1969 Bacon, Francis

When we see someone talking to themselves–and it is not obvious they are using their phone–we are always struck with horror.

What is that horror?

Perhaps it’s the degree. That someone’s madness can be so profound that they give it voice! People have been burned at the stake for such transgressions.  Perhaps it is the utter distrust we must now have for the person who uses such an essential tool so irresponsibly and unreliably.  How can we understand someone who has abandoned such a primal tool as speech?  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  But what if the word is the madness of a god?