Monday 19 March 2012

The Great Debate

The hall was full of men, each of whom had one eye closed. The first speaker expounded at length that those who opened the right eye saw more clearly, and thus achieved a surer increase in wisdom than those who closed it. Another man replied that there had been a great many wise men throughout history who had opened their left eyes.
Another speaker said that a great many crimes had been committed by those who closed their left eyes. The reply came that some of the most notorious of criminals has been men that closed their right eyes. The first speaker countered that the perversity of such men was due to the fact that, having been trained in their youth to close their left eyes, by the time they closed their right eyes, they drew no benefit.
Another speaker said that those who closed their right eyes were constantly looking backwards over their shoulders, while those opened them looked ahead. His opponent said that those who closed their left eyes were so obsessed with going forwards, they never looked around to see if it was the right way to go.
A man rose to his feet to say that it was necessary to close the right eye, so that the vision of the left should not become clouded with illusions. At this, another jumped up and shouted angrily that to say that the things seen with the right eye were illusions was a wicked lie, and it was more than likely that all the things he claimed to have seen with his left eye were wicked lies too. A younger man then shouted out that the right eye saw nothing at all, and that all who claimed to see through it were merely repeating what others had told them.
Thus the debate continued, becomming more and more heated. But I left the chamber with both eyes open.

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