Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Bullshit or Not: Cervantes Edition

There's an old sketch film called Amazon Women on the Moon and one of the bits is a parody of the old Leonard Nimoy show, "In Search Of..." called, "Bullshit or Not?" with the tagline "Bullshit or not? You decide." It's a line I like so much that I've stolen it for an irregular series of posts.

Today is not only LilBro's birthday (happy birthday, man), but also that of Miguel de Cervantes, so let's play with a short quotation from him,

"Love and war are the same thing, and stratagems and policy are as allowable in the one as in the other."
Is it true that all is fair in love and war? In both, we leave ourselves vulnerable and seek certain objectives. Both tend to lead to hostilities which conclude with negotiations in which either (1) both sides find a way to exist next to each other, or (2) one dominates the other. In these negotiations are we not allowed strategems? But how apt is the metaphor, really?

As usual, feel free to leave either a response anywhere between one word and a dissertation.