“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
Attributed to Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor 161-180.
ANDREW DENTON: In ’79, I think you would have been about 22, you went to a radio debate with the Reverend Wade Watts…Reverend Wade Watts…who was the state leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People who’d worked with Martin Luther King. And when you got to this debate, he held out his hand for you to shake.
JOHNNY LEE CLARY: Yes, yes he did.
ANDREW DENTON: Did you hesitate?
JOHNNY LEE CLARY: I, I, he caught me off guard. See, I’m expecting this black militant to come in with a great big afro this big and an African dashiki on, with bones hanging around and a button on that says, “I hate honkies” and “Death to crackers,” you know? All that stuff. And I figured he’d have on…
ANDREW DENTON: You seriously thought that?
JOHNNY LEE CLARY: Yeah, that’s what I thought. And I thought he’d come in there with a boom box, blaring out the theme from ‘Shaft’. And I figured he’d flash a switchblade at me and go “Black is beautiful, honky. I’m gonna kill all you white devils.” You know, that’s what I thought I was gonna see. So when the door opened up and in came Reverend Wade Watts and he’s wearing a suit and a tie and he’s carrying a Bible. And he walks up and puts his hand out and goes, “Hello there, Mr Clary. I’m Reverend Wade Watts. I just want to tell you I love you and Jesus loves you.” And I mean, I’m shocked, you know. And he puts his hand out and I’m shaking his hand without thinking, ’cause this was not what I was expecting. And then I realised I’d just broke a Klan rule and I jerked my hand back, you know. And I started looking at my hand, which he saw that and that was meant as an insult. The Klan rule book says, “The physical touch of a non-white is pollution.” And I thought, “I just shook hands with a black person.” And he sees me looking at my hand and he goes, “Don’t worry, Johnny. It don’t come off.” And, you know, I start calling him names, and go, “You no-good, sorry, bleep, bleep, bleep. You mother-this, you this, you that.” And he looked at me and goes, “God bless you, Johnny. You can’t do enough to me to make me hate you. I’m gonna love you and I’m gonna pray for you, whether you like it or not.” And I didn’t know how to deal with that. I had never had that happen to me before.
ANDREW DENTON: A few years later, you burnt down his church, didn’t you?
JOHNNY LEE CLARY: Set fire to his church. What happened was we started off going by his house, calling him names, we got no response. Threw trash all over his lawn, got no response. We showed up with our sheets and hoods and stood out there in his yard, saying, “Get on out here, boy, we got something for you.” And he comes outside and he goes, “Boys, Halloween’s four more months away. I got no trick or treat in here for you. Come back in October.” And he goes back in the house.
ANDREW DENTON: That’s a brave man.
JOHNNY LEE CLARY: Yeah. And, I mean, I didn’t know how to deal with this. And so the Klan goes, “You got anymore bright ideas?” And I said, “I don’t know.” I said, “I’ll tell you what we’ll do.” So we burned a cross across the street from his house. He came outside and asked us if we needed hotdogs or marshmallows for our barbeque, you know. So finally, I said, “I’m tired of messing with him” and we set fire to his church. And they put the fire out before the church was destroyed and I remember I called him up and disguised my voice and I said, “Hey, boy, you’d better be afraid. We’re coming to get you, boy. You don’t know who we are but we know who you are.” And he goes, “Hello, Johnny.” And he goes, “A man like you takes the time to call me, I’m so honoured.” And all that stuff. He goes, “Let me do something to you. Dear Lord, please forgive Johnny for being so stupid. He doesn’t mean to be so ornery, he’s a good boy trying to get out somewhere in there.” And I hung up the phone on him and I said, “How dare him?”
And so, the funniest thing that happened with him, though, is, I didn’t know what to do and I was at my rope’s end. And one day we was watching him and he went into a restaurant, so we got a bunch of us together and about 30 of us went in there and surrounded him. And he had this chicken there on the table. And I walked up and I said, “Hey, boy, this restaurant’s for white people only, we don’t want you here.” I said, “So, I’m gonna make you a promise.” I said, “I promise you we’re gonna do the same thing to you that you do to that chicken. So you think real hard before you touch that chicken.” So he looked at me and looked at the Klan, then he picked up the chicken and he kissed it. And when he kissed the chicken, the whole restaurant acted just like y’all did. They all started laughing and everything. And I looked up and even the Klan was laughing. “You gotta admit, that was funny.” I said, “Every one of you, outside.” I’m outside and they’re doubled over, laughing. I’m going, “You guys are gonna get suspended and lose your robe for two weeks.” I said, “I’m getting tired of this.” And I’m hollering at them and yelling and they’re laughing. I heard a horn honking and Reverend Watts is driving off, going, “Bye, Johnny.” And that’s how he chose… That’s how one old black – we never bothered him again – and that’s how one old black man defeated the entire Ku Klux Klan. Because he used this (Johnny points to his head) instead of brawn.
