Thursday May 13, 2004

FROM THE MOUTHS OF NUTS

I sat next to a nut on the train today on my way home. Actually, there was a woman with a nose ring (and amazing powers of attention) between us, but he was close enough. He was very large and he carried a briefcase, the way the mentally disturbed often do, as a sort of a tether that might (but invariably fails to) connect them to the world of reason. He began by showing the paper to the woman with the nose ring (and amazing powers of attention and hidden stores of tolerance), pointing out a story about UFOs. This led to various stories about run-ins with the government and tales about how someone had had to exert a lot of effort to bring this large man down.

Soon the topic turned to Iraq and the prisoner photos. “They want rights?” he laughed. “They cut that guy’s head off and they want rights? Cut a man’s head off and they want to be treated like lambs.”

The train car ricocheted with intersecting lines of sight, all looking away from this man, who just shook his head.

“We got to get rid of Bush,” he continued. “Got to get rid of him. You know what he wants to do?” The woman with the nose ring did not. “He wants to fight Syria. He wants to fight China. He wants to fight Korea.” This potentially endless litany did in fact end as we arrived at his stop. He thanked the woman with the nose ring, who — after he was gone — looked at me and shrugged.

But he was right, is the thing. Unfettered by ideology, unafraid of contradiction, he’d laid it out. They cut a man’s head off as a publicity stunt and Bush wants to fight Syria and whoever else. It’s a terrible mess, but reason will always try to organize it into something less terrible than it is.

Posted by at 08:03 AM ||