For those
among us who seem to live in a parallel universe ie. cult members, we
thoroughly recommend you read Candide,
a highly enlightening little tome written by a chap called
François-Marie
Arouet (better known as Voltaire).
Here he satirises Leibniz's
unduly optimistic view of the human condition (“the best of all possible worlds”) with what might be described as
savage enthusiasm. From this position it is possible to infer that
actually having a bad day might well be the norm rather than the
contrary. Character building, if it is to take place at all, usually
involves acquiring the capacity to encounter and survive adversity
honestly (and without masquerade or self-deception), qualities certainly lacking in the average cult adherent. It is not
developed as a consequence of bouncing round AA meeting rooms
declaring oneself to be in a constant state of euphoria with the
chant of “happy, joyous and free” set as a background refrain.
Incidentally,
and certainly most pertinently given his homeland's present troubles,
Monsieur Arouet was a vociferous critic of both Mohammed and Islam
(but not exclusively) describing in his work Le
Fanatisme ou Mahomet, the former as an:
"impostor", a " false prophet", a "fanatic"
and a "hypocrite" arguing that he (Voltaire) had
endeavoured to demonstrate “what horrible excesses fanaticism, led
by an impostor, can plunge weak minds". For these reasons we're
quite sure that Voltaire would have heartedly approved (as do we) of
the work of his compatriots (albeit working in a different media)
Charlie Hebdo
in their not so subtle satirisation in cartoon (see below) of that
religion and its sometimes brutal excesses
Reads:
“100 lashes if you don't die of laughter”
Cheers
The Fellas
(Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
PS If
anyone out there finds Monsieur Arouet's observations or the cartoon
offensive that's unfortunate but as we've already said character
building always requires some kind of irritating stimulus
PPS It's
no accident that one of the nicknames applied to cult members is the
"Taliban" (as well as the "Step Nazis"!)
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