ANDREW DENTON: And he used this too (Andrew points to his heart). A very brave man.
They wish to make a lot of money. In Europe every American student if more every American adult is regarded as someone who is just out to make a lot of money. Really, what 16%, 16% of these students regarded their main goal and concern in life to make a lot of money. I’m quoting literally, make a lot of money. And you know what the top cat… the top category … you say category or “cat-egory”? What do you say? Category was among… you … excuse me, but I… I know I’m speaking in marvelous accent without the slightest english. You know, you know what the top category was? 78% of these American youngsters were concerned as they expressed it themselves with finding a meaning and purpose in their lives. so this is realistic view of man.
And you know… you won’t believe it gray… gray hair, my age I started taking flying lessons recently you know what my flying instructor told me? If you’re starting here, wish to get here… say… east… heading for this… and you have a crosswind you will drift and you will land here so you have to do what the pilots call crabing – he told me – C, R, A, B: crabing You have to head for north of this… airfield and you have to fly that way, you see? If you head – in this direction – if you ahead in here… above this airfield then you will actually land here but if you head for here, you are landing here. This hold also for man… I would say if we take man as he really is we making worst but if we overestimate him… It’s premature your applause… you will soon know why if we… if we seem to be idealist and we are overestimating … overrating man and looking at him that high… here above you know what happens? We promote him to what really can be So we have to idealist in a way because then we wind up as the true, the real ‘is’ and you know who has said this? If we take man as he is, we making worst but if we take man as he should be we making capable becoming what he can be this was not my flight instructor, this was not me this was Goethe, he said this verbally and now you will understand why I in one of my writings once said… this is the most … maxim and motto for any psicotherapeutic activity so if you don’t recognise a young man’s will to meaning … man’s search for meaning you make him worst…you make him dull you make him frustrated, you still add and contribute to his frustration … while, if you presupose in this man … in this so called criminal or juvenile delinquent or drug abuser, or so forth… there must be a what do you call it? a spark… a spark of search for meaning let’s recognize this… Let’s presupose it and then you will elicit it from him and you will make him become what he in principle is capable of becoming.
Stanovnici priobalnog mesta Fudai na severoistoku Japana prezziveli su cunami od 11og marta ove godine zahvaljujuchi zidu visine 15,5 metara. Zid je izdrzzao nalet ogromnog talasa i samo je jedan mali deo vode uspeo da ga predje i pokvasi kuchne pragove naselja sa tri hiljade stanovnika.
Svoje zzivote i occuvanje svoje imovine zzitelji Fudaija duguju prethodnom gradonaccelniku g. Kotaku Wamuri, koji je sedamdesetih godina prosslog veka uprkos snazznoj opoziciji i kritikama da je projekat rasipniccki i nepotreban uspeo da sprovede u delo ideju o podizanju zasstitnog zida visseg od uobiccajenih mera. Danas, dok se malobrojni prezziveli mnogih potpuno unisstenih pribalnih naselja ovog dela Japana bore sa nesagledivim materijalnim i emotivnim posledicama tragedije, stanovnici Fudaija u znak zahvalnosti posechuju grob svog bivsseg gradonaccelnika.
Kao svedok tragiccnih posledica cunamija iz 1933 godine g. Wamura je insistirao da se tako nessto ne sme ponoviti. Podizanje zida u vrednosti od 30 miliona americckih dolara mnogi su ipak osudjivali kao megalomanski poduhvat. I kada je najzad uspeo da ubedi cclanove gradskog vecha da je takva gradjevina jedini naccin da se saccuvaju zzivoti, tokom izgradnje bedema duzzine preko 200 metara vechina stanovnika je sumnjala u ispravnost odluke, a vlasnici u tu svrhu eksproprisanog zemljissta su se i osstro protivili.
G. Wamura, koji je bio gradonaccelnik Fudaija tokom 10 mandata – od kraja II. svetskog rata pa do 1987 godine – upornim zalaganjem uspeo je da od malog ribarskog naselja napravi prosperitetnu i turisticcki atraktivnu zajednicu. Preminuo je 1997 godine, u svojoj 88 godini. Na ceremoniji odlaska u penziju okupljenim sugradjanima je poruccio da “ccak i ako se suocciss sa protivljenjem, sledi svoja ubedjenja i dovrssi zapocceto. Ljudi che na kraju razumeti.”
“I heard a great story recently, of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson. She was six and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this little girl hardly ever paid attention, and in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and she went over to her and she said,
“What are you drawing?”
