“Charlatan!” exclaimed Alberto.
“Was that the major?”
“I’m not even going to answer that.”
They walked across the park in front of the church and came out onto
another main street. Alberto seemed slightly irritable. They stopped in front of
LIBRIS, the biggest bookstore in town.
“Let’s go in,” said Alberto.
Inside the -store he pointed to the longest wall. It had three sections:
NEW AGE, ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLES, and MYSTICISM.
The books had intriguing titles such as Life after Death?, The Secrets of
Spiritism, Tarot, The UFO Phenomenon, Healing, The Return of the Gods,
You Have Been Here Before, and What Is Astrology? There were hundreds of
books. Under the shelves even more books were stacked up.
“This is also the twentieth century, Sophie. This is the temple of our
age.”
“You don’t believe in any of this stuff?”
“Much of it is humbug. But it sells as well as pornography. A lot of it is a
kind of pornography. Young people can come here and purchase the ideas
that fascinate them most. But the difference between real philosophy and
these books is more or less the same as the difference between real love and
pornography.”
“Aren’t you being rather crass?”
“Let’s go and sit in the park.”
They marched out of the store and found a vacant bench in front of the
church. Pigeons were strutting around under the trees, the odd overeager
sparrow hopping about amongst them.
“It’s called ESP or parapsychology,” said Alberto. “Or it’s called
telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokinetics. It’s called spiritism, astrology,
and urology.”
“But quite honestly, do you really think it’s all hum-bug?”
“Obviously it would not be very appropriate for a real philosopher to say
they are all equally bad. But I don’t mind saying that all these subjects
together possibly chart a fairly detailed map of a landscape that does not
exist. And there are many ‘figments of the imagination’ here that Hume would
have committed to the flames. Many of those books do not contain so much
as one iota of genuine experience.”
“Why are there such incredible numbers of books on such subjects?”
“Publishing such books is a big commercial enterprise. It’s what most
people want.”
“Why, do you think?”
“They obviously desire something mystical, something different to break
the dreary monotony of everyday life. But it is like carrying coals to
Newcastle.”
“How do you mean?”
“Here we are, wandering around in a wonderful adventure. A work of
creation is emerging in front of our very eyes. In broad daylight, Sophie! Isn’t it
marvelous!”
“I guess so.”
“Why should we enter the fortune-teller’s tent or the backyards of
academe in search of something exciting or transcendental?”