Friday 29th of March 2024

taking liberty with libertines

 

libertinations...

The Australian conservative politician Cory Bernardi has tweeted a quote he mistakenly attributed to the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, but is instead believed to be from a neo-Nazi convicted of possessing child abuse material.

“To know who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise,”the South Australian Liberal senator tweeted on Sunday. “The answer is pretty obvious isn’t it?”

— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi)November 22, 2015

"To know who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise." Voltaire. The answer is pretty obvious isn't it?

Like “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”, another quote mistakenly attributed to Voltaire, it is often invoked in the comments sections of news stories, but there is no record linking it to the 18th-century writer and philosopher.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/nov/27/cory-bernardi-mistakenly-quotes-voltaire-on-twitter-with-supposed-neo-nazis-line

 

the earth in carnage...

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, French bookbuyers are turning to one of their grands philosophes, Voltaire, for enlightenment and perhaps Enlightenment. Publisher Gallimard is printing an extra 10,000 copies of his Treatise on Tolerance, which was brandished by participants in the Paris rallies of 11 January. In the treatise, Voltaire argues in favour of toleration of religious belief, while reserving the right to argue strenuously against it, and denouncing religious fanaticism of all stripes. “Tolerance has never provoked a civil war; intolerance has covered the Earth in carnage.”

Voltaire was the pen name of François-Marie Arouet, born in 1694: philosopher, novelist, playwright, all-round troublemaker and virtuoso of equal-opportunity ridicule. Since the early 20th century, he has also been doomed to be misquoted by those using him as a weapon in the free-speech wars. He never actually wrote “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” – this excellent formulation was, rather, the work of his English biographer, Evelyn Beatrice Hall (who also used a pseudonym: SG Tallentyre), who used it to describe his “attitude” in her 1906 biography, The Friends of Voltaire.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/books/shortcuts/2015/jan/18/beginners-guide-voltaire-philosopher-free-speech-tolerance