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submitted 2 years ago by antonim to c/[email protected]

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[–] antonim 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I've read it in high school, many years ago :D It was one of the 2-3 assigned readings that the class clearly enjoyed over all those four years (along with Decameron and Crime and Punishment).

As far as I remember, it parodies the philosophical (or theological) idea by Leibniz that this is the best of all possible worlds, which is supposed to explain why God allows it to be apparently so shitty - it's still the best you can get. IMO it's not really fair to just describe it as "everything is going to be ok", as you and Voltaire do, because the original idea is not really optimistic or pessimistic with regards to what you can expect of the world, it is in fact just deeply apathetic (and a bit dumb).

The difference in the meme here is that "everything is going to be ok" is not a hard philosophical law, but a conspiracy theory, going aginst the accepted or obvious knowledge. It suggests some active, nefarious force behind the scenes, unlike Leibniz's inertia.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

The beautiful theme that it truly is the best of all worlds for Candide, at the expense of everyone he meets. It's utter bullshit that sometimes one person can get away with a lot of shit when they are arrogant and ignorant