We’re all rich when it comes to the vast untapped wealth of the imagination. I myself am driving a top-of-the range Lexus. A top-of-the range Lexus that has been kindly supplied by my imagination. In reality it’s only grey chip of rock stuck in the bottom of one of my Adidas trainers. In reality it’s a discarded burger wrapper on the pavement outside a McDonald’s outlet. In reality it’s someone walking by me in the street, talking away to themselves nine to the dozen. Who’s to say what it is in reality? Certainly not me, certainly not me.
Such immense wealth as this can be dangerous, however. It can land you in a whole heap of trouble and so you must be very careful not to let it go to your head. Worse accidents generally happen elsewhere of course, but maybe this time it might happen to you! Thoughts like that have been plaguing you a lot recently – ‘Supposing nips become wips?’ you ask yourself, ‘suppose mims become pims?’ In reality it’s always something else of course – it’s never what you thought it was going to be, so why bother guessing?
Everyone’s a millionaire when it comes to the immense untapped wealth of the imagination. Some of us become heroes, with mighty pasts behind them and equally mighty destinies lying ahead. Others of us excel in in sports or in the arts and everyone gets to know their name. I was one of the latter – I excelled in the arts and everyone knew my name; they knew my name and so they chanted it incessantly, trying to break my sanity in this way. But I resisted them. They won’t break me that easily, I can promise you that.
A hush has now broken out over the crowd – every and every face in it is a perfect study in both earnest anticipation and tremulous expectation. They’re waiting for you to step onto the podium and give your famous demonstration of the tremendous power of the imagination. They’re imagining what that must be like, what the experience is going to be like. They’ve be waiting for a very long time now so you have to make sure that you don’t disappoint them! That would hardly be fair…
The crowd will only hear what it wants to hear however, and so it’s worth remembering that too. The crowd expects a lot from you, but you must not expect too much from it. The crowd is a sullen but nevertheless savage beast, reflecting the numberless dissatisfied, unfulfilled and thoroughly alienated human beings that make it up. It’s only interested in acting out its vile prejudices. It’s simply not capable of being interested in anything else. Nothing else exists for it, nor ever could, save the acting out of its vile prejudices. The acting out of these vile prejudices bringing brings a vile bestial pleasure to each member of the crowd, a dreadful orgiastic satisfaction. Bearing this in mind, you must now prepare to deliver your address – powerful compelling ideas must be introduced and expanded. Subtle philosophical nuances need to be conveyed. If ever there was a time for you not to drop the ball, this is it…
