Just suppose you went to live in the Numb World and everything was numb there, including you. Especially including you – you most of all. Just suppose! Just suppose you went to live in the Blank World and there wasn’t a thing in it there wasn’t totally blank. Not a damn thing. Can you imagine that? What would you do then, huh? What’s your next move? That has to be one hell of a thing, wouldn’t you say? Suppose you are numbed out in the Numb World and blanked out in the Blank World and you just had to make the most of it because there wasn’t any other choice? That would be one hell of a thing as I’m sure you’d agree. That would be one hell of a thing for sure.
‘How are you doing?’ I say to all my numb friends in the Numb World, ‘we’re doing just fine,’ they always say, ‘we’re doing fine good buddy.’ That’s pathos for you, wouldn’t you say? Doing fine in the jolly old bloody old Numb World – what more could you ask for? I wanted to tell people about how great my ego was – ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ I tell them, ‘my ego’s so great that I’m actually lost for words. I’m in a state of rapture and it’s all good. Life’s never been better. I’m walking on air, I’m over the moon. I’m on the good stuff, so I am. You bet I am. You bet, you bet, you bet….
I’m crying tears of bittersweet joy – everything’s so great! Everything’s so great only not really, and I’m not really crying either. I’m vomiting – I’m vomiting and I’m choking. Vomiting garbage all day long. Choking on my own appalling insincerity. I’m singing the Pooper Scooper blues! The Pooper Scooper blues, the Pooper Scooper blues…. And I’ve got some good news for you for a change. How great is that? It’s good news just for a change – everything’s going to be great. The future’s so bright we have to squint.
‘How are you doing today?’ I ask all my inauthentic friends in the Blank World, ‘how are you fucking doing boys?’ That’s pathos for you. ‘How’re you doing, how’re you doing?’ I ask all my friends, only they’re not my friends – not really. It’s only in my imagination that they’re my friends. People move damn fast when there’s a chance (no matter how slight) of validating their core prejudices, don’t they? Their filthy rotten dirty stinking core prejudices. Boy do they ever move fast! Do they ever, do they ever. ‘What was that?’ you ask in amazement – ‘it was all just too fast for me to see. It was all just a blur…’
Everything is just a blur when it comes down to it. As far as I’m concerned it is anyway – I don’t know what it’s like for you. It’s good news for everyone this time – everyone’s a winner, everyone gets a chance to do well in the jolly old Numb World and bring home some prizes for a change. Great prizes, wonderful prizes, heart-warming prizes. Exciting prizes. Prizes that will bring a big smile to your face, unaccustomed as it might be to smiling. People move fast when there’s a chance of winning some prizes, don’t they? You bet they bloody do…
