The Benshi

Ah, the mind of the angry skeptic

THE ANGRY SKEPTIC. This guy doesn’t trust government. And he’s worried about his privacy. Which is what half of his emails say. As if his emails are somehow private.

helter skeptic

WORDS

I have a good friend — let’s call him Jim — with an older brother — let’s call him Tim — who is a major skeptic. He’s skeptical of climate change, of both parties of our government, of our President (big time), of basically any voice of authority or even compassion. He writes tons of emails to a group of about a dozen friends. We all endure his emails. Sometimes they are genuinely funny. Most of the time they consist of links to articles that espouse his mistrust of government. I keep putting up with them because I’m fascinated with these sorts of minds that are skeptical of everything. And because sometimes he’s genuinely funny.

One time I took the bait and wrote him a two page diatribe confronting his politics. I awaited his two page reply. All that came back, the next day, was an email that said, “Words.” Which I thought was beautiful.

So I wrote to Jim (the non-skeptic brother) the other day asking him what’s wrong with his brother. He sent this back, which I found to be an equally brilliant and perfect condensation of his poor brother’s life.

‘Tim is the guy on the outside of the football stadium watching the game on TV, complaining about how both teams are playing it,  saying he has the right way to play, what they are doing is wrong … all the inside moves and details … yet … he hates football, never threw one, and has never been to a game.”

And the actual context of this comment is that Tim had said in one of his group emails that he is “voting for Cain.” To which Jim had to point out that though he is now in his 60’s, Tim has never in his life voted.

Words.