How is the world ruled?
lie to journalists and then …
believe what is read
How is the world ruled and how do wars start?
Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what
they read.
So wrote Karl Kraus in his book, Aphorisms and More Aphorisms back in1909.
An aphorism, not to be confused with aphorismus (from the Greek: ἀφορισμός, aphorismós, “a marking off”, also “rejection, banishment”) is a figure of speech that calls into question if a word is properly used (“How can you call yourself a man?”). It often appears in the form of a rhetorical question which is meant to imply a difference between the present thing being discussed and the general notion of the subject, but an aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: aphorismos, denoting ‘delimitation’, ‘distinction’, and ‘definition’) is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tradition from generation to generation.
Don’t ask me, I copied that right from Wikipedia.
I copy a lot from Wikipedia but then I site my source, not that that means I am qualified to be the President of an Ivy League School, not that I would want the job if I was and if I was I most likely be remembered by having a building like Haven Hall named after me.
Haven Hall is the ugly brick late Ramada Inn style building BEHIND Angell Hall and its 8 marble columned entrance that is a University of Michigan Landmark.
But I digress.
The subject was aphorisms.
Again, Wikipedia says, aphorisms are distinguished from other short sayings by the need for interpretation to make sense of them.
That is the beauty of “Diplomats tell lies to journalists and then believe what
they read.”
Who needs that interpreted?
Mr. Kraus also said, “The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are.”
I got no problem understanding that one either.
Mr. Kraus was a social critic for his times and was confined to publishing his own works.
He would, it is said, agonize over the placement of a comma and the use of the correct, best words.
I can only imagine what Mr. Kraus would have made of the world today and the access to the world made possible by social media.
On the other hand maybe it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine what Mr. Kraus would have said today because he said it back then.
Mr. Kraus once wrote, “The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are clever as he.”
All that is missing today is the twitter, I mean X account.
No Haiku For You 