Solipsism
Solipsism is the conceptual of the world as existing only because you believe it to be so. The only thing real is you and everything else but a projection of your consciousness. It exists somewhere in the twilight zone between narcissism and outright insanity. The ridiculous man finds himself nearing the zone:
“I may almost say that the world now seemed created for me alone…I say nothing of its being likely that nothing will exist for anyone when I am gone, and that as soon as my consciousness is extinguished the whole world will vanish too and become void like a phantom”
The Ridiculous Dream
The dream of the ridiculous man takes him away from this world and to another. It is a dream where the Golden Rule of treating others as you would treat yourself is in place. And it is a paradise:
“And not only in their songs but in all their lives they seemed to do nothing but admire one another. It was like being in love with each other, but an all-embracing, universal feeling.”
A Plague in Eden
Paradise cannot abide imperfection. It infects and spreads and it may be why paradise no longer exists anywhere. The ridiculous man becomes the infectious agency and by his mere traveling to paradise, he leaves it forever ruined:
“Yes, yes, it ended in my corrupting them all! How it could come to pass I do not know, but I remember it clearly. The dream embraced thousands of years and left in me only a sense of the whole. I only know that I was the cause of their sin and downfall. Like a vile trichina, like a germ of the plague infecting whole kingdoms, so I contaminated all this earth, so happy and sinless before my coming.”
Immaturity
The adults in this dream of a world that is paradise is given shape and form and substance, also carries a metaphorical weight. It would appear to be constructed solidly upon a foundation of innocence and immaturity. Construction of happiness upon such a foundation is bound to be unsound--building a paradise for kids is easy, but maintaining as they mature is impossible--but the ridiculous man, although apprehending it, fails at first to comprehend it.
“They were as gay and sportive as children.”
Blinded Vision
The ridiculous man takes from his dream the insight that he must preach the gospel. He has been blinded by the light of insight into what makes paradise possible. The problem is that he seems to remembers the blinding light more powerfully than the blindness it caused:
“And of course I shall make many blunders before I find out how to preach, that is, find out what words to say, what things to do, for it is a very difficult task. I see all that as clear as daylight, but, listen, who does not make mistakes?”
