In Ethical Peace

"One may wonder whether one should not construe the ideal of truth itself- which no European can gainsay- already as subordinate to an ideal of peace that, older than that of knowledge, will but open itself to the call of truth; one may wonder whether knowledge itself and the politics governing history do not find their proper place in already responding to the requirement of peace and let themselves be guided by the requirement. But peace in this case will no longer be reducible to a simple confirmation of human identity in its substantiality, anchored in itself, in its identity of I. I will no longer be peace in conformity with the ideal of the unity of One which all alterity disturbs."

"Peace in relation to alterity, irreducible to a common genus in which, already contained in a logical community, it would be only a relative activity. Peace thus independent of all appurtenance to a system, irreducible to a totality and as if refractory to synthesis. The project of a peace different from the political peace discussed above. An ethical relation that would thus not be a simple deficiency or privation of the One reduced to the multiplicity of individuals in the extension of the genus! Here, on the contrary, in ethical peace, a relation to the inassimilable other the irreducible other, the unique other. Only the unique is irreducible and absolutely other!

But the uniqueness of the unique is the uniqueness of the beloved. The uniqueness of the unique signifies love. Hence peace as love."

-Emmanuel Levinas, Alterity and Transcendence

Safety First

"This is Stanley Baldwin who got in as Prime Minister and got out again ere long," said Miss Brodie. "Miss Mackay retains him on the wall because she believes the slogan, 'Safety First.' But Safety does not come first. Goodness, Truth, and Beauty come first."

-The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark

http://www.murielsparksociety.org/

My Fair North Star

Oh my fair north star

I have clung to you dearly

I have asked you to steer me

Til one cloud-scattered night

I got lost in my travels

I met Leo the Lion

Met a king, met a giant

With their errant knight

There's the wind and the rain

And the mercy of the fallen

Who say they have no claim to know what's right

There's the weak and the strong

And the beds that have no answers

And that's where I rest my head tonight

-Dar Williams, Mercy of the Fallen

http://www.darwilliams.com/

Shelter from the Storm

I was burned out from exhaustion buried in the hail

Poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail

Hunted like a crocodile ravaged in the corn

"Come in," she said, "I'll give you shelter from the storm."

-Bob Dylan, Shelter from the Storm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEhwvn5_wEM&feature=related

Very Narrow Bridge

Kol Hal'olam kul

Gesher Tsar me'od

Gesher Tsar me'od

Kol Hal'olam kul

Gesher Tsar me'od

Gesher Tsar me'od

Veha'ikar veha'ikar

Lo lefached

Lo lefached klal

The whole world

Is a very narrow bridge

A very narrow bridge

A very narrow bridge

The whole world

Is a very narrow bridge

A very narrow bridge

And the main thing to remember

Is not to be afraid

Not to be afraid at all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GusLcXuVOJI&feature=related

One of the Group

Perhaps everybody feels different. But I don't think so. Most people seem to do everything they can to be like everybody else. They wear similar clothes, or the clothes that people they admire say they should wear. They wear their hair in the same style, even when it doesn't suit them. They talk the same way, using the same intonations, as the chavs do, for example. They like, or pretend to like, the same music and the same movies and the same tv programs and so on.

Or no, that isn't quite true. It's truer to say that people try to be like the people who are in the groups they want to belong to. I think most people don't feel happy unless they belong to a group. Why is this? Because it makes them feel safe? Being one of the gang means you feel strong(er) and you feel protected from others who might attack you or misuse you or treat you in ways you're afraid of. Is that it? Is that all to do with fear and belonging to a group makes you feel safe?

Yes, I think it is.

I want to feel safe. But I don't want to belong to a gang or any kind of group. Is this bad or is this good? Or doesn't it matter? Sometimes I wish I did belong to some strong and interesting group. But whenever I've tried, I've failed. And this makes me feel miserable. The others in the group always know from the start that I'm not really like them (and that I don't want to be). And I've not felt comfortable, not really myself all the time I've tried to be 'one of the group'.

-This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn, Aidan Chambers

http://www.aidanchambers.co.uk/

Questions of Science

Questions of science, science and progress, do not speak as loud as my heart

-Coldplay, The Scientist

Natasha Bedingfield Cover:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsUK4mlv9m0