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| QUOTATIONS 667-701 |
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| 667. The nations are not that much different from individuals in their collective belief that the good fortunes coming their way are well-deserved, but the bad ones are just the "bad luck" and shouldn't have happened to such a " good people". Thus, throughout human history, whenever any nation experienced relatively prolonged period of success and prosperity, inevitably a certain, admittedly not a very original, idea would arise amongst its leaders (and then quickly transmitted to the rest of this nation), the idea that such success and prosperity are not temporary or accidental, but permanent, and due to the special and superior qualities of the people who constitute this particular nation. To put such a claim on the "solid"foundation the past history and old national myths (and quite often it is hard to tell them apart) get to be revived, reconstructed, elaborated and embellished. Sometimes, even the new myths are being created, though they are always presented as the old but forgotten ones. All this is done to give the legitimacy to the newly acquired elevated status of "our" nation among the others and to uphold the feelings of national superiority, which accompanies and supposedly provides the explanation for it. It also supports the hope that this glorious present, preceded, undoubtedly, by the no less glorious past, will, because it is so clearly and so richly deserved, last forever. When the ancient Hebrews after 400 years of slavery had found themselves for the first time in possession of their own, relatively fertile land and their own, relatively strong, independent state, they could not think of any other explanation for such a boon but the notion of being God's "chosen people" and proceeded to create the elaborate mythology, known to us in its final form as the Old Testament, which was supposed to support their claim to the special and superior position amongst their neighbours. In the like manner, the ancient Greeks, during their short but spectacular period of political, economical and cultural flourishing, began to view themselves as a unique and superior race and looked down upon all the others as "barbarians". And of course, they had even more extensive and intricate mythology to prove it, for not only they obviously enjoyed special attention from the Gods, they went so far as to trace their direct descent from them, which should have convinced anybody, who had insolence to doubt it, of their superior status. These are just two, the most famous cases of mass delusion of national grandeur caused by confusing a "15 minutes (as far as human history is concerned) of fame" with the whole duration of it, and there is virtually no nation which under similar circumstances behaved any differently. Another remarkable thing about this universal phenomenon is that no amount of defeats, humiliation and disappointments each nation inevitably experiences after its short period of greatness can totally erase from its collective memory those precious moments of glory. For in this case, the exception is viewed as a rule and the rule as an aberration, and whenever the slightest opportunity presents itself an attempt is made to prove it. In the recent history the most vivid ( and probably the most tragic) case of such a national self-deception could be observed in the XIX-XX centuries, when considerable, but relatively new political, scientific and technological achievements of the German nation led some of its most prominent representatives to a belief that this was due to some exceptional traits in the German national character, the belief which was eagerly embraced by the broad masses of the German people. Consequently, the old Germanic and Nordic myths had been dusted off and given new interpretation to glorify "German people" and to declare and promote their claim of racial superiority. Again, the temporary phenomenon of the national flourishing in the present had been perceived as a permanent one, supported by the equally glorious past and, especially, by the promising future. When this idea got into hands of such fanatical dogmatists and racists as Hitler & Co. its pseudo-logical conclusions was as easy to predict as it was horrible to imagine. 668.Certain individuals tend to habitually monopolize any conversation not only because they feel, consciously or subconsciously, that what they have to say is more interesting and important than anything others can offer, but also because they are afraid, without admitting it even to themselves, of being disabused, upon listening to what the others might say, of such a comforting to their ego self-deception. 669. The art of public speaking consist in being sufficiently specific for the listeners to pay attention to and be able to follow what the speaker is saying, and yet to be vague enough not to give them incentive or provide with the opportunity to refute him. 670. Why do some seemingly intelligent people repeat the same painful mistakes over and over again? Perhaps, because in order to learn from our mistakes we have to fully realize that certain actions on our part, no matter how desirable and promising they are, will always produce the same, painful for us reaction. Learning by mistakes also involves admitting, no matter how damaging to our ego it is, many and various defeats in the game of life. And finally, we must be willing to accept, as dispiriting as it may be, the limitations those defeats impose on our desires. Yet, apparently a lot of people would neither acknowledge the inevitability of pain, nor admit a defeat, nor, which is the most difficult of all, accept the limitations on their aspirations. Therefore, it is not surprising that "learning from our mistakes" is by no means automatic. 671. If the world is a stage then who is the playwright and who is the director? 672. The fact that most of us most of the times cannot account with any reasonable degree of certainty for our own behaviour does not, paradoxically, interfere with one of the humanity's favourite pastimes - endlessly, and with a great confidence discussing the motivations behind the similar acts of the others. 673. The need to know more about one's "roots" is usually an outward manifestation of the desire and hope to learn more about oneself. Yet, this knowledge about one's ancestry is like a double-edged sword. For one can be both enlightened and misled by it, liberated by gaining the insight into one's personality and, at the same time, somewhat impeded in the progress of self-realization by the deterministic shackles of family mythology. 