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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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evangelism
fear
modern
modern-life
modern-values
modernity
modernity-is-sickness
narcissism
religion
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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modern
modern-society
traditional-society
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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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destiny
end-of-history
existentialism
god
history
humanity
meaning-of-life
modern
nature
self-determinism
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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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broch
certainty
cult
esch
existentialism
fanaticism
imperative
loyalty
modern
novel
order
post-modern
purpose-of-life
sacrifice
sleepwalkers
symbolic
values
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Milan Kundera |