개나리

빨간색 선글라스를 낀 사람이 개나리를 빨간색이라고 우깁니다. 파란색 선글라스를 낀 사람이 개나리를 파란색이라고 우깁니다. 내가 옳다 니가 틀려 두 사람이 멱살을 잡고 싸웁니다. 하지만 개나리는 노란색 꽃입니다. 봅이 되면 제일 먼저 피어나는 꽃 햇볕을 닮은 눈부신 꽃입니다. 여보세요 여보세요 제 말 들리시나요. 이 사람들 아직도 선글라스를 끼고 있네. 저러니 세상을 아직도 더듬고 있지. 저러니 꿈 같은 마음으로 살 수가 없지. -이외수

단순하면서도 가난하되, 절제된 아름다움을 지닌 삶, 그것이 내가 스님의 처소에서 받은 첫 느낌이다. 그리고 그것은 많은 물건 더미와 장식물을 자랑하는 '풍요로운 감옥'들에 대한 서늘한 깨우침이 아닐 수 없다. 그분은 가난한 삶을 역설한다. 가난한 삶이라니! 모두가 경제 회복과 물질의 풍요를 되찾자고 외치는 이 시대에! 그러나 나는 아무리 해도 그 말씀에 공감하지 않을 수 없다. 세상의 소음과 어지러운 말들에 지칠 때면 나는 십 년 전 처음 찾아갔던 그 불일암의 뜰과, 그곳에서 느낀 단순함과 침묵의 풍요가 더 없이 그립다. 다시 그곳에 가서 홀로 가만히 앉아 있고 싶어진다. 그래서 내 안을 들여다보고, 그 안에서 고구마를 캐듯이 침묵을 캐내고 싶어진다. -류시화, 법정 스님 <산에는 꽃이 피네>에서

God and the State - Mikhail Bakunin

"The idea of God implies the abdication of human reason and justice; it is the most decisive negation of human liberty, and necessarily ends in the enslavement of mankind, in theory and practice." "If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him." - Mikhail Bakunin, Russian anarchist, anti-theist, and writer who participated in the revolutionary movement of 1848-49

Malleus Maleficarum

The pope appointed Kramer and Sprenger to write a comprehensive analysis, using the full academic armory of the late fifteenth century. With exhaustive citations of Scripture and of ancient and modern scholars, they produced the Malleus Maleficarum, the "Hammer of Witches"-aptly described as one of the most terrifying documents in human history. Thomas Ady, in A Candle in the Dark, condemned it as "villainous Doctrines & Inventions," "horrible lyes and impossibilities," serving to hide "their unparalleled cruelty from the ears of the world." What the Malleus comes down to, pretty much, is that if you're accused of witchcraft, you're a witch. Torture is an unfailing means to demonstrate the validity of the accusation. There are no rights of the defendant. There is no opportunity to confront the accusers. Little attention is given to the possibility that accusations might be made for impious purposes-jealousy, say, or revenge, or greed of the inquisitors who routinely confiscated for their own private benefit the property of the accused. This technical manual for torturers also includes methods of punishment tailored to release demons from the victim's body before the process kills her. The Malleus in hand, the Pope's encouragement guaranteed, inquisitors began springing up all over Europe. It quickly became an expense account scam. All costs of investigation, trial, and execution were borne by the accused or her relatives-down to per diems for the private detectives hired to spy on her, wine for her guards, banquets for her judges, the travel expenses of a messenger sent to fetch a more experienced torturer from another city, and the faggots, tar and hangman's rope. Then there was a bonus to the members of the tribunal for each witch burned. The convicted witch's remaining property, if any, was divided between Church and State. As this legally and morally sanctioned mass murder and theft became institutionalized, as a vast bureaucracy arose to serve it, attention was turned from poor hags and crones to the middle class and well-to-do of both sexes. In the witch trials, mitigating evidence or defense witnesses were inadmissible. In any case, it was nearly impossible to provide compelling alibis for accused witches: The rules of evidence had a special character. For example, in more than one case a husband attested that his wife was asleep in his arms at the very moment she was accused of frolicking with the devil at a witch's Sabbath; but the archbishop patiently explained that a demon had taken the place of the wife. The husbands were not to imagine that their powers of perception could exceed Satan's powers of deception. The beautiful young women were perforce consigned the flames. There were strong erotic and misogynistic elements-as might be expected in a sexually repressed, male-dominated society with inquisitors drawn from the class of nominally celibate priests. The trials paid close attention to the quality and quantity of orgasm in the supposed copulations of defendants with demons or the Devil (although Augustine had been certain "we cannot call the Devil a fornicator"), and to the nature of the Devil's "member" (cold, by all reports). "Devil's marks" were found "generally on the breasts or private parts" according to Ludovico Sinistrari's 1700 book. As a result pubic hair was shaved, and the genitalia were carefully inspected by the exclusively male inquisitors. In the immolation of the 20-year-old Joan of Arc, after her dress had caught fire the Hangman of Rouen slaked the flames so onlookers could view "all the secrets which can or should be in a woman." -Carl Sagan, from The Demon-Haunted World