Dostoevsky on George W. Bush and the Republicans:

[smirkymonkey]

"The trouble with man is that he's stupid. Phenomenally stupid. That is even if he's not really stupid, he's so ungrateful that another creature as ungrateful cannot be found. I, for one, wouldn't be the least surprised if, in that future age of reason, there suddenly appeared a gentleman with an ungrateful, or shall we say, retrogressive SMIRK, who, arms akimbo, would say: "What do you say folks, let's send all this reason to hell...and go back to our own stupid ways."

"That isn't so annoying in itself; what's bad is that this gentleman (his words, not mine) would be sure to find followers. That's the way man is made."

I read this passage this morning on the subway and was stunned by his prescience.

[NNadir]

1. From which book?

Is it "The Devils," aka translated as "The Possessed?"

[Boojatta]

2. Notes from the Underground

Here's more from the same work:

Twice two makes four seems to me simply a piece of insolence. Twice two makes four is a pert coxcomb who stands with arms akimbo barring your path and spitting. I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.

[NNadir]

5. Thanks for that. I must admit I have never read this work.

It's been many decades since I read Dostoevsky, and though I may not remember the details, I do remember how I felt.

But I never got to Notes from the Underground.

What is remarkable is that the passage you quote came 80 years before Orwell's O'Brien.

I feel that myself increasingly, in so many little ways, the existence of the contempt for the notion that 2 times 2, or 2 + 2, is four. It's all certain been an element of these Bushian times, as the OP points out.

Thanks again.

[datasuspect]

9. that book has the best first lines of any book ever written:

I AM A SICK MAN.... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased.

here is the entire book online: http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DosNote.html

[Boojatta]

3. Here's a link to the whole thing:

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DosNote.html

[smirkymonkey]

8. Oh, sorry, Notes from Underground...

I am re-reading it after about 15 years and it's funny how different passages stand out with each reading.

[smtpgirl]

4. Chimpy is not stoopid, he is just ungrateful

there is a difference. He has played that card for 6 YEARS, don't feel sorry at all.

Whatever happens, happens, poppy can't rescue him from Cheney. Maybe only evil one left.

Rumsfeld & Cheney, since Nixon. Big Picture!!

Rumsfeld & Cheney will laugh all the way to the bank with the billions THEY STOLE, before anything is done

[sakabatou]

6. Wow

Now that's... woah...

[Anarcho-Socialist]

7. What a great find!

Thanks for sharing that. I'm saving that one. Nominated.

[YankeyMCC]

10. That's stunning. Thanks for posting that n/t