A few more quotes I found pity from The Other by Ryszard Kapuściński. This was a fast read and worth every moment.
The Stranger, the Other in his Third World incarnation (and so the most numerous individual on our planet), is still treated as the object of research, but has not yet become our partner, jointly responsible for the fate of the planet on which we live.
(Bookshare edition, 64%)
This sounds petty to many of us, who are used to having access to leadership positions or to leaders and representatives. But we cannot claim to have achieved any kind of equality or equity, if the same groups of people are still calling the shots that were 50 years ago. That is only change for looks.
Jézef Tischner practised the philosophy of the Other with passion and perspicacity to the very end of his earthly journey. In his tireless promotion of its beliefs and principles — and this is true today in particular, in the times we live in — lie profound humanity and genuine heroism. And that is why, apart from strictly academic values, it is worth so much that it bravely and openly comes out in defence of another person, in defence of the Other, in a world that so often yields to the temptations of selfishness and greedy consumerism.
The great merit of this philosophy is that it talks about the individual person at all, about each single one as significant in himself, and that it keeps on reminding us of his existence and articulation. In all our postmodern commotion, in our confusion of languages, a strong, clear voice raising such qualities as identity, respect, noticing and esteeming another — the Other — is invaluable. But that is not the end of it; in developing and enriching the themes that appear in Emmanuel Lévinas’s philosophy, particularly in Totality and Infinity , Tischner says that the Self not only has to relate to the Other, but must assume responsibility for him and be prepared to bear the consequences of such a decision, such an attitude. Is there a Christian act of sacrifice in this? Yes — of sacrifice, renunciation and humility.
(Bookshare edition, 69%)
Let’s take this to heart.
Emmanuel Lévinas calls an encounter with the Other an ‘event’, or even a ‘fundamental event’; this is the most important test, the most far-reaching horizon of experience. As we know, Lévinas belonged to the group of dialogist philosophers that included Martin Buber, Ferdinand Ebner and Gabriel Marcel (later Józef Tischner joined their group too); they developed the idea of the Other — as a single, unique being — in more or less central opposition to two phenomena that appeared in the twentieth century. These were: the birth of mass society that erased the identity of the individual; and the rise of destructive totalitarian ideologies. These philosophers tried to protect the value they considered the greatest — the human individual: me, you, the Other, Others — from the effects of the masses and totalitarianism that eliminate all human identity (hence they disseminated the concept of the Other to underline the difference between one person and another, the difference of having irreplaceable, non-exchangeable features).
Where relations towards the Other and Others are concerned, these philosophers rejected the war route as leading to destruction, and criticised the attitude of indifference or isolation behind a wall, proclaiming instead the need — more than that, the ethical duty — to approach, to be open and friendly.
(Bookshare edition, 81%)
The real challenge of our times, the encounter with the new Other, the racially and culturally Other, also derives from a broader historical context. The second half of the twentieth century was a time when two-thirds of the world’s population were liberated from colonial dependency and became citizens of their own, at least nominally autonomous states. Gradually these people are starting to discover their own past, myths and roots, their own history, sense of identity and, of course, the pride resulting from it. They are starting to feel themselves masters and commanders of their own destiny, regarding with hatred any attempts to treat them purely as extras, as the background, as victims or passive objects of domination.
(Bookshare edition, 88%)
Years ago, my mother-in-law expressed outright worry after hearing yet another news report about the non-white population of the U.S. eventually outnumbering the white population (as if they were two homogenous masses) – them against us, I guess. I tartly (uncharitably) retorted she needed to start making new kinds of friends.
But I also meant it. We need to expand our horizons and learn to appreciate, welcome, be with, invite people we perceive as other and who see us that way as well.