/lit/ - Literature

“Immanuel Kant is the greatest thinker in history,” Harry said, “there is no question in my mind that, were he living today, Kant would denounce virtually everything about our modern society.” Harry made a fist. “On his first day in the 21st Century, were he transported here, let’s say, Kant would seek out the intellectuals of our time. He could search every apartment in every city, every farmhouse across every countryside, and the best he would find are sloven hypocrites. In a matter of hours he would rip out his hair. No, in earnest, the best one could do for Kant, to explain the sickness of the 21st Century, would be to lend him a copy of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.”

Everyone sat quiet. It was the first time Harry had spoken in class.

“Not exactly the answer we were looking for,” the professor said, “the input is really appreciated, though. Anyone else?”
Harry stood up. “Kant would walk through this campus and feel the centuries of decline weighing on him. I’m sure the weight, however massive it truly is, would almost crush him! ‘Where are the standards?’ he would cry, ‘Where is the rigor?’ Well, the truth is: more than fifty years ago our Universities forgot their purpose. Our Universities gave up their standards, gave up rigor, to become businesses. Businesses that exist solely for profit!”

Everyone watched Harry walk out. He walked down the hallway and tossed his balled up test in the trash. He had failed another midterm. This time it was philosophy.

As he stepped outside, Harry ripped his vaporizer pen. “Why should I put effort into a system that puts no effort into me? Why should I care when I’m seen as disposable? I don’t hold a stake in anything!”

The weather was calm and sunny. Students crossed back and forth around campus in a pattern that probably involved Euler’s number. Harry looked gray. He ripped once more and sat in his Mitsubishi sedan. He turned the key and bass-heavy trap music began rattling the interior.

Harry reclined in the driver’s seat. He lay back his head and stared into the fabric ceiling, letting go a puff of vapor. “My life was over before it ever started. My life’s course was dreamed of centuries ago and was engineered as part of a plan to enslave the global populace. I am simply unfortunate to have been born around the time the realization of this plan became nightmarishly efficient.” Harry shut his eyes. The trap beat and the rapper’s shouting and moans were not nearly cathartic enough for the occasion. “Most days I can give myself over to distractions. Let my senses be numbed. But some days the truth rears its head and I’m reminded. There is no rebellion to join. There is no solace to be found. There is no point even dying to spite them. They do not care.”

The last drop of vape juice was gone. Harry rummaged through the trash in the passenger’s seat until finding a package of mango vape juice, and he replaced the pod in his pen.