5/16/19

I asked someone about the “When a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?”

He just couldn’t fathom the question. He asked me about the chicken and the egg, saying that god created the chicken, which came first. It was painful trying to explain to him the concept of existentialism. “Bottom line, trees make sounds when they fall.” … He didn’t seem to understand the importance of the observer. Deeper than that, this was a person who seemed deeply uncomfortable about the idea of a rhetorical question. He wanted a logical answer. “That isn’t a very good trick question,” he said. I tried to explain to him it’s not a trick question, that the answer depends on your view of reality. There is no answer, I said. He seemed angry, so I gave up. Sigh. There is no chicken and no egg, I tried to tell him. He must think I’m crazy.

This is exemplary of a disconnect I have with society that I find disturbing. I can’t help but feel that failure to understand existential ideas (Basic ones!) is indicative of not just low intelligence, but of a mind that is so limited as to be another species. The difference between Cro Magnon Man and the Neanderthal.

I am deeply disturbed whenever I encounter this. Perhaps because confronted with a majority that fails to understand these things, it causes me to question myself; as any sane man surrounded by the insane world. You can never seem to wake these types up. It’s so disturbing, like finding a house where certain rooms are locked an unlit. And can never be opened…but they must surely be there…

More disturbing still is the subtle fear and anger that seemed to be implied in this man’s rejection of the idea, that the tree might not make a sound.

OMAMITABHA HRI…

AMIDA BUDDHA…