Consider the impasse of a one-God universe. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. He can't go anywhere, since He is already everywhere. He can't do anything, since the act of doing presupposes opposition. His universe is irrevocably thermodynamic, having no friction by definition. So, He has to create friction: War, Fear, Sickness, Death, to keep his dying show on the road.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the limitations of an all-powerful deity and the necessity of conflict in existence.
In this quote, Burroughs explores the paradox of an omnipotent and omnipresent God who, despite having limitless capabilities, is constrained within his own universe. The assertion is that to create movement and dynamism in a static, perfect world, He must introduce elements of friction—such as war, fear, and death—which are inherently negative but essential for the continuation of existence.
In practice
In a philosophical debate about the nature of divinity.
God save the Queen and a fascist regime … a flabby toothless fascism, to be sure. Never go too far in any direction, is the basic law on which Limey-Land is built. The Queen stabilizes the whole sinking shithouse and keeps a small elite of wealth and privilege on top. The English have gone soft in the outhouse. England is like some stricken beast too stupid to know it is dead. Ingloriously foundering in its own waste products, the backlash and bad karma of empire
Like most qualities, cuteness is delineated by what it isn't. Most people aren't cute at all, or if so they quickly outgrow their cuteness ... Elegance, grace, delicacy, beauty, and a lack of self-consciousness: a creature who knows he is cute soon isn't.
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
Gentle reader, the Fountain of Youth is radioactive, and those who imbibe its poisonous heavy waters will suffer the hideous fate of decaying metal. Yet almost without exception, the wretched idiot inhabitants of our benighted planet would gulp down this radioactive excrement if it were offered.
Language is a virus from outer space.
One very important aspect of art is that it makes people aware of what they know and don’t know they know... Once the breakthrough is made, there is a permanent expansion of awareness. But there is always a reaction of rage, of outrage, at the first breakthrough... So the artist, then, expands awareness. And once the breakthrough is made, this becomes part of the general awareness.
Those who, like the beasts, have no such Hope, pass their old age shrouded with an inward gloom.
To speak for others is to first silence those in whose name we speak
Once you've ruled out the impossible then whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth. The problem lay in working out what was impossible, of course. That was the trick, all right. There was also the curious incident of the orangutan in the night-time.
Every single person in this world is a minority in one way or another. It just depends on how you slice the pie.
The principles which men profess on any controverted subject are usually a very incomplete exponent of the opinions they really hold.
Do not bury our glorious orthodoxy in the treacherous pit of a spurious conservatism.
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