Onion Cap

I know a guy who, if you speak to him, he always seems to be too busy.  It’s like you are annoying him or interrupting something.  This might be expected once in a while, but with this guy it is without exception.  He’s too busy.

Of course it could be me.  He just doesn’t want to talk to me, and so he’s trying to avoid any interaction in the way a person might avoid eye contact with a beggar.  If you don’t look at the beggar, you won’t have to give them any money.  But it’s not me, because I’m not the only person whom he treats this way.  And I’m certainly not a beggar.

I think the guy is really just that busy.  His mind is whirring with his own inner business in such a way that he is completely absorbed in the drama of his inner dialogue.  He is really too busy with his own mind.

I’ve experienced this myself, as the busy one, with students or children that I have known.  I’ve been busy with something as a teacher – some politics of the school or planning for a class – when a student wants my full attention.  I’ve had to very deliberately stop the movie in my brain, make eye contact, and pay attention to the student, perhaps with a big noticeable sigh.

I’ve experienced it while watching a TV show or a movie, and also while reading a book.  I become completely absorbed, and I don’t want to be bothered by an interruption.  I’m too busy.

What is it we are attending to?  Our mind’s drama?  The thoughts and feelings whirling?  We attend to the feelings and reactions to phantoms in our own brain, the stories so compelling we can’t stop paying attention.  It’s like we are in a dark cave watching shadows on the wall – we see nothing but the dancing shadows and light and the drama of their exchange.  Socrates predicted the video game quite accurately.

What could be more real and necessary than a real human soul right in front of you in the here and now?  The answer is our thoughts as they whirl and dance in our mind, more compelling than a flesh and blood person here and now.

I don’t know what the Taliban is, really.  From my limited knowledge, they are a hodgepodge group of fundamental extremists trying to take over their country.  They seek to overthrow their government or at least reduce its influence so that it has very little control or power over the Taliban’s interests – which seem to be guns, money, and religion.  The Taliban seeks to destabilize and upset the nation so that the people living in it actually turn toward them as a the solution rather than view them as the enemy.

No doubt many members of the Taliban are sincere and even well-meaning people.  They may be desperately poor, utterly convinced that their religious values and traditions are under attack, and they may view themselves as the holders of a sacred truth.  Many members joined out of great fear as they listened to the leaders, who frightened them with lies and distortions, but who frightened them out of their wits nonetheless. In any event, they now have lay claim to fundamental doctrines that they will die and kill for.

I suspect as well that the Taliban leadership may use their own members’ religious fundamentalism in deeply cynical ways to exert political influence, maintain access to huge financial benefits, create fear, and promote their own interests that are in direct contradiction to the interests of the most sincere and passionate common member.

Who are these guys?  Obviously, I’m talking about the Tea Party.

Onioncap crashed due to some technical issues.  Maybe someday I’ll restore the archived posts, but for now, I’ll just forge on.  I had to delete some things in order to get WordPress installed correctly (or maybe incorrectly), but now it appears to be working again.