Memory is the only afterlife I have ever believed in. But the forgetting inside us cannot be stopped. We are programmed to betray.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that memory serves as a form of immortality, yet it also acknowledges the inevitability of forgetting and betrayal in human nature.
Michael Ignatieff's quote reflects on the duality of memory and forgetfulness. On one hand, it champions memory as a kind of afterlife, where the echoes of our lives and legacies persist through the recollections of others. However, it also confronts the harsh reality that humans are prone to forgetfulness and betrayal, implying that these traits are ingrained in our nature. This interplay between remembering and forgetting speaks to the complexities of human relationships and the fragility of our connections to those we cherish.
In practice
In a eulogy to honor someone who passed away, reminding the audience of the memories shared.
Genocide is not just a murderous madness; it is, more deeply, a politics that promises a utopia beyond politics - one people, one land, one truth, the end of difference. Since genocide is a form of political utopia, it remains an enduring temptation in any multiethnic and multicultural society in crisis.
Commerce has changed the ethics of citizenship and the incentives for national service. America now buys private contractors - we used to call them mercenaries - to do the country's fighting.
Desert Storm created the pattern for the American way of war that eventually prevailed in Kosovo. America learned from Vietnam that unilateral use of force eventually forfeits international legitimacy and domestic support. Desert Storm demonstrated the political necessity of coalition warfare.
Communism may be over as an economic system, but as a model of state domination, it is very much alive in the People's Republic of China and in Putin's police state.
Trouble is, we call politics a game, but it isn't one. There is no referee, and the teams make up the rules as they go along. You can't cry foul or offside in politics. Almost anything goes.
Those with a gift for action, for their part, often express contempt for those whose gifts are more reflective. Men of action like to say, 'Those who can, do, those who can't, teach,' forgetting that those who teach get to write the history books.
Emotions are enmeshed in the neural networks of reason.
Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.
It is altogether unlawful to kill oneself... Wherefore suicide is contrary to the inclination of nature, and to charity whereby every man should love himself... Life is God's gift to man, and is subject to His power, Who kills and makes to live. Hence whoever takes his own life, sins against God... for it belongs to God alone to pronounce sentence of death and life.
When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy, the only decent thing to do is die at once.
If we seek something, that same thing is seeking us.
Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.
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