“Blind pupils. – As long as a man knows very well the strength and weaknesses of his teaching, his art, his religion, its power is still slight. The pupil and apostle who, blinded by the authority of the master and by the piety he feels toward him, pays no attention to the weaknesses of a teaching, a religion, and soon usually has for that reason more power than the master. The influence of a man has never yet grown great without his blind pupils. To help a perception to achieve victory often means merely to unite it with stupidity so intimately that the weight of the latter also enforces the victory of the former.”

From Nietzsche’s Human, all too human, s.122, R.J. Hollingdale translation.
Anonymous | 03.02.06 - 4:04 am | #

Anonymous - wouldn't that be meaningless victory though?
Anon1 | 03.02.06 - 6:48 am | #

Have Ahmadinejad and Mesbah signed up for martyrdom yet? Or are they too busy torturing and maiming?
anonymous | 03.02.06 - 7:58 am | #

These monsters send the innocent little children to the battlefield to be sacrificed for their sick twisted ideology. But, we will send them to the "hell" they truly belong. Very soon indeed!
marjan | 03.02.06 - 9:22 am | #

marjan: I wonder if Ahmadinejad's children and Mesbah's grand children have signed up for martrydom?
anonymous | 03.02.06 - 9:41 am | #

answering-islam.org

: )
Christopher Salibi | 03.02.06 - 12:02 pm | #

Anon1: I think we might consider the 'victory' here for its traditional meaning 'physically prevailing'.
Anonymous | 03.02.06 - 2:30 pm | #

Every answer provided is a clumsy argument, and every clumsy argument are words from the mouth of Man. If the Quran is the Word of God, and the source of law in all things spiritual and temporal, then Islam most certainly does not espouse this sort of nonsense. I know virtually nothing about Islam, but refuse to believe it is a religion founded to glorify suicide.
vidette | 03.02.06 - 4:07 pm | #

Vidette: You're essentially right. But what is functioning here is a political ideology rather than a religion.
Anonymous | 03.02.06 - 5:32 pm | #

"Martrydome is the highest form of art."--Ahmadinejad
anonymous | 03.02.06 - 5:37 pm | #

Anon: I agree it should be a political argument, but they cite religious teachings, then rationalize it in their own (man-made) terms, thus legitimizing their actions. Example: now "collateral damage" can include children and other innocents, according to some Imams. That's what, in my opinion, makes it such a slipshod and ugly defense. And they have convinced young men and women that it is a glorious death, not for the state, but for an assured and everlasting existence with their God. But not to worry, we Christians have had our share of deceitful ministers who have sent their flocks to their death. May all this madness end soon.
vidette | 03.02.06 - 6:00 pm | #

Vidette:

Scientific examination: A warm & humid capped space naturally bears & nurtures the bacteria.

This analogy could be simulated for social concepts. A social cult, mostly religious, in which the ‘holiness’ plays the pivotal role in its core, would soon lead to an environment that is deeply able to breed the moral decadence in itself and with no doubt it will. The history is of great evidence for that.

The same parallel is also applicable in elements (individuals). Take it with the wealth & power, as we’ve been seeing numerous cases in which the subject (a person) could have been significantly deformed (by attitude & behavior).

All these are the inherent dangers, being it in social scale or for the individuals in public positions.
Anonymous | 03.02.06 - 7:16 pm | #

Anon: You said: "A warm & humid capped space naturally bears & nurtures the bacteria." This is an excellent analogy of the development of an Ahmadinejad-type mind; contamination followed by incubation.
vidette | 03.03.06 - 3:55 am | #