Yasina

Amritas’s post about “octolingual Michel Thomas” reminded me of my paternal grandmother. She spoke five languages when she emigrated to the United States, none of them English. Her first language was Yiddish, often referred to as Mama Loshen by native speakers. (“Loshen” comes from Hebrew “lashon” – tongue, language. I presume you can guess what “mama” means.) She also spoke Ukrainian, the local language of the non-Jews; Hungarian, the official language of the area at the time; Hebrew, which she learned in Hebrew school; and German, the prestige language of Eastern Europe at the time.

She came from the town of Yasina (here called Jasinja), in what is now called Transcarpathia. This area was part of Hungary before World War I, when my grandmother lived there. After World War I it became part of Czechoslovakia, though it was neither Czech nor Slovak. After World War II it became part of the Ukraine. I found a remarkable interview on Teen Ink, by “Lindsay K.,” of a man from the same town. Though a generation younger than my grandmother, his description of Yasina corroborates hers.

We used to have to chop wood for the stove in the winter to heat the house. Most of the time we didn't have enough wood, so the only room with heat was the kitchen.

One of my grandmother’s stories told how in the winter, they would close down most of the house and live in the one heated room.

In the winter, it was very dangerous to walk at night. There were no lights, and there were wolves.

Another story told how in the winter, the wolves would come down from the mountains, into town.

The bulk of the interview tells the harrowing story of the interviewee during World War II. Transcarpathia was taken back by Hungary, though its Jews weren’t given Hungarian citizenship. Ironically, because Hungary was an ally of the Nazis, Hungary’s Jews were spared deportation to the concentration camps until fairly late in the war. As a result 25% of them survived, a relatively high proportion. My grandmother’s parents, and many brothers and sisters were not among the lucky. The interview gives me an idea of their probable end.

The morning after our lamp was taken, we heard screaming outside. When we went into the street, we saw German and Hungarian soldiers throwing Jews out of their homes and herding them with sticks. The Jews lived in the main part of town, and the peasants, who lived up in the mountains, came down. The soldiers herded us with the rest of the Jews. My mother was wearing a thin dress and wanted to go back to get her coat, but they made her leave without it. They beat her because she asked to get it.

They took us to the Jewish cemetery and shaved off the rabbis' beards. We were there for several days, guarded by the Hungarian townspeople who had been our neighbors and friends. There was a lot of screaming. They were going to kill us all with machine guns.

The interviewee, however, survived, and was able to tell his story:

We ran through the woods all night, hearing dogs barking and knowing that we were being chased. Eventually, tired and hungry and still in our striped uniforms, we heard the Russians at their front. We ran toward them with our hands up yelling, "Jew."

The Russians put us up against a wall to shoot us, but one officer who was Jewish stopped them. He told us not to say we were Jewish, because the Russians hated us.

We were on our way again, cold, frightened and starving. We came to a farm and hid in the hayloft. At another deserted house, I found a black coat, hat and cane with a silver handle for the rabbi. He looked like a real rabbi again.

I wanted to get as far away as possible. We came to a railroad crossing and saw the engine coming. I told the rabbi to jump on the engine and hold on tight. When the train came, I jumped on but the rabbi did not make it.

Although we were both very weak, at 19, I could make the jump. The train traveled about two kilometers, and when I realized he was not there, I jumped off and walked back. I found the old man sitting in the grass, crying like a baby.

I never left him until we made it to Czechoslovakia. He was reunited with his oldest son in a small town there. We parted and he gave me a blessing. The year was 1945.

Comment:

My favorite artist is Renior,how about you?

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John William Waterhouse paintings

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Mary Cassatt paintings

Maxfield Parrish paintings

Martin Johnson Heade paintings

Nancy O'Toole paintings

Philip Craig paintings

Paul McCormack paintings

Patrick Devonas paintings

Peder Mork Monsted paintings

Pierre Auguste Renoir paintings

Peder Severin Kroyer paintings

Pieter de Hooch paintings

Pietro Perugino paintings

Peter Paul Rubens paintings

Rudolf Ernst paintings

Robert Campin paintings

Rembrandt paintings

Raphael paintings

Salvador Dali paintings

Stephen Gjertson paintings

Sir Henry Raeburn paintings

Thomas Cole paintings

Theodore Robinson paintings

Titian paintings

Theodore Chasseriau paintings

Ted Seth Jacobs paintings

Vincent van Gogh paintings

Vittore Carpaccio paintings

Warren Kimble paintings

Wassily Kandinsky paintings

William Etty paintings

William Merritt Chase paintings

William Blake paintings

Winslow Homer paintings

William Bouguereau paintings

Posted by: handmade painting at May 26, 2008 06:18 AM Permalink

Evil

There are four kinds of evil in the world.

1. Corruption
2. Amorality
3. Evil for a good cause
4. Evil intent

All human institutions suffer to some extent from corruption, but for some of them, corruption is their primary purpose.

Most of the world’s regimes are corrupt.

