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i don't think comparing the ancient oral tradition with a game of telephone is fair to the historical reality. when the oral tradition was the primary means of transmitting sacred texts from one generation to another, it was a scholarly discipline to commit huge tracts of knowledge to memory with perfect accuracy.
surely there were some changes and mistaken recollections... but the system they used, and the seriousness and care they took in using it really has no parallel today. we can record our knowledge in many different formats for the ages unchanged, we don't need to.
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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
~ Winston Churchill
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