Irene: Was that really necessary?

T : Yes, I really think that it was.

Irene: It was necessary to ask him to kill himself? (*) Even the regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia did not go so far as to suggest that anyone who adhered to belief in life after death should die.

T : Nor did I, if you were paying attention. I took no issue with Robert's belief in an afterlife, just with his insistence that death was no big deal. The two are not the same.

Oh, no, don't be left with the wrong idea, here.

I offered that challenge with the full expectation that it would be refused. Had I believed that there was a real chance that Robert really was crazy enough to believe what he was saying, that challenge would never have seen the light of day. But it never really was a serious worry.

To talk someone into jumping off of a building would be wrong. To call his bluff, should he say that he doesn't think that falling to one's death is particularly bad, is another matter.

I'm not about to apologise for playing with his head a little, though. He very much had it coming.

Jack: This has got to be the stupidest thing I have heard in a long while. You ask someone to go and kill themself and then when they don't you say it proves something. Are you taking your medication like you should? All this proves is that you are not fit to be held responsible for your actions, and should be made a ward of the court. Get a life, pal. All you have proved is that you're a complete (bleep!).

T : Jack, tell me if I'm going too fast for you, here. If death isn't that important, then you don't lose all that much by commiting suicide. If you say that someone would have to be crazy to expect you to kill yourself, you admit that you would be left much worse off if you did that, and that your life is worth a lot to you, and so death is a very bad thing, because it involves the loss of something precious to you. Namely, your life.

You can't have it both ways. Either life is important, or it isn't. So, which is it?

Jack: (bleep!) off.

T : Brilliant comeback - and here I was, thinking that you were a hopeless moron who kept throwing tantrum after tantrum in order to intimidate people into not noticing that you had nothing intelligent to add to the discussion.

Jack: (bleep!) you.

T : You're a wise man, Jack. Oh, don't leave. There's so much we could learn from you. Like how many different ways we can use the word (bleep!). And you haven't even begun to explore the possibilities of (bleep!), or (bleep!), or (bleep!). No, stay ...

(Jack walks off).

Irene: You're really making friends today, aren't you?

Was it necessary to respond to a philosophical point with a personal challenge, as you did with Robert?

T : Yes, sometimes, it is.

Irene: It doesn't seem like a very intellectual approach. Why don't you offer a logical refutation of what he has to say, if you have one?

T : Because it couldn't possibly be done.

Irene : So, you've just admitted that you had no intelligent response to what he had to say? Who's trying to intimidate whom?

T : On the contrary, I've admitted nothing of the sort, as an examination of your assumptions will reveal ...

continue

(*) If the reader checks, he will see that I said nothing of the sort. The widow made the request, and I merely asked Robert a question - why did you refuse the request? I then went on to call on Robert to live by his own words, and to see to it that his words reflect what it is that he lives by.

Irene is deliberately stirring up hysteria, as she plays to the coffeehouse crowd.