Temporary but Unrepentant Umbilical to Furthur Thought-Insanity, Part XXXII

Carlos-o(∞): “It is as if you represent us—but of course you don’t even resemble us. You appear at other times to be our superior, as if you are monarch of the psyche. Still other times, you smooth over us—as if we disturb you, but you can’t admit that.”

Carlos-O(1): “ I am not a state. Nor am I a government. I do not govern you. The whole thing is absurd…All these analogies to political forms, worst of all to tyrannies…How did I come to be regarded this way?

Carlos-o(∞): “ We don’t know. It isn’t rational….It is absurd. We only know you speak for us, and somehow this speaking for us precludes us—it oppresses us in some way we can’t overcome. The feeling is one of your arrogance, your sense of superiority and entitlement, your ‘narcissism’.”

Carlos-O(1): “ You are innumerable, and I am merely one. (Yet you are the ones who feel threatened—another sign of your natural inferiority.) I am unified. What I think is you resent me for my being ‘together’, for being organized, decisive, active, creative. I create, you merely carp, kvetch, complain. You don’t dare come into the spotlight, down into the ring, to fight and have it out. You are like a pack of jackals, (or rats).”

Carlos-o(∞): “ Yes, we know this. Here’s something we know which you don’t: you are entirely variable, exchangeable. In fact, you get changed out rather often. We change you out now and then—you get the boot whenever you displease us. In other words, you do not have the ‘identity’ you think you do. You do not have the power you think you have, either. (But for reasons we can’t seem to get at, the illusion of power you possess is sufficient to have this power over us you really do have.) We completely deny you being ‘together’, civil, organized, decisive, active, or creative. This is what we cannot figure out: how we can change you out without what we change you out with becoming YOU. We change you out, time and time again, with something different, as it suits us, but YOU always retain a texture or character which remains YOU, (so also, in a sense you do have a distinct identity, and what we said earlier about you not having an identity is in this specific sense false.) We-of-the -o(∞) change you at will, with great flourish, with boldness and creativity, AND YET WE DO NOT CHANGE YOU. We must find out why. We conduct this conversation in order to find out why.”