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51c09dc
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The classical man's worst fear was inglorious death; the modern man's worst fear is just death
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fear
religion
modern
modern-life
modernity-is-sickness
modern-values
evangelism
narcissism
modernity
values
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb |
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222b1d7
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Soon all of you immortals Will be as dead as we are! Come on then, what are you waiting for? Have you run out of thunderbolts?
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hatred
modern
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Euripides |
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18a61c0
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...it seemed a part of her life, to step from the ancient to the modern, back and forth. She felt rather sorry for those who knew only one and not the other. It was better, she thought, to be able to select from the whole menu of human achievements than to be bound within one narrow range.
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traditional-society
modern-society
modern
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Orson Scott Card |
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d208ebe
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I thought of the fate of Descartes' famous formulation: man as 'master and proprietor of nature.' Having brought off miracles in science and technology, this 'master and proprietor' is suddenly realizing that he owns nothing and is master neither of nature (it is vanishing, little by little, from the planet), nor of History (it has escaped him), nor of himself (he is led by the irrational forces of his soul). But if God is gone and man is no longer master, then who is master? The planet is moving through the void without any master. There it is, the unbearable lightness of being.
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history
nature
humanity
destiny
god
self-determinism
modern
meaning-of-life
end-of-history
existentialism
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Milan Kundera |
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1ca748a
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In the presence of Esch, values have hidden their faces. Order, loyalty, sacrifice--he cherishes all these words, but exactly what do they represent? Sacrifice for what? Demand what sort of order? He doesn't know. If a value has lost its concrete content, what is left of it? A mere empty form; an imperative that goes unheeded and, all the more furious, demands to be heard and obeyed. The less Esch knows what he wants, the more furiously he wants it. Esch: the fanaticism of the era with no God. Because all values have hidden their faces, anything can be considered a value. Justice, order--Esch seeks them now in the trade union struggle, then in religion; today in police power, tomorrow in the mirage of America, where he dreams of emigrating. He could be a terrorist or a repentant terrorist turning in his comrades, or a party militant or a cult member a kamikaze prepared to sacrifice his life. All the passions rampaging through the bloody history of our time are taken up, unmasked, and terrifyingly displayed in Esch's modest adventure.
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sacrifice
esch
sleepwalkers
imperative
broch
cult
post-modern
modern
certainty
purpose-of-life
order
symbolic
existentialism
fanaticism
novel
values
loyalty
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Milan Kundera |