Thursday, February 22, 2007
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WHITE TRASH I
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In an interview published in ESQUIRE James Watson, the DNA biologist, raises the following question: “Why do we have a government that’s run by rich trash?” His answer: “Because they’ve used their money to buy the presidency.”
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WHITE TRASH II
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We share this in common with Turks: we think to apologize is for weaklings and losers. I remember, during the Soviet era, whenever I dared to criticize the regime, I would receive many hostile phone calls and letters questioning my patriotism. When the Soviet Empire collapsed, none of these gentlemen wrote or called to say he had been wrong. And I will never forget the letter written by one of these chic Bolsheviks, a white-haired elder statesman with a heart condition, which was so offensive that I was too stunned to reply in kind; and for a change, luck was on my side, because shortly thereafter I read his obituary. Had I retaliated, I would have felt partly responsible for his unexpected demise.
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WHITE TRASH III
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We may have a better chance to come to terms with Turks on the day we show a willingness to listen to their side of the story. I say this in view of the fact that they have already gone as far as conceding that they will gladly plead guilty as charged provided we don’t escalate our demands. Probably a bogus condition, because they are smart enough to know that, since we are incapable of reaching a consensus on any issue, they can always rely on an extremist minority to reject all preconditions.
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Friday, February 23, 2007
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LIONS AND APES
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Victor Hugo: “Imitate nothing and no one. A lion that copies another lion is an ape.”
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All brainwashed people behave like apes.
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I don’t mind admitting that I was brainwashed as surely and thoroughly as any Bolshevik or Nazi; and if you think you were not, it may be because they have done a better job on you. Either that or you are too infatuated with your fiction to relinquish it in exchange of something that will be less flattering to your ego or superego.
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My motto: Suspect everything that is flattering to your vanity.
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If you search for the negative in the positive, you will find it; and that may save you from making an ass of yourself in the future.
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Anything that removes or distances us from the reality principle is to be discarded. To put it differently: our choice is between reality and Alice’s Wonderland. And remember: reality can be more fantastic than any fantasy. Reality turns against us only if we ignore its inflexible laws.
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What makes us trust our political leaders is not love of truth but love of country. The degree of patriotism in a man is relative to the spread of the real estate he owns. There are entire continents today populated by rejects, heretics, exiles, and white trash. A reasonable man is one who places love of truth above love of real estate, that is to say, dirt.
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When it comes to politics and religion, every assertion is open to contradiction. When two sets of apes or brainwashed people maintain some contradictions are capital offenses, the result will be war and massacre.
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Saturday, February 24, 2007
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REFLECTIONS AND COMMENTS
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To achieve excellence is easy. What’s hard is discovering the specific endeavor in which you are destined to excel.
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Someday, somewhere everything will be explained, by which time we may no longer be in need of explanations.
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Readers are less interested to know how honest or wise you are and more interested to know how dishonest and foolish you have been. What’s the use of being positive in your assessment of yourself when others have an eye only for the negative?
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There was a time when I wrote nothing but fiction. I continue to write fiction today but only to expose it.
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To write against propaganda is to expose fiction.
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Our national prestige is a fiction of our collective imagination.
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Both dupes and charlatans live in a world of fiction where they imagine themselves to be not only honest and wise but also patriotic.
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There is more imagination in conspiracy theories than in science fiction.
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The Goncourt Brothers: “To believe in nothing is as bad as any religion.”
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Victor Hugo: “Crowds are good only for rioting. For a revolution you need people.”
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Raymond Queneau: “Humor tries to purge the idiotic from great and noble sentiments.”
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Raymond Aron: “Every belief system begins as a heresy.”
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