Reply #135: More Pratchett

[Prophet 451]

I think that, like Londo Mollari (of Babylon 5), Bush has killed the thing he sought. Because America was never just a place, it was a dream, a dream of equality and fairness and freedom. Yes, it's not real and never was but a good dream to try and live up to all the same. Perhaps that is the difference between a good leader and a bad one: A good leader challenges us to live up to our dreams, a bad leader encourages us to live down to our expectations.


As promised, more Pratchett:

Through the mouth of Havelock Vetinari, the consumate politician, expressing his view of human nature: "People shout that they want truth and justice for all. What they really want is an assurance that life will go on much as it did before and tomorrow will be very much like today". Humans adapt. It is both our greatest strength and our greatest failing that if it continues long enough, we will get used to repression, we may even come to like it.

The Sam Vimes "Boots" theory of social injustice: The difference between a rich man and a poor man can be understood by looking at his boots. A rich man remains rich because he has the capital to invest a hundred dollars in good boots which will last him a lifetime. The poor man buys cheap boots at ten dollars a pair which last for a season or two and then leak like hell when the soles give out. Therefore, over the course of a lifetime, the poor man will spend many times as much on boots as the rich man and still have wet feet.

On married life: "A marriage is made up of two people prepared to swear that only the other one snores".

The motto of the Ankh-Morpork Times: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make ye fret"

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."

On God: "God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players (i.e. everyone), to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time"

Terry is one of those fantasy authors who uses fantasy as a way of satirising the real world. He's written over thirty books, the majority of which are both thought-provoking and funny, is an inveterate cat lover and spokesman for the Orangutan Protection League and is occasionally accused of "literature". Up until the rise of JK Rowling, he was Britian's most successful author and he has a quotebook coming out shortly.