The Joker’s Testimony #032
Compromising Carl
Anon: Why does everyone keep bringing up this Carl guy?
The Joker: laughs quietly, the kind of laugh that knows the ending before the story starts Because Carl is what happens when good intentions go feral.
He was told to kick cans. Simple job—momentum, motion, cause and effect. But Carl? Carl decided to talk to them. Said he wanted to “understand their journey.” You ever hear a tin can explain its trauma, Anon? Neither have I.
He meant well—that’s his curse. He thought empathy could bend metal. He forgot metal only respects pressure and precision.
So there he sat, in the parking lot, holding the can like it needed counseling. Said they were both victims of circumstance. Meanwhile the rest of us finished the job, swept the aisle, moved on.
You see, Carl never learned the difference between compassion and compromise. Compassion acts—it frees, fixes, or finishes. Compromise hesitates—it asks the problem how it feels about being solved.
The world doesn’t run on feelings, Anon. It runs on follow-through.
Carl’s on leave now. Temporary, they said. Permanent, if you ask me. Because some folks will spend eternity asking nails to move themselves.
And me? I swing the hammer, whisper thank-you, and move to the next board.