Thursday, January 18, 2007
**********************************************
PROPAGANDA
**************************
Propaganda says, “When we are brainwashed, we speak the truth. When our enemies are brainwashed, they lie.”
*
CASE CLOSED
**************************
When two religions or ideologies contradict one another on any point of their credo, and neither can prove the other wrong or itself right beyond a shadow of a doubt, or to the satisfaction of an impartial jury, both must be wrong.
*
CREDO
**************************
Only hoodlums believe hoodlumism to be an ideology. Likewise, only nationalists, tribalists, capitalists, communists…
*
FACT AND FICTION
*****************************
Between fact and fiction, propaganda will always be a partisan of fiction.
*
FANTASY AND REALITY
************************************
When we say we are right or we are better, we engage in fantasy. When we say, like all human beings, we have our share of failings and blind spots some of which may well be beyond our awareness, we begin to come to grips with reality.
*
WHAT’S WRONG WITH FANTASY?
************************************************
Nothing, provided we keep in mind that fantasies operate in a realm that is beyond common sense and logic.
*
JEWISH WISDOM
*********************************
Amos Oz in HOW TO CURE A FANATIC: “The two nations will have a lot of soul searching to do, about their past and mutual stupidities.”
*
MEMOIRS: FIRST PARAGRAPH
*****************************************
Like most people I was born an idiot. Unlike most people, I was also raised as an idiot because I was told I was smart.
*
REMEMBER
**************************
It takes a very bad Armenian to be a good human being.
*
To disagree with oneself is the beginning of all wisdom.
#
Friday, January 19, 2007
******************************************
ON FANATICS
********************************
In his book, HOW TO CURE A FANATIC, Amos Oz writes that the ultimate aim of fanatics is “to get crucified, or to crucify others, or both,” thus implying that fanaticism has a millennial history and a very respectable pedigree. But I think fanaticism goes back much further than two millennia. It began with the god of the Old Testament when he punished not only Adam and Eve for eating an apple, or from “the tree of knowledge,” (as if knowledge were a capital offense; as if ignorance were a better alternative), but also their offspring, and the offspring of their offspring to the end of time.
*
On a number of occasions I have called our fanatics “inbred morons.” Oz agrees. “Very often the fanatic can only count up to one,” he writes, “two is too big a figure for him or her.”
*
How to cure a fanatic? The answer is obvious: it can’t be done. Consider their role models.
##
Saturday, January 20, 2007
*********************************************
MORE ON THE “F” WORD
**********************************
Fanaticism is as different from moderation as beast is from man. Fanatics are not just a different race, color, and creed, but also a different species.
*
A fanatic does not reason. Common sense, logic, and dialogue are alien concepts to him. He is out to settle a score. He is out for blood. He defines an enemy as anyone who disagrees with him. Fanaticism and hoodlumism might as well be Siamese twins.
*
A moderate may be prone to error, but a fanatic is never right. Even when on those extremely rare occasions he is right, the means he employs are sure to be wrong.
*
Our revolutionaries were right to revolt against tyranny – no doubt about that. And because they were right, we did not survive.
*
Like all men of faith, a fanatic begins with the certainty that he is right; and where certainty is placed above doubt, fanatics will flourish.
*
A fanatic’s favorite disguise is moderation.
*
LITERATURE AND PROPAGANDA
*************************************************
Literature tells us we are not what we pretend to be, and more often than not, what we pretend to be is the exact opposite of who we are.
*
QUOTATIONS FROM ART BUCHWALD
*************************************************
“If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it.”
*
“People ask what I am really trying to do with humor. The answer is, I am getting even. For me, being funny is the best revenge.”
#