The Doubter's Companion (42 page)

ZEALOT
   Someone who has the answer to a problem.

Originally a religious fanatic given to violence, the zealot is as likely today to be a
CORPORATIST
expert. They are, as Samuel Johnson defined them, “passionately ardent in any cause.”
¹
They are the bearers of truth.

ZENO
   Father of the paradox. Philosopher of the fifth century BC. A source of Socrates' technique and of humour as a weapon against power and pedantry. The other Zeno, also a philosopher and father of the Stoic movement, committed suicide.

ZINNIA
   The ugliest flower in any garden.

The paradoxical idea that words have real but relative meaning leaves room for misrepresentation by those who wish to capture language for their own use. From ideologues to deconstructionists, they take the piece of the paradox that suits them and deform it by ignoring the rest.

Those who wish to resist this falsification of communication need only plant a zinnia and wait for it to bloom. With the meaning of the word “ugly” clearly established, the rest will fall easily into place. If that doesn't work, try marigolds.

NOTES

The Grail of Balance

1
Tom McArthur,
Worlds of Reference
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 94.

2
Quoted in Michel de Montaigne,
Essais
, Volume II, 1588, Chapter 17, “De la praesumption”: “Plus haut monte le singe, plus il montre son cul.”

3
Samuel Johnson,
A Dictionary of the English Language
(1755; facsimile, London: Times Books Ltd., 1983). Quoted from the introduction. Johnson's original edition had no page numbers.

4
Denis Diderot,
L'Encyclopédie, un dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers
, edited by Alain Pons (Paris: Flammarion, 1986).

5
McArthur,
Worlds of Reference
, 105.

6
The edition in eight volumes quoted throughout is: Voltaire,
Dictionnaire Philosophique
(Paris: Librairie de Fortic, 1826).

7
Noah Webster,
An American Dictionary of the English Language
(New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1970). This is a reprint of the original Webster's Dictionary, published in 1828.

8
Actually published posthumously in 1911.

9
Originally published as
The Cynic's Word Book
in 1906.

A

1
A BIG MAC
—John F. Love,
McDonald's—Behind the Arches
(New York: Bantam Press, 1986), 15.

2
AIR-CONDITIONING
—
The New York Times
, 21 October 1993, A10. Re: the tuberculosis incident, 7 June 1993,
IHT
, 1. Quote from Joseph Hopkins, a spokesman for United Airlines.

3
ARMAMENTS
—Charles Mackay,
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
(New York: Harmony Books, 1980). Originally published in 1841.

B

1
BABY SEAL
—George Orwell,
Animal Farm
(London: Penguin Books, 1987), 90. Originally published in 1945.

2
BAD PEOPLE
—Voltaire,
Dictionnaire Philosophique
,“
Patrie
,” vol. 7, 252.
“Celui qui brûle de l'ambition d'être édile, tribun, préteur, consul, dictateur, crie qu'il aime sa patrie, et il n'aime que luimême.”

3
BAD PEOPLE
—
Le Monde
, 9 June 1993, 26. The third task was dealing with the inability of national governments to apply law in a world dominated by transnational economics.
“des intolérances ethniques”
and
“la quête extraordinaire et effrénée de l'argent sous toutes ses formes… Les classes dominantes de la politique et de l'économie…l'argent n'a pas d'odeur…sale, douteux et illicite.”

4
BANKERS
—Samuel Johnson,
Pocket Dictionary of the English Language
(Chiswick: C. and C. Whittingham, 1826).

5
BEES
—Voltaire,
Dictionnaire Philosophique
, “
Abeilles
,” vol. 1, 41.

6
BURKE
—Conor Cruise O'Brien,
The Great Melody—A Thematic Biography and Commented Anthology of Edmund Burke
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 115.

7
BURKE
—Ibid, 390.

8
BUSINESS SCHOOLS
—Alain Chanlat, “
Lettre à Richard Déry: L'Occident, malade de ses dirigeants,
” June 1993, unpublished essay.

