This artificial mound was erected in Waterloo, Belgium, to commemorate the victory of European armies on Napoleon. The Lion's gaze and one of his paws are directed at France in a sign of defiance. It is called 'La Butte du Lion'
Napoleon's defeat was achieved in 24 hours in a fierce battle that is reenacted at the site in a Panorama of images and sounds.
Listening to the sounds of the battle I thought that it must have been very brave of these men to fight and die. Of course, most of them were forced to go to war but then some did it willingly, as in every battle. But as in every battle, all were expected to act heroically.
Heroism was the number one moral value in ancient societies but this moral value is replaced in our modern societies by 'The quest for the ordinary life', as argued by Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor in his book 'The sources of the Self: the making of the modern identity'. Taylor views 'ordinary life' as no less interesting than heroism on the battlefield when it is oriented toward the Good in us and others. However, it is characterised by the rejection of suffering. It is within this quest for the better in ourselves and others that the ordinary life becomes the good life.
The question that occupied my mind for quite a while after visiting 'La Butte du Lion' was: how are we to reconcile, in the West, our shifting moral values from heroism on the battlefield to the quest for the ordinary life ? I wasn't sure of the answer until my husband asked me the question differently: how come people are ready to suffer and die and sacrifice their life and renounce the 'ordinary life' and the pursuit of happiness?
I realised that we live today in a divided world. There are those who live the ordinary good life and those who die. As I am writing this post, I learn by Al-Jazeera that Israel had just invaded Lebanon. The move is designed to exhaust the Resistance. I hear from the leader of Israel terrible statements about the use of 'full force to turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years if the Israeli soldiers were not returned'.
But these threats won't do. The Resistance definitely belongs to the category of the people willing to die. It is not because they do not like life or they are not engaged in the pursuit of the good life, it is just that there could be no good life if you are daily threatened, and occupied. Without dignity, there could be no good life. Heroism is still a thing for those the West wants to keep humiliating through a neocolonial proxy like Israel.
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Since March 29th 2006
4 comments:
So let me get this: Hizbollah commits an act of war by invading Israeli territory, attacking, killing and capturing Israeli soldiers, and then when Israel reacts it's our fault?
Israel hasn't turned its focus to Lebanon. Hizbollah turned Israel's focus towards Lebanon.
I have read your blog for some time now and, knowing that you are an intelligent, feeling, Lebanese person (whom I like),I feel so very sorry that your country has been drawn into this horrible conflict. It is unfortunate that events have taken such an unfortunate turn, and I know how desperate one can feel sitting thousands of miles away while one's country is being mercilessly attacked.
I hope that the Lebanese people remain strong and have faith in G-d whilst Israel sets about bombing them into oblivion. Noone knows what the future holds for Lebanon now, let us hope that the international community is ready with plenty of relief aid in the coming months when it becomes time to pick up the pieces. Knowing what I know about Lebanon's complete inability to defend itself, I truly hope that Israel does not completely destroy your country, and instead stops well short of complete and utter annihilation.
Best of luck!
Accounts from the inside here :
http://lebanesebloggers.blogspot.com
- Wolfie
It’s a real tragedy of Shakespearian proportions
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, [no doubt a prophetic criticism of Druze war criminal W.K. Djumbalad]
Nor any unproportion’d thought his act. [that one is for Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah]
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; [a precept the senile bishop of Bkerké and his many officious March 14 speakers should meditate]
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, [100+ Lebanese civilian deaths in exchange for the life of 2 miserable Druzo-Pharisaic soldiers…well that’s a steep price to pay for the latest Hezbollahi-sponsored summer festival]
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy; [that one is for Koreytem’s goateed faux sheikh]
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station [unlike say effeminate East-Beirut bourgeois types, the aspiring Ayatollahs of Lebanonistan have shunned the decadent outfits produced by decrepit Parisian couture houses for the pristine (“Al-Taqiyy l’Naqiyy” as Imam Ali used to say) pashmina headscarves of Persepolis]
Are most select and generous in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. [in reference to the hidden costs for Lebanon’s sovereignty of the loans contracted by Mrs. Gaga and the other March 14 fools with greedy Wahhabi lenders]
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!
(Hamlet, Act I, Scene III)
Sheikh Anon Seqitûrr Ibn Muscat Al Shiraz Al Wineri
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