness is then a fitting geo-political metaphor (YES i am showing off my geopoliticising skills, guy-upstairs bless Prof Goh, up Revenue section of the P&L a/c for YL) for the landscape of Man's heart. Sometimes the deeper you steep into analysing the dirty portions of one's heart, the greater the attraction the dark heart has on you. Sanitised modernity holds less appeal than the navigation through the snake-like river of the heart, at least to me. For i once I know the deformity and unwholeness of my own psyche, then it could be a enjoyable ride to descend into atavism.

I know your id. It dances to the same beat as mine. And we'll do some partying. Won't you come join me?