The Man Who Knew Too Little

Cherry

By Ewan

Mon, 19 Mar 2018
  • 2036 reads
6 comments
 

And the troll won.
Despite the man’s vote
and that of his wife,
his therapist, his son,
his daughter, his lawyer
and Rosmary Clooney’s nephew.

Then the news changed:
to the spite of lies
and the death of the truth,
his happiness, his hope,
his laughter, his pleasure
and Lyon Cohen’s grandson.

So he turned it off,
in spite of himself,
and the loss of his friends,
his connection, his link,
his anchor, his succour
and James Madison’s promise.

He died in the bubble,
from a lack of air
and one of debate,
of engagement, of life,
of contact, of conflict -
from Bartleby’s only answer.

And the troll won.

Footnote: if you are an after person.

Certificate U
Poem
Days Like These
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Interesting link. I feel envious of him, but he's living in the centre of a vast isolated continent. It would take a long time for the tanks to get to him -- if ever.

Living a mere 24 hour drive from the border for a T-14 is hard to ignore. 

Good topical stuff. (Viva NYT and WP)

 

Submitted by Ewan on

at first, but it is the ultimate cop-out, safe-space, a "self-bubbling".

All the disastrous political choices of the last couple of years were made by people, ordinary people with a vote who felt that using it never changed anything. So, when they were offered the chance to pull out the bottom can of the tinned caviar pyramid, they did it. So they got Trump, and we got Brexit.  Ignoring people whose views we don't share is exactly what caused that. Now, we are as polarised as we've ever been, no-one is listening to anyone else. This man's extreme form of isolationism is just self-disenfranchisement.

Listening, it's a good thing today. Just because you hear it, doesn't make it fact. Neither does it make it untrue. But if you never hear others you can't listen to them, and you'll end up talking to yourself.

 

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Submitted by Ed Crane on

Maybe he cares so much he's afraid it'll drive him mad.

However, I see your point, I guess I'd call it the Robinson Crusoe effect. Buy an island in the middle of the Pacific and forget .... until there are no fish anymore and the acid rain's killed the coconut palms. Then you might wish you'd joined the lobby to protect the oceans and the prevent atmospheric pollution

 

Submitted by Ewan on

Так точно!

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Submitted by airyfairy on

I have some sympathy for the chap.  I want to turn off all forms of electronic communication whenever Boris Johnson comes on, and then I remind myself, he's the Foreign Secretary and what he says does matter.  

Submitted by Ewan on

exactly. We might think it's nonsense (or bluster, in Boris's case) but it still matters. If we don't examine what politicians of all stripes say, how can we take them to task for their 'economies of truth', solipsistic statistics or even lies? This guy has stopped interacting because "he prefers not to" and he's as nihilistic as Melville's scrivener.

Thanks for reading

Cheers for cherries, Eds.

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