My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"Our critics are our friends, they show us our faults," in the same vein, I would say Voltaire is a necessary friend for every person who professes to follow a philosophy of life. A thinker who attacked not only religious people, be it Muslims or Christians, but also philosophers and monarchs, he mocks everybody who, in their pursuit of goodness, do bad.
As a religious person, I not only enjoyed Candide for it's story and characters, for it's sarcasm, it's twists and turns; but I also learned how a person can become self-righteous and oppress people while serving no god but one's ego. Consider the story when few righteous and gallant soldiers were stationed to protect women. How they let their morals guide their behavior:
The twenty Janissaries had sworn they would never surrender. The extremities of famine to which they were reduced, obliged them to eat our two eunuchs, for fear of violating their oath. And at the end of a few days they resolved also to devour the women.
Oh but wait, their prayer leaders wouldn't let them commit such cruelty. So...
"We had a very pious and humane Iman, who preached an excellent sermon, exhorting them not to kill us all at once.
"'Only cut off a buttock of each of those ladies,' said he, 'and you'll fare extremely well; if you must go to it again, there will be the same entertainment a few days hence; heaven will accept of so charitable an action, and send you relief.'
"He had great eloquence; he persuaded them; we underwent this terrible operation. The Iman applied the same balsam to us, as he does to children after circumcision; and we all nearly died.
"Scarcely had the Janissaries finished the repast with which we had furnished them, than the Russians came in flat-bottomed boats; not a Janissary escaped. The Russians paid no attention to the condition we were in. There are French surgeons in all parts of the world; one of them who was very clever took us under his care—he cured us; and as long as I live I shall remember that as soon as my wounds were healed he made proposals to me. He bid us all be of good cheer, telling us that the like had happened in many sieges, and that it was according to the laws of war.
Such off-hand descriptions appear to be jokes, they sound ridiculous until one looks deeply upon ones life, and then it hits. It's so easy to commit crimes in the name of following ones religious, one's morals, or society's established conventions.
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