674. The desire to be famous is quite a natural one and as such is shared, albeit to a different degree, by many. At its roots lies rarely acknowledged yet a real fear of obscurity and anonymity, which is associated, rightly or wrongly, in the minds of the fame seekers with being in a state of "living death". It is a state the great majority of us are familiar with, though under the less sinister but no less painful experience of not being paid enough attention to, or being totally ignored, and, in general, being reduced to a kind of virtual "non-being" even as we live. And the fame-seeker are just more aware of it than the rest of us. 675. The world is not only a stage but also a bazaar, where everything and everybody is bartered for something or somebody else, and where, as it should be expected at a bazaar, those with nothing to give would get nothing. 676. The years of our lives are given to us like the allowance money, which we are free to spend at our own discretion. Then why do we worry so much, wandering or rushing through the supermarket of life. For whatever we're putting into the pushcart can't be taken out anyway when times come to leave the store. 677. What are we to do about the brittle people ready to fall apart at the slightest touch? They are like cups that fear the last drop to make them run over. They are like camels that dread the last straw to break their tired backs. They are like the mortally wounded that resign to a coup de grace - the final blow. What are we to do about the brittle people? What are we to do about ourselves? 678. For any satisfactory conversation to take place, we have to resign ourselves, however reluctantly, to the unavoidable imperfection of meanings the terms used to convey the thoughts inherently have. 679. The parents of the only child and the child of such parents are forever holding each other as reciprocal hostages, and only death can do them apart. 680. Show me a mother who is obsessively devoted to her child (especially the male one), and I will show you a woman who had married her husband without loving him. 681. People leading meaningless, boring, ordinary lives, often look with the eager anticipation toward imaginary apocalyptic events as their last opportunity to take part, even as the passive subjects only, in something significant and extraordinary. 682. Recently, I've stopped looking. Or, rather, I still look, but don't see what I'm looking at. Lately, I've stopped listening. Or, rather, I still listen, but don't hear what I'm listening to. These days, I've stopped reading. Or, rather, I still read, but don't take what I'm reading in. I used to be like a parched land, greedily drinking every single drop of rain. But now I am like a flooded field, unable to absorb any more water. 683. If you make a pact with the devil, do not be surprised when you are treated like one. 684. Unlike in sport, when all accept the fact that the best (athletically speaking) must win and receive the well deserved reward, in life, to maintain public peace and general contentment and tranquillity everyone should be given some consolation prize, and those who won have to concede at least something to the losers. 685. There are people who want to save the world, and yet can't handle their relationships with the next door neighbours. 686. Some write because it is the only thing they can do, others because they don't want to do anything else, still others because there is nothing else for them to do. 687. Being engaged in a conversation often means wearing two hats - one of a student, another of a teacher. For by listening to others we can't help but learn something from their knowledge and experience and so, even if unintentionally, do they by listening to us. Assuming then as a self-evident truth that, at least as far as conversation is concerned, the majority of people are basically alike, i.e. they accept the listening (learning) and the speaking (teaching) as integral and indispensable parts of it, for the normal conversation to be satisfactory for all involved each participant must be allowed and even encouraged to do both. Furthermore, "conversation" can easily be looked upon as a universal metaphor for all kinds of human interactions, making, consequently, the maintenance of a proper balance between these two opposite but mutually dependent, even inseparable roles of "a student" and "a teacher" vitally important for the preservation of both interpersonal and societal peace. This is especially true today, in the present climate of widespread education and engendered by it growth of democratic and egalitarian longings, when in the play which is Life fewer and fewer members of the cast are willing to act as "a student" unless they are given an opportunity, however rare and brief, to play a part of "a teacher" as well. 688. As one is getting older, the number of people who care about whether one is still alive or dead is getting smaller and smaller. 689. The intellectual ambiguity, which started as a protective literary device against religious persecution in the Middle ages, served its skilful practitioners, to a great extent, quite well. For whatever accusation of heresy were levelled at them, they could always point out the parts of the text which were in direct contradiction to the allegedly offensive statement and testified to their unassailable orthodoxy. In the modern times, when political ideology has replaced religion as the universal oppressor, the intellectual ambiguity was found again to be equally useful for protecting the social positions of the members of the so-called "chattering class" and for advancing their academic and literary careers. Moreover, recently it has even acquired the aura of sophistication and anti-dogmatic open-mindedness, for Necessity never fails to interpret itself as Virtue. The few who detest the intellectual ambiguity, either on moral or on aesthetic grounds, and refuse to equivocate, not only are pursued with vengeance by their political opponents (there is never a shortage of those whenever one states his views openly), but are treated especially harshly by their cowardly colleagues, for the cowards can never forgive the brave their daring. 