Candide

Anyone ever read that book?

I was supposed to read it in High School. I think I did read all of it. But I bought a copy a while ago and I have NEVER gotten through more than half of the book. I came across a blog a while ago that I enjoy.

http://diaryofmydivorce.blogspot.com/

Her quote of the day was from Candide. (Voltaire being the person who wrote it)

I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it. Voltaire.

Doing a little bit of research on this quote to get some background I'm astonished to find that no one realizes that Voltaire didn't SAY the damn quote, he wrote it. Now, I think Prof. Pangloss said it but it may have been Candide. For such intellectuals, opening a damn book might help. Seeing as how this book was one of the most notable of all of Candide's writings.

Anyways, back on topic. I try to read classic lit with a high lighter. Notate some things that catch me eye and next time I go to read it, take a look at it and see what I caught and what I didn't, etc. Just try to be literary and all. I remember highlighting this portion and then reading it as the Quote of the Day on her blog make me thing.

How can I attribute this to my own life... if I can attribute it at all?

I'm going through my life and trying to figure it out and all I can come up with is this: I'm an American. If there is any country in this world that would stand for this quote it would be Americans.

At night, it's hard for me to turn my mind off and get some sleep. On Yahoo, I'll play Gin or Bingo or Blackjack or something to bore me into sleeping. Well, somehow I got into a game with someone from Spain. Didn't speak a lick of English and I can't speak Spanish on a toddler's level. She kept asking something that my little translator couldn't figure out. Finally I got it - she wanted to know what country I was from. When I told her that I was American she lol'd and that was it. It got me thinking....

(C'mon stay with me, I know I go off on tangents a lot)

I worked in an ice cream store when I was in high school. The September 11th disaster happened about a week into my Senior year. Right around the time I was becoming more aware of what was going on in the world and not just in my little section of it. This store had it's front and one side completely encased in windows. About 2 weeks after September 11th there were about 4 individuals walking on the other side of the street. My co-worker and best friend at the time had made some comments about them completing the bombings and calling them names (by the way they were dressed we could tell that they were from a middle eastern culture but nothing else). Now, if you really think about it there is no way that THOSE 4 people could be complete the bombings because they're walking around and the people that did it are dead. Secondly, her automatic assumption that because they had long bears and were wearing clothes that identified themselves as foreigners that they had something to do with it. I wasn't angry but I was irritated. My thought was "No wonder they call us ignorant you f'ing moron, it's becuase of people like you".

I think you could even call that event a defining moment in my life. From then on I tried not to be ignorant about the world around me. I began dating a man that was in the military and it opened my eyes even moreso than her air headed comment.

So what exactly about me makes me identify with the quote? Small town mentality, the fact that I dated military, or just because of the fact that I'm American and it's what we do. American's ALWAYS get into other people's shit. Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait invasion, etc. I wish that Americans would become a little bit more imperialistic and keep to them selves instead of trying to act like a world police. It's a double edged sword.

Take ANY foreign incident in history. If the Americans were part of it there was someone bitching that we needed to stay out of it. If the Americans stayed out of it there was someone bitching that we didn't do enough. Can't make them all happy, so who is going to try any more.

I'll admit that I'm a little happy that President Bush is pissing some people off. Now, am I happy about the results (death, etc)? Of course not. There's not a whole lot of things I like Pres. Bush for but I can tell that he really DOES care for this country. Unfortunately, he just doesn't know the best way to protect it.

My military guy once told me: You can support us (military) without supporting the war.

And I did from that point on.

Regardless of how I feel about my exboyfriend now, I do respect him for his military service.

Who would think that Candide and 2 million US Military personnel would have something in common.

I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.

Oh and Voltaire also said some other gems of literature:

• To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
• If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
• It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
• Anything too stupid to be said is sung.
• This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.