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22 January 2009

Inhuman

A fogged-up bus
Working in the public sector, it's compulsory for me to hate homophobes, racists, etc, which of course I do, and would do even if I wasn't paid to. But occasionally people do things that are totally harmless, that make me think they lack some element of what it is to be human. So, while I don't hate them, I realise I could never love them.

Today is wet and fairly cold, so the windows on the bus were thickly steamed up. In the two front seats upstairs, two women sat. Neither of them had made any attempt to wipe away a bit of the mist, to create a looking hole. It's not as if they were reading; they were just staring forward at the fogged-up glass.

That lack of curiosity, of wanting to know what's going on around you, seems strangely inhuman, like some part of the soul has died.

1 comment :

Anonymous said...

This is the future. Everyone is lost in their own worlds - listening to ipods, talking on mobiles, or just sitting still staring ahead quietly resigned to another day.

One day they will invent virtual reality helmets so you can sit on the train or bus wearing it and watch a 3D western or be in some space adventure. Imagine being in an inter-planetary battle or wandering about a Nevada desert with dusty hills and mountains as far as the eye can see - and then you take the helmet off and see your train is pulling into Victoria.