You can learn a lot from old men in tattered clothes.

'There's two way you can look at history,' he said, 'and it depends whether you believe there's a purpose or not.'

It seemed so strange. Here we were in the middle of a shopping mall. At this cheap, metal table right below the down excalator across from, I don't know, what was it? Arby's? I think it was a across from Arby's. But he didn't seem to care, he just kept on talking. And I listened.

'Now lets suppose you believe there's a purpose. It seems innocent enough, but its actually pretty dangerous. Because if you believe there's a purpose, then you might just believe that you know what that purpose is. And if you know the purpose of history, well then, you better go out and make it happen.'

'Of course, you might just be some crackpot that hears voices. Doesn't matter though. You know you're right and you know what's right and that's what matters. That matters, and if you have power matters. If you have power, then you can change history'

I nodded with diligence.

'Now, the second way to look at it, this way is much more difficult. In this way, you don't believe that there's a purpose. You don't believe in necessity at all. its just existential. It just is.'

But he was quickly serious again.

'Well, if you believe this you will be much more cautious. You won't jump into anything. You be more likely to accept someone else's opinion. You'll accept debate. You probably be more likely to obey the rules and laws. Because you know that there's nothing out there that says you're right. The future is a mystery. All you know is you don't know who's right. So it could easily be you.'

I thought I understood, and I was excited as I wanted him to hear it. 'From the first comes tyranny,' I said, 'And from the second comes democracy,' and then after a pause, 'But I don't think we've quite figured that out yet.'

He nodded and took another sip of the coffee.
- posted by Sigurd11/09/2004 10:22:00 AM