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#56720 02/13/02 05:28 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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"Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large defect
in your race -- the individual's distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for
safety's or comfort's sake, to stand well in his neighbor's eye. These
institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and always oppress you,
affront you, and degrade you, because you will always be and remain slaves of
minorities. There was never a country where the majority of people were in
their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions."
-- Mark Twain, _The Mysterious Stranger_


#56721 02/13/02 08:03 PM
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#56722 02/13/02 09:17 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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>an interesting definition of droll

you pays your money and you takes your choice:

1. Intentionally facetious, amusing, comical, funny.
2. Unintentionally amusing; queer, quaint, odd, strange, ‘funny’.


#56723 02/13/02 10:22 PM
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wwh Offline
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Dear tsuwm: I don't see anything droll in that quote. It seems to be an unpleasant fact of life that the elite are always in the minority, and use religion and other institutions out of fear, to control the mob which is the majority.


#56724 02/13/02 10:36 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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dear bill, you're right. the only thing funny is that Mark Twain said it.


#56725 02/13/02 10:49 PM
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Dear tsuwm: But the fact that a humorist said it need not mean he believed it. Perhaps Twain was putting the words into a character's mouth. I can't remember reading that book.


#56726 02/14/02 02:18 AM
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dear bill, you're right. the only thing funny is that Mark Twain said it.

Another example of Mark Twain drollness: "I bear him no malice. In fact, I'd send him a fan if I could."

Used as an example in an exercise to demonstrate the power of the unsaid word.


#56727 02/14/02 02:56 AM
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Dear Drow: I'm not sure I get it, unless the proposed recipient of the fan is in Purgatory. But in that case, I don't see how malice would be possible.


#56728 02/14/02 04:46 AM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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[cross-thread potentials noted]

A War Prayer by Mark Twain
http://www.rense.com/general13/warprayer.htm


#56729 02/14/02 06:42 AM
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