The Roman Empire is an example of an amoral regime – it would do what was necessary to maintain its power – including genocide, but it did not pursue these methods when its power wasn’t threatened.

The Soviet Union is an example of pursing evil for a good cause. I consider this more immoral than amorality – both for the practical reason that it usually results in more evil than simple amorality (the “good” cause never goes away), but also because it confuses the thinking of good people, who find themselves unable to distinguish between the good and evil.

Nazi Germany is an example of Evil intent. The foundations of the regime – its declared purpose, its reason to be – was evil.

Comment:

Uh, David, how can you distinguish between 3 and 4? Have you read Mein Kampf, or even selected quotes from it? Hitler (ym"sh) thought he was doing the world a favor. And how could you say that communism is a "good" cause? Have you read any Marx? You didn't put quotes around the word "good," so are you implying that communism has some redeeming value in any way?! Communism, and it's (very) close cousin Nazism (National SOCIALIST German WORKER'S Party) are both intrinsically evil. There is not one redeeming feature of either (very similar) ideology.

Posted by: Scott at May 5, 2004 10:49 AM Permalink

Comment:

Just came across this by accident as I was wanting to compare amorality and evil-or at least find a discussion of such a comparison.

I must say, though, that I strongly disagree as equating amorality as an evil.

Some of the most important philosophical systems have promoted amorality as a developmental neccessity (philosphical Taoism, Nietzsche) and I would tend to agree. Amorality is not evil and saying that it is a gross distortion. Amorality is not immorality.

Posted by: Paul at January 18, 2005 05:13 PM Permalink

Comment:

My favorite artist is Renior,how about you?

