I love the image (LOK p. 181) of the self as joining the march of objective, linear time like a pedestrian caught up in a parade. But of course, it is not comic. Heidegger said something similar when he wrote that we are thrown into the world, and that we are always already heading toward death. That is where the parade leads us.
The analysis of two times in this chapter both refer to linear time, and are meant (I think) to point out that even with regard to linear time, there are different possibilities. The central image is a really remarkable one, even if we take it for granted: What is real depends on my existence: the present is real in a sense that the past is not, but that is only true because ‘I’ am ‘here’. I once saw a Star Trek episode in which someone appeared from the past, and said to the crew, “A thousand years ago, my entire planet–5 billion years people–was destroyed. And you can do something now that will change that.” And my reaction, was, “Why should I care about reversing something already happened? After all, if those people were saved, they would still be dead by now anyway.” It was a strange reaction, in one way, but it does say something about our sense of time.
Don’t think you have to understand what this chapter is saying, in the sense that you reach a conclusion. As so often with TSK, the point is to call into question, in somewhat the same way that you call a young child home for lunch.
DTS Ex. 13 should remind you of the LOK Exercises we have been doing. You can read through the exercise, the commentary, and all its parts, but I would focus on the first part (just p. 298).
In fact, why not start at a more basic point? Here is a suggestion. Take the last two paragraphs on p. 99 of DTS and try doing them as an exercise. Do the exercise whenever you think of it: brushing your teeth, watching television, walking down the street, listening to music, eating jelly beans.
Let’s see what happens.
Jack