Clocks from Hell

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 Last night I finished Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut. Its one of his earlier works, published in 61. At the end his main character gives an interesting analogy on extremist like Nazis or the KKK, etc. He describes them as clocks from hell. Not exactly. 


Clocks, at least in the past, were built on interlocking gears and it was the teeth lining up that kept the time. He said some people file teeth off. So then the clock tells time perfect for 4 minutes and 33 seconds, then misses, then another 2 hours and 52 minutes and then misses. These people in extreme political movements have access to see the world as all of us do, to know reality as we all do. But they take some of their teeth off with a metal file. They remove the vision of, lets say, little Jewish children being so similar to their own children. So then all their gears turn and they love Wagner and Brahms, perhaps even Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf (1936), but they file off the teeth for Jewish human-likeness. 


Part of the book is that Auschwitz played Beethoven over the loudspeaker with occasional interruption to call for new volunteers as corpse carriers. 


Today, driving to the coffee shop I saw a Landrover with a sticker using the Starbucks icon, but encircling the emblem was Guns and Coffee. I thought, this person has been filing off some of their gear teeth. I have no idea why liking coffee would be part of someones identity. ; )


Or a random hipster bungalow in Cabbagetown (Atlanta) has a sign that says EAT THE RICH out front, I am guessing they have filed off some teeth. Do they know their English history, where this phrase is from (I think)? Do they know how much their house is worth? Do they know much about Adam Smith vs. Karl Marx? My best guess is no. 


I am not sure when to employ this analogy and how far it goes. Human cognition is limited by experience and location and access to information. I wouldn’t think not knowing is the same as filing off a tooth. The character, Howard Campbell, distinguishes himself from the people he falls in with because he has refused to file off any teeth. I think there is something here to admire, but I can’t tell on first reading whether to believe or accept at face value what Mr. Campbell says. 


However, to keep with the analogy, I do not want to file down any of my teeth. I want each tooth to connect and keep the time rolling. Maybe old projectors had gears, I bet they did. I want the story to continue unfolding, tick tick tick. 


I grew up going to church and I went to a Christian liberal arts college (would be classed conservative for sure), I helped start a church and worked there (also would be classed conservative, I say it that way because these words are shorthand for the reader, but also full of missing teeth … often dumb distribution of binaries). You would think, in all that Christian culture I would be somewhat aware of the most famous and greatest Christians in US history. Thinking back, I think it would have included Billy Graham. We were nondenominational, so strange small figures like John Wimber. But here is the missing teeth part, not Martin Luther King, Jr? Not Mahalia Jackson? Not Howard Thurman? Not Mary Lou Hamer? I mean I knew them as historical figures, well King at least, but not as Christians. Why? Someone filed off our teeth. 


The gears slipped and my time jumped from Lincoln’s emancipation 1863 to 1980s when Christians were singing We shall overcome outside of abortion clinics. (I never did this actually and was still in elementary school in the 80s, but this was my understanding of US history pertaining to Christian witness). I missed that brief southern period where we tried democracy and elected some black leaders due to Federal troops and the Reconstruction. I also missed the compromise of 1876 when their was a tie for president and the south agreed to let Hayes become president if they withdrew federal troops. 


I could go at length on the teeth missing. But heres the thing, lets work on A) not filing our teeth off; B) working on getting a complete set wherever possible. It is going to take some work. It is going to take our listening less to loud and shiny people and with a much more open mind to what we can learn. 

Comments

ajartos said…
It feels like it's a case (not to completely mix metaphors, but this is the visual in my mind) of standing under a streetlight. You know the anecdote about looking for your lost keys under the streetlight not because it's where you dropped them, but because it's all you can see - it feels like that to some degree; like the lights are turned off, either by never knowing or by outright conditioning (cultural, familial, educational, whatever the mix). That's the feeling I had on seeing the Eat The Rich banner - expand that spotlight far enough and in all likelihood, person who could afford that banner the size of a queen bedsheet and hang it on your Cabbagetown home, rented or purchased, you ARE the rich. Are you still ready to light the fire under that barbecue grill when you're on it? Not to diminish the struggle that person may be feeling to have that sentiment, or to play the "you have no right to complain as others have it worse" game - but to say, I think most of our judgements, from small dismissals to true failures of humanity, come from the other person's story being in the dark, outside of the circle where we are looking. That's the skipped tooth in the gear - not knowing that there are truths out there that aren't illuminated yet; assuming that, outside of our own spotlight, things cease to exist. I have thought a lot lately about the scriptures that lean into living a simple life, deeply understanding ourselves and the creative work we each have in our hands - and I wonder if the key to expanding the spotlight is to see this part of each person's life. To get to know the details - the moment we all wake up in the morning, the person whose face we are excited to see, the food that is a delight. The tiniest details in the most mundane corners of life that show, with all the differences that may hang on the framework, the framework of living a human life is startlingly the same.
July 10, 2024 at 6:35 AM
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