9
BUSINESS SCHOOLS
—
The New York Times
, 14 November 1993, 26.

C

1
CARLYLE
—Thomas Carlyle,
On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History
(Philadelphia: Henry Altemus), 5. Originally published in 1841.

2
CARLYLE
—Ibid, 114.

3
CARLYLE
—Ibid, 322.

4
class="Noindent"—Ibid, 269.

5
class="Noindent"—Ibid, 265.

6
class="Noindent"—Salman Rushdie, speaking during an unannounced appearance at the Third Annual Benefit of the Canadian Centre of International PEN, Toronto, 7 December 1992.

7
CONSULTANTS
—Xenophen,
Memorabilia
, I, vi, 11–13, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), 73.

8
CONSUMPTION
—Eric Hoffer, quoted in James Hillman and Michael Ventura,
We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World's Getting Worse
(San Francisco: Harper, 1992), 159.

9
CORPORATISM
—Frederick Copleston,
A History of Philosophy
(New York: Image Book, Doubleday, 1985), Book 3, vol. vii, 214.

10
CORPORATISM
—Information and quotations in this paragraph are drawn from James Hillman and Michael Ventura,
We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World's Getting Worse
, 137.

11
CURE
—
The Globe and Mail
, 13 August 1993, 1.

D

1
DECONSTRUCTIONISM
—This is an observation made by the author Eugene Benson.

2
DEREGULATION
—
Le Monde
, 8 January 1994, 23.

3
DIALECTS
—Vaclav Havel, “On Evasive Thinking,” a speech to the Union of Czechoslovak Writers' conference, 9 June 1965. Translated by Paul Wilson.

4
DICTIONARY
—Sources for the three definitions of truth are: “consistent with,”
The American Heritage Dictionary
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976); “conformity to,” Noah Webster,
An American Dictionary of the English Language
. “in accordance with,”
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
(London: Book Club Associates, 1983).

5
DUAL USE
—Conversation with the author, 15 January 1994, Toronto.

6
DUAL USE
—Three quotes from Jacques S. Gansler, “Transforming the U.S. Defense Industrial Base,” in
Survival, The IISS Quarterly,
vol. 35, no. 4, Winter, 1993–4, 138, 141.

7
DUAL USE
—In addition to Mr. Gansler's article see, in the same issue of
Survival
, Julian Cooper's “Transforming Russia's Defense Industrial Base,” 147;
Le Figaro—Economique
, 26 January 1994, xi,
“Vers une ‘liberalisation' des ventes d'armes”; Le Monde,
28–29 November 1993, 9,
“La délégation générale pour l'armement veut être authorisée à exporter les matériels les plus modernes.”

E

1
EDUCATION, PUBLIC
—
Newsweek
, 20 September 1993, 44. The study was carried out by the U.S. Department of Education.

2
ELECTORS OF BRISTOL
—O'Brien,
The Great Melody
, 75.

3
ETHICS
—John Rawls,
A Theory of Justice
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971).

F

1
FACTS
—Denis Diderot,
L'Encyclopédie
, vol. 2, 97.
“Fait” “…On peut distribuer les
faits
en trois classes, les actes de la divinité, les phénomènes de la nature, et les actions des hommes. Les premiers appartiennent à la théologie, les seconds à la philosophie, et les autres à l'histoire proprement dite. Tous sont également sujets à la critique.”

2
FAITH
—From “The Apology” in Plato,
The Last Days of Socrates
(London: Penguin, 1954), 71.

3
FRIENDSHIP
—William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” in
The Writings of William Blake
, ed. Geoffrey Keynes (London: The Nonesuch Press, n.d.), Plates 17-20, 157.

G

1
GANG OF FIVE
—Voltaire,
Dictionnaire
, under “
Cartésianisme
,” vol. 3, 82.

H

1
HELL
—Voltaire,
Dictionnaire
, vol. 4, 308. “
Enfer
.”
“Dès que les hommes vécurent en société, ils durent s'apercevoir que plusieurs coupables échappaient à la sévérité des lois; ils punissaient les crimes publics; il fallut établir un frein pour les crimes secrets; la religion seule pouvait être ce frein.”

