No single event can awaken within us a stranger whose existence we had never suspected. To live is to be slowly born.
Antoine De Saint-ExuperyRead
Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on humanity's detached observation of historical events through media, often without emotional engagement.
Conor Cruise O'Brien's quote highlights a critical view of how people consume historical narratives as mere entertainment, often reacting with minimal emotional involvement. It suggests that while viewers may be momentarily shocked or outraged by what they see, the overall response is one of apathy, indicating a troubling disconnection from the real impact of history and its consequences.
In practice
During a lecture on media ethics, you might use this quote to illustrate the dangers of desensitization to historical events.
No single event can awaken within us a stranger whose existence we had never suspected. To live is to be slowly born.
What really fascinates me is this need that is so strong now that if you read a work of the imagination you instantly have to say, 'Oh, what this really is is so-and-so,' reducing it to a simple formula.
Man will become immeasurably stronger, wiser, and subtler; his body will become more harmonious, his movements more rhythmic, his voice more musical. The forms of life will become dynamically dramatic. The average human type will rise to the heights of an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx. And above these heights, new peaks will rise.
Our society strives to avoid any possibility of offending anyone - except God.
There has never been any evidence that the death penalty reduces capital crimes or that crimes increased when executions stopped. Tragic mistakes are prevalent...It is clear that there are overwhelming ethical, financial, and religious reasons to abolish the death penalty.
The common element in all the special forms of contemplation is the loving, yearning, affirming bent toward that happiness which is the same as God Himself, and which is the aim and purpose of all that happens in the world.
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