The Incident of the Fighting Men
2.
The
time has come, however, for someone to do more than just curse and go. The time has come
for someone to step out of his car and start pushing people away, and this in time sets
forth a scuffle between him and another short-tempered middle-aged man. The ensuing fight
offers me yet another opportunity which I decide to exploit.
3.
So,
I signal to the crowd to let the two men fight without interference, and we all simply
proceed to stand in our places and watch.
4.
After
a few moments, the two men notice the odd nature of their situation, they notice that no
one is trying to stop them like people usually do in such situations, they notice that
everybody is watching them instead as if they were watching a wrestling match.
5.
Once they realize that
they are unwittingly providing some form
of entertainment to the surrounding masses, the two men stop fighting and proceed to look
all around them quite befuddled and angry
still, if not more so, with their anger now
aimed more at the crowd, and me of course, the self-evident leader of them all,
than at each other. It is time for me to speak.
6.
“Have you ever considered the way we describe men when they fight? We
always liken them to animals, don’t we?
Different sorts of animals, depending on what we think of them, that is whether we believe
them to be brave or cowards, fast or slow, slick or brute. Thus, the brave, the fast and
the slick we liken to the lion, the bull or the fox; while the coward, the slow and the brute we liken to the chicken, the cow or
the bear, and so on.
7.
“The important thing is
that we always liken them to animals, because men when they fight always appear as
animals, creatures of much instinct and little thought. Anger indeed turns people into
animals.
8.
“Now, throughout history, people would rebel against anyone trying to
enslave them and treat them like animals, why is it then that they fail to rebel against
anger, when it actually does enslave them and
does turn them into animals?
9.
“Conquer your anger, friends, and you might never, never, have to
conquer your fellow man.”
10.
Conquer
your anger, friend. Conquer your hate. Conquer even your happiness. Use your emotions not
as weapons but as tools, and put them to work in your favor, and in favor of one
and all, if you can. Heavens only know how often they were used as weapons against us,
even the noblest, truest and purest of them.
11.
The
whole of history has been about conquest, the wrong
sort of conquest. The conquest of the self, of the inner demons, of the inner world, has
for the most part been neglected.
12.
Even
those who preach it often fail to practice it. I am a case in point of course. Yet since I
dared claim to be a messiah, it seems that I have to claim to be an exception to this rule
as well. For, by enslaving me, my demons are in fact setting you
free. They are special demons, aren’t they? They are, in fact, perhaps, angels.
13.
No
matter. I am merely reiterating an ancient wisdom, a
wisdom so ancient it is crying to be reborn, to be rejuvenated. Through my sacrifice, I
believe, I hope, it will be rejuvenated.
14.
I
say this and I go on my way, ignoring the
fighting men, the crowd and everything. Still my disciples and the rest of the crowd continue to follow me, in silence and
anticipation. And the plunge continues.
15.
The plunge continues
until we finally reach the gate of the newly-renovated, and very unscientifically, though
quite attractively, so, Great Mosque.
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lust for salvation, Brother, as though it were a woman, and I - a man.
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