– “I’m drawing a picture of God.”
“But nobody knows what God looks like.”
– “They will in a minute.”
Since 20 years was Mathias Isecke-Voglesang a punk teacher in Süsel, a small town in Schleswig-Holstein. As of last year, he is a school director in a school in Lübeck, with high percentage of migrant-children. The parents and his new colleagues are very glad to have him as a teacher and a school principal; Isecke-Vogelsang wants to bring to the children his norms and values – individuality and solidarity. He says: “The children should learn to divide outside appearance from inside values. I want to make it worthwhile to go to school.”
…U to doba, dakle, pojavi se Simon zvani ÄŒudotvorac.
On je propovedao da je Bog apostolâ tiranin, a tiranin ne može biti Bog razumnom
Äoveku. Taj njihov Bog, Jehova, Elohim, ostrvio se na ÄoveÄanstvo, davi ga, kolje, Å¡alje
na njega bolesti i divlje zveri, zmije i tarantele, lavove i tigrove, munje i gromove, kugu,
lepru, sifilis, bure i oluje, sušu i povodnje, mo re i nesanice, jad mladosti i nemoć
starosti. Smestio je pretke naše blažene u rajske perivoje, ali ih je lišio najslađeg ploda,
jedinog Å¡to ga Äovek zavreÄ‘uje, jedinog Å¡to Äini Äoveka razliÄnim od psa, kamile,
magarca i majmuna – saznanja dobra i zla.
„I kad je taj naš nesrećni predak, gonjen radoznalošću, hteo da se domogne tog ploda,
Å¡ta je uÄinio taj njihov, taj vaÅ¡ Elohim, taj vaÅ¡ Pravedni, Veliki, Svemogući? Å ta?“ – kliÄe
Simon klateći se na klimavom buretu. „Znate vi to dobro, znate. (Propovedaju to vama
svakodnevno vaši apostoli, sluge njegove i robovi.) Proterao ih je kao kužne i gubave,
proterao ih je nemilosrdno, ognjenim maÄem. A zaÅ¡to? Zato Å¡to je to Bog zluradosti,
pakosti i ljubomore. On umesto slobode propoveda ropstvo, umesto pobune pokornost,
umesto naslade liÅ¡avanje, umesto saznanja dogmu … O, narode samarijski, zar nije
nedavno taj vaš nenavidnik srušio vaše domove? Zar nije poslao na vaše njive sušu i
skakavce? Zar nije odveo iz vašeg mesta desetine gubavaca? Zar nije opustošio koliko
pre godinu dana vaše domove strašnom kugom? I kakav je to Bog, kakav pravednik, kako
kažu vaši apostoli, kada je u stanju da se još jednako sveti, vama, zbog tobožnjeg greha
Å¡to ga uÄiniÅ¡e vaÅ¡i daleki preci? Kakav je to pravednik koji Å¡alje kugu, munje i gromove,
boleštine, jad i nevolje, samo zato što se naši preci, gonjeni radoznalošću, tom živom
vatrom iz koje se rađa saznanje, usudiše da uzberu jabuku? To, narode samarijski, nije
Bog, to je nenavidnik, to je hajduk i haramija koji svojim anÄ‘eoskim Äetama, naoružanim
do zuba, naoružanim maÄevima plamenim i strelama otrovnim, stoji na vaÅ¡im putovima.
Kada vam sazru smokve, pošalje na njih pošasti, kada vam sazru masline, pošalje na njih
oluju da ih obori i grad da ih u zemlju utaba i u blato pretvori; kada vam se ojagnje ovce,
pošalje na njih kugu, ili vukove ili tigrove da vam torove opuste; kada vam se rodi dete,
Å¡alje na njega grÄeve, da mu život prekrati. Kakav je to Bog, kakav je to tobožnji
pravednik koji sve to Äini? Ne, to nije Bog, to nije onaj koji je na nebu, to nije Elohim. To
je neko drugi. Jer Elohim, tvorac neba i zemlje, Äoveka i žene, zmije i ptice, tvorac svega
živog, onaj koji je uzdigao planine iznad mora, onaj koji je stvorio mora, reke i okeane,
zelene trave i hlad palmi, sunce i kiše, vazduh i vatru, to je Elohim, bog pravednosti. A
taj Äiji vam nauk propovedaju Petar i Jovan i Pavle i njihovi uÄenici, to je haramija i
ubica. I sve Å¡to vam govore o njemu i njegovoj vladavini Jovan i Pavle, Jakov i Petar, sve
je to laž, o poÄuj, narode samarijski! Njihova izabrana zemlja je laž, njihov je Bog laž,
njihova su Äudesa lažna. Oni lažu jer im je lažan i njihov Bog u koga se kunu, stoga oni
lažu u svakom Äasu, i, uÅ¡avÅ¡i tako u golemi koloplet laži, viÅ¡e ni sami ne znaju da lažu.
