***** Read history and see The headlong flight of invincible armies. Wherever you look Impregnable strongholds collapse and Even if the Armada was innumerable as it left port The returning ships Could be numbered.
...[T]he most beautiful of all doubts Is when the downtrodden and despondent raise their heads
and Stop believing in the strength Of their oppressors.
* * *
Oh, how laboriously the new truth was fought for! What sacrifices it cost! How difficult it was to see That things were thus and not thus! With a sigh of relief one day a man entered it in the record of
knowledge. For a long time perhaps it stands there, and many generations Live with it and regard it as eternal wisdom And the learned scorn all who are ignorant of it. And then it may happen that a suspicion arises, for new
experience Makes the established truth open to question. Doubt spreads And then one day a man thoughtfully strikes it out
From the record of knowledge.
Deafened by commands, examined For his fitness to fight by bearded doctors, inspected By resplendent creatures with golden insignia, admonished By solemn clerics who throw at him a book written by God
himself Instructed By impatient schoolmasters, stands the poor man and is told That the world is the best of worlds and that the hole In the roof of his hovel was planned by God in person. Truly he finds it hard To doubt this world.
* * *
There are the thoughtless who never doubt. Their digestion is splendid, their judgement infallible. They don't believe in the facts, they believe only in them-
selves. When it comes to the point The facts must go by the board. Their patience with
themselves Is boundless. To arguments They listen with the ear of a police spy.
The thoughtless who never doubt Meet the thoughtful who never act. They doubt, not in order to come to a decision but To avoid a decision. Their heads They use only for shaking. With anxious faces They warn the crews of sinking ships that water is dangerous. Beneath the murderer's axe They ask themselves if he isn't human too. Murmuring something About the situation not yet being clarified, they go to bed. Their only action is to vacillate. Their favorite phrase is: not yet ripe for discussion.
* * *
Therefore, if you praise doubt Do not praise The doubt which is a form of despair.
What use is the ability to doubt to a man Who can't make up his mind? He who is content with too few reasons May act wrongly But he who needs too many Remains inactive under danger.
(Bertolt Brecht, "In Praise of Doubt," from _Poems, 1913-1956_ [eds. John Willett and Ralph Manheim], Chapter VII "The Darkest Times, 1938-1941") ***** -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>