revolution
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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
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Antigone, defiant and intimate (3/7. Destiny)
Part 3: Destiny. Man descends from the tree. Man, like the tree, is defined as much by his roots as by his fruit. Man, like the tree, depends on external and internal elements to reach maturity. Man resembles this trunk sculpted by trials, leaning on its roots and bearing fruit of varying quality. Continue reading
Antigone , counter-revolution , ethics , history , intimacy , forgiveness , religion , revolution , totalitarianism , vulgarity -
Antigone, defiant and intimate (2/7. The funeral)
Part 2: The Funeral — “My dearest Ismene. I came this morning to tell you that I've taken care of everything. I used the same funeral home for both our brothers. I couldn't choose, and since our brothers didn't leave any last wishes, I took matters into my own hands to continue reading
Antigone , counter-revolution , ethics , history , intimacy , death , forgiveness , priest , religion , revolution -
News about Hyppolite Taine
He's a pedant, a pedant is a hollow, puffed-up mind that, because it's full of words, believes itself full of ideas, revels in its own phrases, and deceives itself to rule over others. He's a hypocrite who believes himself sincere, a Cain who fancies himself Abel. In this shrunken brain, given over to abstraction, and Continue reading
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Antigone, defiant and intimate (1/7. The family)
Part 1: The Family From the very first reading of Antigone, an ambiguity arises in the reader's mind. Does Antigone embody action or reaction? What drives Antigone? Reaction never exists on its own, whereas action needs no one; it is legitimized by the act itself. Action always inaugurates something. Unlike what is often Continue reading
Antigone , Charles Maurras , counter-revolution , ethics , history , intimacy , forgiveness , priest , religion , revolution -
Simone de Beauvoir on human life
“To declare that life is absurd is to say that it will never have meaning. To say that it is ambiguous is to decide that its meaning is never fixed, that it must always be earned.”* A formidable declaration of powerlessness draped in an expression of the will to power, or how desire must regulate, govern life. This sentence is Continue reading
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The death of intimacy
Everywhere—on the internet, in newspapers, or on television—personal experience is displayed, exhibited, and presented as the definitive reference. This indecency rests on a reversal of values. It is based primarily and ubiquitously on the idea of sameness. The idea of sameness suggests: “I lived through this; my experience reflects a universal feeling. I want to say what…” Continue reading
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A short history of Envy, from hero to scapegoat
The modern world constantly presents us with scapegoats. Lance Armstrong, Richard Millet, Jérôme Kerviel, John Galliano, to name just a few, each in their own field, with completely different causes and reasons, have recently embodied the scapegoat, the justly punished culprit, the troublemaker put in their place. Continue reading
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Notes on the History of Catholicism
Notes from Jean-Pierre Moisset's *Histoire du catholicisme* (chapter 9: *Le choc de la modernité (mid-18th century – 1870)*, p. 394). The ritual of touching for scrofula after the coronation, still practiced, is losing its prestige. Symptomatically, the formula for the laying on of hands is changing. It was "the king…" Continue reading
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Notes on the French Revolution
Most of the quotes concerning the French Revolution given in this article come from Jean Sévillia's book "Historically Correct." — Solzhenitsyn: "Since men are not endowed with the same capacities, if they are free, they will not be equal, and if they are equal, it is because they are not free." — There is a revolutionary idea. Continue reading
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Oshio Heihachiro, samurai of the rebellion
To fully understand Oshio Heihachiro's actions, one must grasp that they were dictated by an anti-revolutionary character and will. Nothing in Oshio Heihachiro's attitude sought to challenge the established order. He knew the system could be improved, but was also functional. What made the system less effective had more to do with the individuals involved than with the system itself. Continue reading