Gde svi lažu niko ne laže. Gde je sve laž ništa nije laž. Carstvo nebesko, carstvo
pravednosti je laž. Svaki atribut njihovog Boga je po jedna laž. Pravedni, laž.
Istinoljubivi, laž. Jedini, laž. Besmrtni, laž. I njihove knjige su lažne, jer obećavaju laž,
obećavaju raj, a raj je laž jer je u njihovim rukama, jer su oni na vratima rajskim, njegovi
anÄ‘eli naoružani ognjenim maÄem, i njihove sudije sa lažnim kantarom.“
Puk ga je slušao ravnodušno i s nepoverenjem, kao što puk sluša demagoge: tražeći
skrivena znaÄenja iza nejasnih reÄi. Jer puk se već bio privikao na Äinjenicu da moćnici,
vlasti i fariseji prikrivaju slatkoreÄivošću i obećanjima obmane, pretnje i globe. ÄŒekali su,
dakle, da se i ovaj izda, da kaže najzad ono zbog Äega je doÅ¡ao, ono zbog Äega sve te
puste reÄi, sav taj nejasan govor, liÅ¡en jasnoće i smisla. Stoga su ga sluÅ¡ali dalje.
Bar će, nadali su se, potkrepiti na kraju svoje mutno izlaganje nekom akrobatskom taÄkom,
nekim Äudom.
SMS dialogue with my brother from Serbia (few minutes ago):
Brother: “What do you say about tennis. Brother Nikola”
Me: “Brother Nikola, I did not try it yet. I play squash, it is similar to tennis, but in a closed space and against the wall. Nevertheless both sports are good because you have to move fast in all directions, which is very good for overall condition.”
Brother: “Brother Peter thank you for the information Here is one for you: Serbia has just won the Davis Cup in tennis, and became the world’s champion, and this all in Belgrade :)”
“…The results as I observed them in the laboratory are disturbing. They raise the possibility that human nature cannot be counted on to insulate men from brutality and inhumane treatment at the direction of malevolent authority. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority. If in this study an anonymous experimenter could successfully command adults to subdue a fifty year old man and force on him painful electric shocks against his protests one can only wonder what government with its vastly greater authority and prestige can command of its subjects.”
And Abraham awoke in the middle of the night and said to his only son, Isaac, “I have had a dream where the voice of the Lord sayeth that I must sacrifice my only son, so put your pants on.”
And Isaac trembled and said, “So what did you say? I mean when He brought this whole thing up?”
“What am I going to say?” Abraham said. “I’m standing there at two A.M. I’m in my underwear with the Creator of the Universe. Should I argue?”
“Well, did he say why he wants me sacrificed?” Isaac asked his father.
But Abraham said, “The faithful do not question. Now let’s go because I have a heavy day tomorrow.”
And Sarah who heard Abraham’s plan grew vexed and said, “How doth thou know it was the Lord and not, say, thy friend who loveth practical jokes, for the Lord hateth practical jokes and whosoever shall pull one shall be delivered into the hands of his enemies whether they pay the delivery charge or not.”
And Abraham answered, “Because I know it was the Lord. It was a deep, resonant voice, well modulated, and nobody in the desert can get a rumble in it like that.”
And Sarah said, “And thou art willing to carry out this senseless act?” But Abraham told her, “Frankly yes, for to question the Lord’s word is one of the worst things a person can do, particularly with the economy in the state it’s in.”
And so he took Isaac to a certain place and prepared to sacrifice him but at the last minute the Lord stayed Abraham’s hand and said, “How could thou doest such a thing?”
And Abraham said, “But thou said —”
“Never mind what I said,” the Lord spake. “Doth thou listen to every crazy idea that comes thy way?” And Abraham grew ashamed. “Er – not really … no.”
“I jokingly suggest thou sacrifice Isaac and thou immediately runs out to do it.”
And Abraham fell to his knees, “See, I never know when you’re kidding.”
And the Lord thundered, “No sense of humor. I can’t believe it.”
“But doth this not prove I love thee, that I was willing to donate mine only son on thy whim?”
And the Lord said, “It proves that some men will follow any order no matter how asinine as long as it comes from a resonant, well-modulated voice.”
And with that, the Lord bid Abraham get some rest and check with him tomorrow.
“Our knowledge has made us cynical,
our cleverness hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little.
More than machinery we need humanity;
More than cleverness we need kindness
and gentleness. Without these qualities
life will be violent and all will be lost.”
Charlie Chaplin, final speech from “The Great Dictator”.
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