Blood Samosude is the title character in the libertarian musical, The Debt Collector. Blood not only makes his living collecting debts, he is also a true believer in the sanctity of contracts. Like a priest of justice, Blood single-handedly fights to uphold the property rights of Helga Hauser, the landlady, despite a legal system that seeks to thwart creditors.
Kelly Clear sings the part of Blood in the three songs embedded below. The first song is about his work collecting debts.
The Debt Collector is a libertarian play, and it deals with more than just property rights and fiscal responsibility from a libertarian perspective. There is a love story. And there is conflict between the sexes. And there’s the explicit issue of how to pick up girls. Got your attention, didn’t I?’
Libertarian men are known to be socially awkward. Part of that awkwardness stems from a desire to make conscious, responsible decisions about issues that nature intended us to settle in subconscious and non-verbal ways. When the thinking part of the brain tries to dictate to the limbic system what to do, the individual comes off as awkward as someone trying to dance using logic rather than rhythm.
Blood is an idealist. He is drawn to Siren the Social Worker, whose words he recognizes as being Marxist, but whose being is the embodiment of his ideals of grace, beauty and harmony. He sings about his mixed emotions in “When I’m With Her.”
If you are drawn to a potential partner and want to set up a liaison, what do you say? Most people will not come right out and say what they are thinking. But Blood, committed to honesty and mutual respect, blurts it right out, with predictable results. Along comes Carl, the Welfare Father, to give him a lesson in seduction.
Without violating another’s rights, how can one best go about propositioning someone and still not make it as awkward as legalese? The Non Aggression Principle would suggest a direct, explicit verbal offer, which can then be turned down or accepted in the light of cold, hard day. But how often does that work? In the song “More Perfect Contracts”, Blood sings about his romantic ideals.
Sadly, politically correct respect and cold, dispassionate disclosure of intent is not something that is likely to work with Siren. Here is a song in which she expresses what approach does turn her on.
To see how things turn out for Siren and Blood, watch the entire musical or stay tuned here for more song demos. This uniquely libertarian musical touches on issues you will never see addressed anywhere else in musical theater.
Maybe I am different, but I actually like men who appear socially awkward, but are really just careful about making thoughtful choices. They seem more genuine and real to me, even if they might not be considered the life of the party. There was a man I still think is handsome, and I think he sort of liked me as well, but I never approached him because he seems to want everyone to like him. He goes out of his way to openly flirt with many women, and it just seems like he is casting his net wide. So I just avoided him because even though I liked certain things about him, I never felt I could quite trust his intentions.
Yes, I think you are different, Julia, as some of us are. I agree that people who are thoughtful often appear socially awkward, since thinking in itself is not seen as suave or cool. It is impossible to trust someone who likes everyone, as you noted. Despite this, liking everyone is often held up as some kind of ideal in our society. Siren has a whole song about how she loves everyone.