I was walking down the Royal Mile. Ahead of me, an ugly, shaven-headed teenager was beating up someone just like him, who was doubled over on the pavement. He was shouting: "We're at war with Saudi Arabia and you dinnae even ken where Mecca is!" I walked on, stepping out of the way slightly so as not to be accidentally struck.
Notes for Freudian Analysis
At lunchtime, the day before I had this dream, I had passed the time that it takes to walk up the Royal Mile by reading two articles on Iran that I'd printed out from ZNet. The one by Noam Chomsky said some fairly depressing things about Saudi Arabia that I hadn't thought of before. "A new aspect of this cooked-up Iran crisis to consider," I thought, "Better find out some more about this Saudi Arabia business." Then, reaching the top of the Royal Mile, I thought, "Must I? For heaven's sake, what difference will it make if I know a little more about Saudi Arabia?" For a moment, I wondered whether that was an irresponsible or a sensible thing to think, then I saw a sandwich shop and thought, "Ooh, lunch."
I probably didn't think about Saudi Arabia until I got back to work and saw on the BBC news website that hundreds of people had been crushed to death in Mecca during the Hajj. Very sad, no doubt, but I didn't read further than the headline, as I imagined that that pretty much covered the story. Is my lack of interest in the tragic story reflected in my walking past the fighting guys in the dream? I wasn't disturbed by the fight, which I would have been if it had been real. If I'd actually seen it, I would have done something. For example, I'd have stayed extremely far away and called the police, which is what I did when I saw someone getting beaten up in the street last year. I assume that, somewhere in the Lothian and Borders police headquarters, there's a recording of my voice saying: "Hello? I'm in Union Street and someone's jumping on someone! He's jumping on someone! What? In Union Street! Wait! Oh no! I think they're trying to break his arm now! No, I'm alright! I'm quite far away! Oh no! He's jumping on the guy again!"