Antigone
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Being yourself
Being oneself never fades into habit. Identity is a quest and an affirmation, a perpetual enantiodromos, like a state of siege that fears no enemy. Who am I? Where am I going? Constantly accepting to question oneself and explore the mystery of life, but armored by what one knows… Continue reading
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The revolutionary and forgiveness
The revolutionary has no appetite for forgiveness, for he detests the gift that seems suspect to him and the other with whom he might have sealed his future. For the revolutionary, driven by envy, the only form of forgiveness worthy of him involves the humiliation or death of his opponent in order to celebrate his victory… Continue reading
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The will alone or the will alone
Antigone knows that man must not believe in his will alone. Here too, it is a question of power swelling with its own pride. Will alone becomes perverted, corrupted, withered, and arrogant. Will alone, or the will alone that often accompanies it, takes over the space as soon as a higher power, authority, is forgotten. All… Continue reading
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Antigone, defiant and intimate (7/7. Love)
Part 7 and final part: Love. Antigone's desire is familial; she does not want to leave her brother unburied. Creon, on the other hand, desires to assert himself as king and demonstrate his power. Antigone prioritizes family ties, which embody love and reveal a person's true nature. Creon consolidates his power by signing a law that must… Continue reading
Antigone , stupidity , counter-revolution , ethics , history , intimacy , forgiveness , political correctness , religion , totalitarianism , tradition -
Man and Animals According to Aristotle
From this stems the obvious conclusion that the State is a fact of nature, that man is by nature a social being, and that he who remains savage by nature, and not by chance, is certainly either a degraded being or a being superior to the human species. It is indeed to him that this reproach could be addressed… Continue reading
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Antigone, defiant and intimate (5/7. Authority)
Part 5: Authority In ancient Greece, men knew and recognized themselves in the eyes of their family, their loved ones, their community. Women reserved for themselves the mirror, which was associated with beauty, femininity, and seduction. Reflection was everywhere. “There is no place that is not…” Continue reading
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The division according to Creon
Creon divides his interlocutors into two camps: those who are with him and those who are against him. He no longer negotiates and threatens those who oppose him. Force controls him, when force should only ever be used to protect, and this is always the case for those who give themselves body and soul to… Continue reading
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The enantiodromos, the fork of life
Creon is transformed into a tyrant. He becomes what he imagines he must be. This is the enantiodromos, that moment and place in Greek mythology, which reveals the true nature of a man when, at the crossroads, he must confront the choice of which path to follow. The enantiodromos is the fork where the one who becomes… Continue reading
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Taking it upon oneself, a transfiguration
It is difficult to understand in our age of individualism that the act of taking responsibility for a fault one doesn't believe is one's own, but rather that one believes is attributed to another, but which is necessarily also one's own, necessarily, because I have already committed this kind of fault through action or omission; this fault is not unfamiliar to me. The act of taking responsibility… Continue reading
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To Be and To Have
What belongs to us matters less than who we are, and we are wrong to believe, under the sway of envy, that what belongs to us can define who we are. Continue reading
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What does it mean to be out of touch with reality?
The most illuminating example concerning human nature is found in the New Testament when Peter and Jesus Christ speak together, and Peter insists to his master that he believe his devotion is entirely sincere. Thus, Jesus tells him that before the rooster crows, he will have denied him three times. The first place… Continue reading
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Antigone, defiant and intimate (4/7. Freedom)
Antigone did not come to life at dusk. Antigone was born with the dawn. It is at daybreak that Antigone becomes "anti," meaning facing, not against. With the retreat of the Argive army, Antigone emerges from the shadows where she could have remained all her life, not to solve the riddle of the Sphinx like her… Continue reading
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Beloved freedom!
Antigone is free, and since freedom is constantly being won, it would be accurate to say that Antigone is liberating herself, for one never finishes liberating oneself, and learning to liberate oneself. Freedom is the most repressed gift, for freedom embodies truth; it is the best interpreter of life. It tames destiny and calls forth… Continue reading
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Antigone, defiant and intimate (6/7. The vocation)
So many stories about identity! The word appears neither in Greek epic nor in tragedy. Identity in Antigone's time was rooted in lineage and belonging to a city-state. Identity was imbued with rootedness. Family and city-state gathered under a virtual banner everything that the other needed to know about oneself… Continue reading