If your belief that everything is determined is itself determined, then is it not impossible to know anything? Is it not, therefore, the case that any science that claims to know that the whole of existence is determined by strict laws thereby makes science itself impossible, insofar as science means knowledge? And isn’t this irrefutable, in that one’s knowledge, so called, that everything is determined, including oneself and one’s beliefs, guarantees only that one’s beliefs are determined but not that they are true? True? False? Cold? Hot? Up? Down? Wet? Dry? None of these? All of these? Do you think that emptiness is overrated?
[A brief silence and then he leans forward.]
Well, do you think emptiness is overrated?
[Relaxes a little, smiles, almost assumes a friendly demeanour.]
Did you catch all that? The fruit of ten years’ research by the great experts in the field, designed to elicit, that is, extract, if not bludgeon, the truth from the brain of the one who is interrogated, in this case you. I, personally, think it an excellent questionnaire. Well, let’s get down to business! Are you guilty of the charge with which you have been charged (of which, might I say, I have no knowledge, this not being necessary to the success, or failure, of the interrogation, and anyway my superiors deigned not to inform me)? Well, then, I order you to answer all of the questions I have asked you. And I order you to answer them now. A simple yes or no will suffice – this is all that is required to answer all the questions in the world. And don’t tell us that you’re incapable, or confused, and can therefore be excused, that is, let off scot-free. We’re all incapable and confused – and none of us is free!
*
With that X sits back in his chair and gazes at Y, who merely blinks once or twice and then says: ‘No comment.’
MAY 2019 Andreas Smith MONK
