On the pleasure in kicking the shit out of someone - verbally expressed
Yesterday, near the GPO in O'Connell Street, I passed a man in a wheelchair, and with no legs, who was roaring at a man who had just left his side at great haste. This severely incapacitated person (from the waist down anyway) was shouting expletives and threats after the fleeing man. The most frequent threat was that he was going to kick the shit out of his, presumably, former friend when he got hold of him.This is proof positive of Kierkegaard's theory that human thought, language and discourse is primarily based on passion and feeling and not rationalism and cool reason. Common sense will not get us very far in explaining the world and the human condition. You gotta have faith, as George Michael once famously pointed out.
I also noted that the disabled man was clearly expressing his threats with relish. Even if his body was incapable of executing the threat he fervently wished to carry out, he still enjoyed making it. We've all been there.
Then there was the delicious irony in his voice. It was partly a performance and he knew it. Our self awareness raises us above the animal kingdom and moves us closer to the Gods. One of our basic impulses is not only to create and see our own dramas but also to envisage how people will react to them.
I enjoyed this wheelchair drama, as well as his last words that were spoken to me. On turning his head in my direction, he said:
- Not you mate - that other fucker over there.
@ Paul Larkin
Baile Átha Cliath - Mí Eanáir 2011