"Homme" - french word for man.
Bonsoir, mes petits amis and travel with me to the illustrous world of "Candide" and the amazing Author, Francois-Marie Arouet... aka Voltaire.
Okay so how many of you guys at this point on Sunday evening have even read "Candide" yet? Raise your hands.. come on!!
Anyways, I digress.
"Candide" is Voltaire's most famous satire, a biting response to a movement in the Age of Enlightenment called "optimism"
"Optimism is founded on the theodicy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that says all is for the best because God is a benevolent deity. This concept is often put into the form, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" [Wikipedia]
I agree with the ideology for all that Voltaire most certainly didn't and wrote "Candide" to poke fun at this. Optimism, however, is a key integer to faith and belief that God will come through and save the day no matter what. I think that Voltaire, who saw destruction on a massive scale in the form of a terribly nasty earthquake, lost this "optimism" and felt like if God wanted to do bad things to the world then benevolence was no longer implied and the world isn't getting what is best for them.
Which isn't true at all, of course. We all know that God has a reason for everything and just because bad things happen, it doesn't mean we as Christians should give up on the optimism that gives me peace of mind that God will take care of us. Poor Voltaire, he was so out of the loop, wasn't he?
Think about this when you read "Candide" and see if you can pinpoint Voltaire's attacks on religion and faith... maybe if he had realized that God does what is best for his people then maybe we wouldn't have had "Candide"... even though "Candide" is an amazing work of literature.
Til next time, mon petits honorlings!
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