totalitarianism
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Antigone, rebellious and intimate (7/7. Love)
7th and final part: Love Antigone's desire is familial; she does not want to leave her brother unburied; Creon, on the other hand, wants to assert himself as king and demonstrate his power. Antigone favors family ties that embody love and reveal a being. Creon establishes his power by signing a bill that must Continue reading
Antigone , stupidity , counter-revolution , ethics , history , intimacy , forgiveness , politically correct , religion , totalitarianism , tradition -
Antigone, rebellious 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, and their community. Women reserved for themselves the mirror that was part of beauty, femininity, and seduction. The reflection is everywhere. "There is no place that does not Continue reading
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What is it to be above ground?
The most illuminating example of human nature is found in the New Testament when Peter and Jesus Christ are talking together and Peter insists that his master believe his devotion is completely 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, rebellious and intimate (6/7. The vocation)
What a fuss about identity! The word appears neither in Greek epic nor in tragedy. Identity in Antigone's time was based on lineage and belonging to a city. Identity was imbued with roots. Family and city gathered under a virtual banner everything that others needed to know about themselves. Continue reading
Antigone , Catholicism , counter-revolution , ethics , intimacy , forgiveness , religion , revolution , totalitarianism -
Antigone, rebellious and intimate (3/7. Destiny)
Part 3: Destiny Man descends from the tree. Man, like the tree, is defined by his roots as well as by his fruits. 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 fruits more or less Continue reading
Antigone , counter-revolution , ethics , history , intimacy , forgiveness , religion , revolution , totalitarianism , vulgarity -
News from Louis-René des Forêts
On this rainy Sunday, rereading the notes taken in the margins of the marvelous Ostinato, this nugget among nuggets: Let us not veil our faces with our hands. There is no longer any place to venerate, no act of glory or intelligence to absolve a world seduced by force spreading its filth everywhere, and which Continue reading
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Charlie's Fate
"The enemy limits you, therefore gives you your shape and founds you." This phrase from Saint-Exupéry expresses our condition quite well at the end of this first week of 2015. The enemy forces me to evolve according to his codes, within a space that he has circumscribed. I am first a prisoner. He chooses the terrain and forces me to Continue reading
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On totalitarian states
"Totalitarian states, which alternately use lies and violence (lies to cover up violence and violence to silence those who discover the lies), owe the greater part of their success to having paralyzed the forces of reaction against imposture and lies. This is on the moral level. Continue reading
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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 envy must rule, govern life. This sentence is Continue reading