The House on Fire

Once upon a time in a very hot land there was a house on fire.

Nearby, in an air-conditioned office there was a cool white, middle-class, vegan, gay atheist man in an ironic t-shirt and a cold white, middle-class, omnivorous, heterosexual, religious man in a suit.

One day the man in the suit left the office and walked out into the sunburn of the main street. It was a very hot day. There, he met the man in the t-shirt and they began to speak at each other:

"I am right," huffed one man. "You are wrong."

"You believe you are right because you are wrong," the other one puffed.

"I am right because I am surrounded by people who think like me," said the first, red-faced. "You are wrong for the same reason."

"I am right because my thoughts are my own," said the other, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "You are wrong for the same reason."

"I am in the majority," said one. "A million people can't be wrong. Remember Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement?"

"I am in the minority," retorted the other. "A million people can't be right. Remember the KKK?"

"I am right because my thoughts are very old," said one, his shiny chin raised. "You are wrong for the same reason."

"I am right because my thoughts are very new," snarled the other, furrowing his sweaty brow. "You are wrong for the same reason."

"Your thoughts will unstitch the fabric of the universe!" screeched one man, fists clenched. "You are bad."

"Your thoughts will turn back the hands of time to a dark age of backward, miserable living!" shouted the other. "You are bad."

Suddenly each man remembered he had a mortgage to pay. Side by side they walked back to their shared air-conditioned office.

Meanwhile the house just kept on burning.