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Quote by David R. Cerbone

“The relation to the other is not epistemological, but ethical, and the whole attempt to accomodate or account for the other within the confines of my experience already constitutes a breach of this fundamental ethical relation. The other is precisely that which cannot be the object of my experience in the sense of being completely manifest within it, and so cannot be construed as a phenomenon at all.”

Quote by David R. Cerbone

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David R. Cerbone

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“In the human, lo and behold, the possible apparition of an ontological absurdity. The concern for the other breaches concern for self. This is what I call holiness. Our humanity consists in being able to recognize this priority of the other . . . . It is here in this priority of the other man over me that, before my admiration for creation, well before my search for the first cause of the universe, God comes to mind.”

GodHolinessThe Other
Author:Emmanuel Levinas
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“Because history always teaches us that there will always be another demonized minority group who will become “the other” tomorrow. Our human race seems tragically doomed to keep finding scapegoat minorities on whom the majority can vent its fears and frustrations. This demonization creates an inevitable cycle of bloodshed and revenge. But as the means of violence and weapons of destruction become increasingly terrifying, we must find our common humanity before we annihilate ourselves into collective oblivion. Because there is no “Us versus Them” in our increasingly shrinking global village. There is only “Us.” As my friend Leon told me that day in Aspen: “This is not a clash of civilizations … because every civilization contains the clash within itself.”

The OtherUs Verses Them
Book:Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies and Threatens Our Freedoms
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“Of one man in especial, beyond any one else, the citizens of a republic should beware, and that is of the man who appeals to them to support him on the ground that he is hostile to other citizens of the republic, that he will secure for those who elect him, in one shape or another, profit at the expense of other citizens of the republic… It makes no difference whether he appeals to class hatred or class interest, to religious or antireligious prejudice. The man who makes such an appeal should always be presumed to make it for the sake of furthering his own interest. The very last thing an intelligent and self-respecting member of a democratic community should do is to reward any public man because that public man says that he will get the private citizen something to which this private citizen is not entitled, or will gratify some emotion or animosity which this private citizen ought not to possess… If a public man tries to get your vote by saying that he will do something wrong in your interest, you can be absolutely certain that if ever it becomes worth his while he will do something wrong against your interest.”

CommunityRepublicHostileCitizenThe OtherBeware
Book:The Duties of American Citizenship
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“There is but one peacemaker: the Prince of Peace. He is a revolutionary: His teachings run counter to the prevailing assertion that the “other” must change. He quietly asks me to see myself as I am: messy, fallen, sinful. He gently invites me to change. Then He enables me to become, in Him, what I cannot become in and of myself. As He changes me, I experience His peace. As he changes me, I begin to understand that the “other” is my brother. As He changes me, I desire to love and serve my brother. These changes He enables in me transform me from trouble-maker to peace-maker. It is through the Prince of Peace – and through Him only – that I experience peace and become a peaceful man.”

PeaceJesus ChristRevolutionaryFallenMessyPeacemakerTroublemakerSinfulThe Other
Author:Jean-Michel Hansen
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“What the poet tells us is that, after the ordeals and adventures, after the revelation and the loss, the king must do two things: preserve the splendor of his city and tell his own story. Both tasks are complementary: both speak of the intimate connection between building a city of walls and building a story of words, and both require, in order to be accomplished, the existence of the other.”

StoriesCitiesStorytellingStoryCityOtherThe OtherEpic Of Gilgamesh
Book:La cité des mots: CBC Massey Lectures
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“When destiny leads one to the frontier of his being, it makes him personally conscious that he stands before the decision either to fall back upon that which he already is or else to transcend himself. Every person is at that point led to the frontier of his being. He perceives the Other over beyond himself, and it appears to him as a possibility and awakens in him the anxiety of the potential. He sees in the mirror of the other his own limitedness, and he recoils; for at the same time this limitedness was his security, and now it is threatened. The anxiety of the potential draws him back into his bounded reality and its momentary calm. But the situation into which he will return is no longer the same. His experience of the potential and his failure toward it leaves a thorn behind, which cannot be eliminated, which can only be driven out of the consciousness by suppression. And where that occurs, there arises that spiritual phenomenon which we call fanaticism. The original meaning of the word is "divinely inspired" - that is, born out of a distraught spiritual structure and thereby destructively fulfilled. That can appear in smaller, greater or enormous measure, in persons and in groups.”

FanaticismThe Other
Book:The Future of Religions
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