Red Hurts

Yesterday's New York Times reports, "The Latest Theory Is That Theory Doesn't Matter," (page A17), and in that article, a graduate student from Jamaica asks, "So is theory simply a nice, simple intellectual exercise, or something that should be transformative?" The article goes on to say several panelists "weighed in before Mr. Gates stood up. As far as he could tell, he said, theory had never directly liberated anyone." That's so funny. The theories of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau directly liberated me. The theories of David Daniels directly transformed me. And what about taxi1010.com, which is my take on some of this? And what about the Theory of Dream Funnels? I mean, have you ever noticed when you fall asleep, you don't exactly remember things from when you were just previously awake? It's as if you funnel into a dream leaving all your worldly memories behind! Now the opposite is not true. When you wake up, you sometimes remember your dreams. So what are implications of this? Maybe dreams are being used to bury painful or unsuccessful experiences. Maybe some dreams are only partially successful at burying memories, leaving you with depression, misery or neuroses. Have you ever considered the fact that aggression (or anger) cures all neuroses? Have you ever noticed that placing someone you like on your weak side (your left side if you are right handed, or vice versa) enhances your feelings for them? Have you ever wondered whether, when you are alone reading The New York Times at a cafeteria table, whether you should sit in the left seat with your breakfast off to the right, in the unoccupied position, or vice versa? And what about rice in a Vietnamese restaurant. Should you place it to the left of your main dish, or to the right of your main dish? Hmm?


Trends and Everyday Events in

the Early Twenty-First Century

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Richard Ames Hart

Sunday 20 April 2003