slogans

Sunday, June 24, 2012
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RECAPPING
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Belief systems are useful in so far as they expose
the fallacies of other belief systems,
but dangerous when they assert orthodoxy or monopoly.
Marxism was useful in so far as it exposed the fallacies
of feudalism and capitalism but dead wrong
when it legitimized crimes against humanity.
Something similar could be said of Christianity and Islam
whose innocent victims are without number.
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We have no choice but to come to terms with the fact that
what we know, what we can know,
is only a tiny fraction of what we don’t know.
Metaphysical systems may allow us to travel from A to B,
sometimes even from C to D,
but we will never make it to XYZ.
*
All belief systems are like the Tower of Babel:
sooner or later they will collapse
like the World Trade Center on 9/11.
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Monday, June 25, 2012
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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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Propaganda is invisible to the brainwashed.
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Dissent is a crime only in a state
whose legislators are criminals.
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In the NEW YORKER (June 18, 2012) I read:
“Greeks invented democracy;
they invented tragedy too.
The problem is that in recent years
they haven’t invented much of anything.”
What about us?
What’s our next “first”?
What if we have run out of them?
*
I may not know better
but I may see something you cannot see.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012
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COMMENTS
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Everything I say is guesswork.
I leave truth to our imams, commissars, and their dupes.
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For more than a thousand years
the ancient Greeks believed in non-existent gods
and built magnificent temples in their honor.
Which may suggest that a god doesn’t need to exist
in order to be believed and worshipped?
*
We emphasize the importance of good manners to our children;
also the necessity to murder the enemy in time of war.
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Wednesday, June 27, 2012
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SLOGANS
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“Black is beautiful.”
“Armenians are smart.”
“Jews are the Chosen People.”
These assessments have as much validity or objectivity
as their contradictions.
*
Slogans maybe defined as lies
with political ambitions.
“Separate but equal.”
“Russians are our Big Brothers.”
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My favorite slogans are the ones
that are contradicted by other slogans:
“All men are brothers.”
“Homo homini lupus”
(Man is wolf to other men).
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