690. Being deprived by Nature of the ability to bring into existence the real life, men are forever compelled to sublimate their creative longings into the fabrication of its artificial substitutes, such as science, technology, arts, etc. Yet, no matter how good a man is at his craft, he never feels completely fulfilled, because his creations are always external to his essential being. On the other hand, it is precisely this gnawing sense of the essential unfulfillment that relentlessly drives Man to succeed in the only world he feels totally in control of - the world of the artificial things, which makes the human civilization, for better or worse, what it is. 691. While a success nourishes the sweet illusion of being unique, a failure brings mercilessly home the bitter realization of commonness. 692. Autobiography, unless it raises some universal questions and tries to answer them by fearlessly honest revelations about one's particular life, is nothing but a gross, vainglorious self-indulgence. And this equally applies to whether it is in the standard written form of a book about the whole life of an author, or just an oral story told about some small part of it. One should never presume that others would find it interesting to read or to listen about somebody else's life unless it mirrors, to some extent, their own. 693. The myths and fables whose roots go back into the depth of the ages have survived and reached us because they withstood the test of times. And the only reason they did so is that the successive generations of listeners were never tired of hearing them over and over again. In the times of the oral cultural transmission, the ancient story-tellers would not have endlessly repeated them unless asked to, and with the invention of writing only those were committed to papyrus or parchment that had proven to be the "best-sellers", to use a modern expression, in oral culture. The main question thus is - what made those enduring myth and fables of antiquity so attractive to the numerous generations of listeners and readers, who lived in different times and under very different conditions? Theirs, undoubtedly universal, appeal was, probably, produced by the right combination of realistic and fantastic elements, which corresponds to a similar admixture in human life. For we never can free ourselves from reality, and yet, are forever trying to escape from it into fantasy. Thus, the elements of reality, which are always present in any fable or myth, make a listener or a reader feel closer to them, as if they were telling about his own life, the way it is, while the fantastic elements respond to their hopes, longings and dreams about the way life should be. In other words, the myths and fables had to be real enough to be relevant to people's own daily experience and, at the same time, to be fantastic enough to create the illusion of a possibility of a better world. For though in myths and fables, like in reality, evil and injustice are always present, unlike in it, the good and the just inevitably triumph in the end. Without the first they would seem irrelevant, without the last - meaningless. 694. Beware of those who talk fast, for contrary to the listener's expectations, instead of coming quickly to the point they usually tend to go, at times seemingly forever, on and on. 695. Being irreplaceable is not the same as being indispensable. For since each human being is unique, to "replace" him or her, in the full sense of the word, by somebody else, and yet absolutely identical, is logically impossible. On the other hand, since none of us is necessary in the general scheme of things, but purely accidental to it, the substitution of one person for another, or even complete absence of either, will just ever so slightly change the flow of events into one of its myriad possible variations. 696. There is a moment in one's life (some arrive at it sooner than others) when one doesn't want to hear anymore about being mistaken or wrong. It usually comes with the realization that despite the frequent readiness to acknowledge and the numerous attempts to correct one's mistakes in the past, neither had made one better off nor protected one from repeating the same mistakes again or making the new ones. It inevitably leads to the fatigue of the will and to the resentment of the frustrated expectations and unfulfilled promises. This finally results in the both implicit and explicit "refusal" to continue doing what has been proven again and again utterly useless. From that moment on (which is usually the moment of no return), one "decides" to stop admitting mistakes anymore, either to the others or even to oneself (since it doesn't do one any good anyway) and "chooses" to live the rest of one's life as if everything one thinks or does is absolutely right. And, if nothing else, one begins, at least, to feel good about oneself, perhaps for the first time in one's life. 697. Writing, especially of an introspective and contemplative kind, could be looked upon as a form of conversation used by those of us who have, essentially, nobody to talk to. 698. One writes either to impress others or to please oneself. The first is done for vanity's, the second for sanity's sake. 699. The so-called "demands" by those who have no real power to get what they are demanding is nothing but the glorified begging. 700. The wonderful thing about music is that, if we are willing and able to surrender ourselves to it completely, it relieves us of the necessity either to think or to do anything. The simple and seemingly effortless pleasure of just listening to music becomes, for a time or for a moment, however long it lasts, a perfect substitute for any thoughts or act, no matter how important they might be. 701. A national artistic culture is a complex, living organism, the essence of which is the unique mixture produced by the combination of a particular history and geography, each of which continuously evolve and interplay from the times immemorial. It is also perpetually cross-pollinated by the neighbouring cultures, or, like air, culture has no borders and constantly overflows into adjacent regions and, in its turn, is replenished from them. As such, a national artistic culture cannot be removed and transplanted into a different environment with a different history without undergoing a fundamental transformation. Only forms of it are more or less portable, but not the substance. That is why all so-called "ethnic", immigrant cultures, as long as they stubbornly cling to their "roots"(and most of them do) are condemned to remain artificial, formal and sterile. |
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