WDU Digniblog
Dear Friend!
This is the story of two operas that display the glory of honor and the destructiveness of honor – destructiveness to others, but also to oneself. La Donna del Lago starts with hailing the glory hunters can attain by killing wild beasts, and it continues with an unrelenting invocation of the glory that warriors can reap from crushing the enemy. In the operetta Die Fledermaus, we meet Prince Orlofsky, an aristocrat who is bored, not least since his raison-d’être, namely, to be a warrior who defends his royal master, is unfulfilled. He has accumulated riches and would need war to regain his true knightly identity. Being in limbo, he cynically takes to humiliating his fellow human beings by advertising ridiculous leisure activities as desirable tokens of higher class, and he uses humiliation among underlings as his entertainment. Soon after this opera was created, World War I started, with a sigh of relief among men of honor: finally, glorious action had found a new arena! The subsequent escalation toward the threat of global nuclear annihilation made unmistakably visible the suicidal character of this kind of male honor: it leads to the dance on the Titanic. You are invited to read more here.
Evelin, December 2015
Dear Friend!
This is a story of an opera and how it applies to the need to build a world worth living in, for our children and all beings, and the obstacles on the path to get there. Modern-day topics such as terrorism and gender relations are part of this quest. This text starts with a brief description of the opera, and then addresses its relevance for the transition toward a world that manifests the ideals of the French Revolution of liberté, égalité, and fraternité, a motto that is also at the core of modern-day human rights ideals: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood (and sisterhood).” You are invited to read more here.
Evelin, November 26, 2015
- Alban Berg's Lulu, and the Journey from Humiliation to Dignity, from the “Machine Principle” to the “Life Principle”
- The Journey of Humiliation and Dignity, and the Significance of the Year 1757
- Reflections on Tannhäuser, Terrorism, Revolution, and Economism
- Mass Shootings: A Missing Link, A Common Denominator
- Reflections on the 25th Dignity Conference in Rwanda in June 2015
- Good News: 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nomination!