2
HELL
—Diderot,
L'Encyclopédie
, vol. 2, 125, under
Fortune
(
Morale
).

3
HUMANISM
—René-Daniel Dubois, 9 October 1991, Présentation du Mémoire conjoint de l'AQAD et du C.A.D., “
Nous ne voulons pas d'un monde dans lequel le sentiment d'être un humain est une maladie
.”

I

1
IMAGE
—
The Toronto Star
, 26 March 1994, A15.

2
INAUGURATION GALA
—Kitty Kelley,
His Way—The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra
(New York: Bantam Books, 1986), 285.

3
INFERIORITY COMPLEX
—Alfred Adler broke away from Sigmund Freud in 1911 and is known as the father of the inferiority complex. His key writings on the subject are:

1909:
Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Physical Compensation
.

1908:
Aggression Drive
.

1910:
Inferiority Feeling and Masculine Protest
.

1912:
The Neurotic Constitution
.

1918:
Social Interest
.

4
INSTRUMENTAL REASON
—Max Weber,
The Theory of Social and Economic Organization
, trans. A.M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons (Illinois: The Free Press), 115.

5
IRRADIATION
—Compiled by Barbara Dinham,
The Pesticide Hazard: A Global Health and Environmental Audit
(London: 2 ed Books for The Pesticide Trust, 1993).

6
IRRADIATION
—Ibid.

J

1
JOBS
—
The Guardian Weekly
, 28 February 1993, 4.

2
JOBS
—
The Globe and Mail
, 23 February 1994, B7.

L

1
LUDDITES
—Quoted by David Suzuki,
The Toronto Star
, 17 July 1993, D8.

2
LUDDITES
—Oscar Douglas Skelton,
Life and Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier
, vol. 1 (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1921), 321.

M

1
MEMORY
—Johnson,
Dictionary
, 116. “Memory: the power of retaining or recollecting things past; that faculty by which we call to mind any past transaction.”

2
MEMORY
—
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
, vol. II (London: Book Club Associates, 1983), 1306. “Memory: 1. The faculty by which things are remembered.... 3. Recollection, remembrance.... An act or instance of remembrance; a recollection....”

3
MUSSOLINI
—Denis Mack Smith,
Mussolini
(London: Paladin, 1983), 144.

4
MUSSOLINI
—
Le Quotidien de Paris
, 7 June 1993, 15. A study of the football strategy has been done by the historian Paul Dietschy.

5
MUSSOLINI
—
The Economist
, 2 April 1994, 5 and The Economist, 9 April 1994, 13.

N

1
NEO-CONSERVATIVE
—Smith,
Mussolini
, 134.

2
NIETZSCHE
—Ibid, 15.

3
NIHILISM
—E.M. Cioran, quoted in an interview by Branka Bogavac Le Comte in
Les Lettres Français
, no. 33, June 1993, 18.
“Si vous essayez d'être libre, vous mourez de faim, et on ne vous tolère que si vous êtes successivement servie et despotique!”

O

1
ORAL LANGUAGE
—Harold A. Innis,
The Bias of Communication
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1951).

2
ORAL LANGUAGE
—Dante, quoted in Innis. Ibid, 22.

3
ORGASM
—
The New Yorker
, 29 November 1993, 8.

4
ORGASM
—Johnson,
Dictionary
.

P

1
PLATO
—For a remarkable portrait of the atmosphere in Athens, see Donald Kagan,
Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy
(London: Secker and Warburg, 1990).

2
POWER, PUBLIC
—Diderot,
L'Encyclopédie
, vol. 2, 275. “
Pouvoir
” (
Droit nat. et politiq.
).
“Le but de tout gouvernement, est le bien de la société gouvernée. Pour prévenir l'anarchie, pour faire exécuter les lois, pour protéger les peuples, pour soutenir les faibles contre les entreprises des plus forts, il a fallu que chaque société établît des souverains qui fussent revêtus d'un
pouvoir
suffisant pour remplir tous ces objets.”