The High Flyer Read Online Free PDF Page B

going to tell me you believe in UFOs, please hand me a large brandy first!”
    “I think Jung got it right about UFOs,” said Kim astonishingly. “The point is not whether they exist in what we think of as reality, but why people start seeing them. Jung thought they were a
psychic
reality, indicative of profound anxiety in the collective unconscious.”
    I felt my jaw sag. When I had recovered from my amazement I demanded: “But you’re not really interested in all that guff, are you?”
    “What guff? Jung? Psychic phenomena? Mysteries of consciousness? Spiritual matters? God? Principalities and Powers? St. Paul?”
    “Oh, the whole damn lot! I mean, surely every rational person knows nowadays that there’s no God, religion’s a crutch for losers and truth which can’t be scientifically proved in a laboratory is no truth at all?”
    Kim burst out laughing. “Why, what a cute little version of logical positivism! Where did you find that summary—in a Christmas cracker?”
    I somehow managed to stop my jaw sagging again. “What on earth do you mean?”
    “Sweetheart, logical positivism is an outdated and increasingly discredited philosophy. It reflects the state of mind generated by the Enlightenment, but we’re post-Enlightenment now.”
    I stared at him. I did open my mouth to speak but no words came out because I had no idea what to say. What he was talking about had never featured in any of my law books. I felt like an unbriefed barrister, but the next moment Kim had grasped what had happened and was moving to protect my self-esteem. “Relax!” he said soothingly. “I never read a history of modern thought either until I hit forty—you’re much too young to be bothered with that kind of stuff!”
    I felt exactly as if a dinosaur had patted me on the arm and said: “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about this problem, my dear!” My natural instinct was to punch him on the nose.
    “I don’t give a damn whether you label my views logical positivism, common sense or absolute bullshit,” I snapped. “All I know is that I’m going to continue to put my trust in logic and rationality, and no one is ever going to catch
me
dabbling in any kind of philosophical or theological nutterguff!”
    “That’s fine, sweetheart, but if you’re going to be an atheist, do yourself a favour and be an intellectually respectable one, okay? You won’t win any brownie points, believe me, by putting a belief in Jesus Christ in the same category as a belief in UFOs . . . Or are you going to abandon your old-fashioned Enlightenment attitudes and claim that an ill-informed belief is as good as a well-informed one in the post-modern supermarket of ideas?”
    I knew at once that all I could now do was concede defeat and change the subject. “No wonder you earn twice as much as I do!” I said goodnaturedly. “You’ve done me up like a kipper! And now if you’re in the mood to contemplate me as a late-night snack, why don’t we . . .”
    To my relief he was more than willing to adjourn to the bedroom.
    XI
    Later I decided I should read a book about modern thought and learn how to make an intellectually respectable case for atheism. It would never do to make a gaffe at a future dinner-party.
    But the trouble was there was never any time for serious reading. There was never any time for non-serious reading. I even had difficulty in finding time to go with Kim to the theatre and the cinema. Certainly there was never any time to sit and think—in fact the very idea of having enough time to waste time seemed bizarre, even shocking. As a high flyer you bartered your time and energy in exchange for wealth and power and everyone admired you, approved of you, thought you were wonderful, because you were living out the gospel of worldly success and the doctrine of sophisticated salvation. It was a tough life but you could never whinge because you knew you’d got to heaven and therefore, logically and rationally, you had