Chewing Away at the Basic Fabric of Civilization

As usual, the late Long Island-native author William Gaddis puts it all in perspective. In A Frolic of His Own, a 1994 novel consisting of deposition transcripts, court opinions, etc., the main protagonist, Oscar Crease, provides us with the following tirade. His words are directed at an adjuster from his insurance carrier and describe his frustration with his carrier's professed immunity from liability for non-economic damages after, somehow, Oscar made his own car drive over himself. I'll leave that mystery, and many more treasures, for the adventurous among us.

The protection of the No Fault statutes do you think I can't see through that? They're not protecting me they're protecting you insurance people with this No Fault idea it's not even an idea, it's a jerrybuilt evasion of reality of course someone's at fault. Someone's always at fault. It's all a cheap dodge chewing away at the basic fabric of civilization to replace it with a criminal mind's utopia where no one's responsible for the consequences of his actions, isn't that what the social contract is all about?
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I see all around us the criminal mind at large appropriating, literally stealing the fruits of the creative mind and the dedicated labours of others without even blinking, isn't that what's at the heart of this cancerous No Fault epidemic? this license for delinquency? Society created the criminal, society's responsible and so no one's responsible, isn't that the size of it? demolishing the pillar civilization rests upon, each individual's responsibility for the consequences of his own actions? and the natural law which frames the concept of negligence, let alone deliberate transgression goes out the window and the Constitution with it, are you aware of that? Are you aware that you're toying with one of the first laws of physical nature itself?
- pgs. 222-3, New York: Scribner (trade edition, 1995) (all spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc. as in the original).

So, dear readers, fellow attorneys, insurance company representatives, judicial staffers, medical providers and management companies, factoring (and 'secured loan') company employees, and others: have fun today as you toy with one of the first laws of physical nature itself. And, please, be careful.