THE OTHER IS ME The Other is me and Arthur Rimbaud’s “Je est un Autre” (letter to Paul Demeny, May 15, 1871) are sides of the same coin. Marguerite Yourcenar says: “I do not see the writer as more solitary than Others. Look at my house: there is a continual coming and going of people, as if the house were breathing. It is only in rare periods that I feel alone, and even then, not completely.” While some people, like Marguerite Yourcenar, think that “class does not count, culture counts very little”, Others do not tolerate difference and close themselves into their Universe. Our Society knows great uneasiness due to a forgotten element. The forgotten great value of TOLERANCE. Unfortunately, it is not yet universal because the capacity to tolerate is not innate in humans. Our ancestors were aware of this, so much so that they ceaselessly fought to acquire the foundations of a coexistence among humans, so different and yet united. Indeed, INTOLERANCE inevitably brings on exclusion of a man, a social class, a race, an ethnic group. But let us not allow ourselves to hide behind fatalism. Each of us can take away a stone from the wall of exclusion. Given that talking about this scourge is a way of recognizing its presence, we can find the remedies. In particular for the examples close to home, like homeless people we ignore out of habit, or from whom we look away in shame. Well: be shameful! But do not stay indifferent. Dare to look at the problem in order to find in our hearts the solutions. Do not turn away from the more distant examples, either, like the ethnic war which flows from incomprehension among peoples. Be honest with ourselves and get interested. Stop closing ourselves behind our PRIDE. As Gustave Flaubert says: “The height of PRIDE is to disdain oneself.” And indeed, indifference and pride push us to disdain OTHERS. We end by forgetting RESPECT. This respect is the foundation of TOLERANCE. We must know to respect each person’s IDEAS. Daniela Zini https://youtube/watch?v=fiore9Z5iUg
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 15:32:39 +0000
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