Sunday, June 25, 2006
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A chicken and egg question: Is it dupes who create bad leaders or bad leaders who create dupes?
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Hitler was a horrible human being. He behaved decently only once in his life — when he committed suicide. If only he had done so at the beginning of his career rather than at the end. Even so, unlike some others, he at least made one good decision in his life.
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When it comes to the injuries inflicted on us by others, we have the memory of elephants; but when it comes to the injuries we inflict on others, we behave more like advanced cases of Alzheimer’s.
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Universal education has its drawbacks. After a semester of algebra, biology, chemistry, history of philosophy, a couple of novels by Dostoevsky, and a play by Shaw, I was convinced I knew everything I needed to know. This may explain why for every two writers today we may or may not have a reader, and the chances are that reader will assume he knows better.
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For every truth there are ten thousand lies because that truth pretends to be the whole truth, which is a lie.
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Monday, June 26, 2006
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Every ideology has its declared (as well as undeclared) agenda and propaganda line clearly discernible to others but not always to its adherents, especially not those who confuse ideology with theology.
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When assessing yourself it’s useful to remember the meaning of the first syllable of the verb “to assess.”
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To rely on your instinct in your judgments means to allow your human brain to become an instrument of your animal drives.
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When dealing with dinosaurs a crocodile skin is no defense.
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A charlatan is a dupe with a college education.
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If you wouldn’t argue with Genghis Khan, why would you even consider arguing with someone to the right of him?
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Jilly Cooper (b. 1937) British novelist and critic, in her review of THE HITE REPORT, on American women: “They certainly know how to rape the language. One girl said she was ‘devirginized’ at twenty-five, another found it hard to resist married men, ‘because all my friends are adulterizing.’ My favorite was the girl who described her private parts as ‘plain but with charisma’.”
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Tuesday, June 27, 2006
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Everything I say about Armenians is a confession. I invent nothing. When I observe a tendency or a contradiction in myself (such as, to brag or to wallow in self-pity, or to pretend to be better than I am by ignoring my shortcomings in the hope that others will not take notice of them) I make sure that these are results of my Armenian upbringing and education rather than personal failings.
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The trouble with fanatics is that once they get hold of an idea, they cease asking questions and entertaining doubts. As a former fanatic, whenever I subscribe to an idea I now consider its opposite and invariably I see some merit in it. When Marx said, “I am not a Marxist,” I suspect that’s what he was doing too. It is such a pity that his followers appropriated his assertions but rejected his doubts.
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On the day they reject the validity of doubts and the importance of dissent, empires begin to dig their own graves. You may now draw your own conclusions about nations and tribes or, for that matter, collections of tribes that pretend to be nations.
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Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), German philosopher and historian: “Real historical vision belongs to the domain of significances in which the crucial words are not ‘correct’ and ‘erroneous, but ‘deep’ and ‘shallow’.”
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Arnold J. Toynbee (1889-1975), British historian: “It is unlikely that a writer will not retract some of his previous propositions if he has reconsidered them genuinely.”
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John Constable (1776-1837), British painter: “No two days are alike, not even two hours; neither were there two leaves alike since the creation of the world.”
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006
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C.G. Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist quoting an African chieftain’s definition of good and evil: “When I steal my enemy’s wives, it’s good. When he steals mine, it’s bad.” We echo this chieftain whenever we say, “Our propaganda line is right, my enemy’s propaganda line is crooked.”
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Marcel Proust (1871-1922), French author: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” It could also be said that real understanding consists not in the reassertion of old arguments but in the acquisition of a new self.
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In disagreements very often the clash is not between two sets of ideas but between two incompatible selves.
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I suspect all explanations whose aim is to legitimize a propaganda line.
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The aim of propaganda is not to promote understanding but to advance a specific political agenda.
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One begins to understand history only after exposing the half-truths and lies of propaganda.
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Not to lose an argument should never be an a priori decision.
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The purpose of an argument is not to win it but to lose it and in losing it to enlarge our horizons.
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One does not reason in order to legitimize irrational conduct, and what could be more irrational than prejudice, hatred, and ultimately war and massacre?
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You may have noticed that when leaders promote war or revolution they do so on an assumption of ultimately victory, which history has proved to be a Big Lie 50% of the time.
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It is no exaggeration to say that wars are lost even when they are won.
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And very often all a war succeeds in doing is to lead to another war.
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Do politicians lie if they believe in their own lies? An irrelevant question, because an honest politician is as inconceivable as a truthful propaganda line.
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