Edward hopper paintings

Mary Cassatt paintings

gustav klimt paintings

oil painting reproduction

Oil Painting

handmade Oil Painting

mark rothko paintings

Old Master Oil Paintings

Nude Oil Paintings

dropship oil paintings

Mediterranean paintings

Oil Painting Gallery

Alfred Gockel paintings

Alexei Alexeivich Harlamoff paintings

Aubrey Beardsley paintings

Andrea del Sarto paintings

Alexandre Cabanel paintings

Anders Zorn paintings

Anne-Francois-Louis Janmot paintings

Allan R.Banks paintings

Andrea Mantegna paintings

Arthur Hughes paintings

Albert Bierstadt paintings

Andreas Achenbach paintings

Alphonse Maria Mucha paintings

Benjamin Williams Leader paintings

Bartolome Esteban Murillo paintings

Berthe Morisot paintings

Cheri Blum paintings

Camille Pissarro paintings

Carl Fredrik Aagard paintings

Caravaggio paintings

Claude Lorrain paintings

Claude Monet paintings

Charles Chaplin paintings

Diane Romanello paintings

Diego Rivera paintings

Don Li-Leger paintings

David Hardy paintings

Dirck Bouts paintings

Dante Gabriel Rossetti paintings

Daniel Ridgway Knight paintings

Edmund Blair Leighton paintings

Eugene de Blaas paintings

Eduard Manet paintings

Edwin Austin Abbey paintings

Edward Hopper paintings

Edgar Degas paintings

Emile Munier paintings

Edwin Lord Weeks paintings

Fabian Perez paintings

Francois Boucher paintings

Frank Dicksee paintings

Ford Madox Brown paintings

Federico Andreotti paintings

Fra Angelico paintings

Frederic Edwin Church paintings

Frederic Remington paintings

Francisco de Goya paintings

Filippino Lippi paintings

Francisco de Zurbaran paintings

Gustav Klimt paintings

Georgia O'Keeffe paintings

Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger paintings

Guillaume Seignac paintings

George Owen Wynne Apperley paintings

Gustave Courbet paintings

Guido Reni paintings

George Inness paintings

George Frederick Watts paintings

Guercino paintings

Howard Behrens paintings

Henri Fantin-Latour paintings

Horace Vernet paintings

Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky paintings

Il'ya Repin paintings

Igor V.Babailov paintings

Juarez Machado paintings

Joan Miro paintings

Jean-Honore Fragonard paintings

Jehan Georges Vibert paintings

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot paintings

James Childs paintings

John Singleton Copley paintings

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida paintings

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida paintings

Joseph Mallord William Turner paintings

Julien Dupre paintings

Julius LeBlanc Stewart paintings

Jeffrey T.Larson paintings

Jean-Paul Laurens paintings

Jules Breton paintings

Johannes Vermeer paintings

Jacques-Louis David paintings

John Everett Millais paintings

James Jacques Joseph Tissot paintings

Jules Joseph Lefebvre paintings

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres paintings

John William Godward paintings

John William Waterhouse paintings

John Singer Sargent paintings

Jean-Leon Gerome paintings

Lorenzo Lotto paintings

Louis Aston Knight paintings

Leon Bazile Perrault paintings

Leon-Augustin L'hermitte paintings

Lady Laura Teresa Alma-Tadema paintings

Louise Abbema paintings

Leonardo da Vinci paintings

Lord Frederick Leighton paintings

Mark Rothko paintings

Montague Dawson paintings

Mary Cassatt paintings

Maxfield Parrish paintings

Martin Johnson Heade paintings

Nancy O'Toole paintings

Philip Craig paintings

Paul McCormack paintings

Patrick Devonas paintings

Peder Mork Monsted paintings

Pierre Auguste Renoir paintings

Peder Severin Kroyer paintings

Pieter de Hooch paintings

Pietro Perugino paintings

Peter Paul Rubens paintings

Rudolf Ernst paintings

Robert Campin paintings

Rembrandt paintings

Raphael paintings

Salvador Dali paintings

Stephen Gjertson paintings

Sir Henry Raeburn paintings

Thomas Cole paintings

Theodore Robinson paintings

Titian paintings

Theodore Chasseriau paintings

Ted Seth Jacobs paintings

Vincent van Gogh paintings

Vittore Carpaccio paintings

Warren Kimble paintings

Wassily Kandinsky paintings

William Etty paintings

William Merritt Chase paintings

William Blake paintings

Winslow Homer paintings

William Bouguereau paintings

Posted by: handmade painting at May 26, 2008 06:27 AM Permalink

Vacation

I am taking three days vacation (starting today). See you Thursday!

Comment:

David,

A while ago, I wrote an essay on the Mona Lisa, published in the faculty bulletin of Brown University. I think you would enjoy reading it, and I'd love to hear what you think of it -- in your blog or otherwise:

www.engr.uconn.edu/~dqg/papers/mona_lisa.doc

Dina

Posted by: Dina at May 4, 2004 04:50 AM Permalink

Comment:

My favorite artist is Renior,how about you?

Edward hopper paintings

Mary Cassatt paintings

gustav klimt paintings

oil painting reproduction

Oil Painting

handmade Oil Painting

mark rothko paintings

Old Master Oil Paintings

Nude Oil Paintings

dropship oil paintings

Mediterranean paintings

Oil Painting Gallery

Alfred Gockel paintings

Alexei Alexeivich Harlamoff paintings

Aubrey Beardsley paintings

Andrea del Sarto paintings

Alexandre Cabanel paintings

Anders Zorn paintings

Anne-Francois-Louis Janmot paintings

Allan R.Banks paintings

Andrea Mantegna paintings

Arthur Hughes paintings

Albert Bierstadt paintings

Andreas Achenbach paintings

Alphonse Maria Mucha paintings

Benjamin Williams Leader paintings

Bartolome Esteban Murillo paintings

Berthe Morisot paintings

Cheri Blum paintings

Camille Pissarro paintings

Carl Fredrik Aagard paintings

Caravaggio paintings

Claude Lorrain paintings

Claude Monet paintings

Charles Chaplin paintings

Diane Romanello paintings

Diego Rivera paintings

Don Li-Leger paintings

David Hardy paintings

Dirck Bouts paintings

Dante Gabriel Rossetti paintings

Daniel Ridgway Knight paintings

Edmund Blair Leighton paintings

Eugene de Blaas paintings

Eduard Manet paintings

Edwin Austin Abbey paintings

Edward Hopper paintings

Edgar Degas paintings

Emile Munier paintings

Edwin Lord Weeks paintings

Fabian Perez paintings

Francois Boucher paintings

Frank Dicksee paintings

Ford Madox Brown paintings

Federico Andreotti paintings

Fra Angelico paintings

Frederic Edwin Church paintings

Frederic Remington paintings

Francisco de Goya paintings

Filippino Lippi paintings

Francisco de Zurbaran paintings

Gustav Klimt paintings

Georgia O'Keeffe paintings

Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger paintings

Guillaume Seignac paintings

George Owen Wynne Apperley paintings

Gustave Courbet paintings

Guido Reni paintings

George Inness paintings

George Frederick Watts paintings

Guercino paintings

Howard Behrens paintings

Henri Fantin-Latour paintings

Horace Vernet paintings

Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky paintings

Il'ya Repin paintings

Igor V.Babailov paintings

Juarez Machado paintings

Joan Miro paintings

Jean-Honore Fragonard paintings

Jehan Georges Vibert paintings

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot paintings

James Childs paintings

John Singleton Copley paintings

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida paintings

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida paintings

Joseph Mallord William Turner paintings

Julien Dupre paintings

Julius LeBlanc Stewart paintings

Jeffrey T.Larson paintings

Jean-Paul Laurens paintings

Jules Breton paintings

Johannes Vermeer paintings

Jacques-Louis David paintings

John Everett Millais paintings

James Jacques Joseph Tissot paintings

Jules Joseph Lefebvre paintings

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres paintings

John William Godward paintings

John William Waterhouse paintings

John Singer Sargent paintings

Jean-Leon Gerome paintings

Lorenzo Lotto paintings

Louis Aston Knight paintings

Leon Bazile Perrault paintings

Leon-Augustin L'hermitte paintings

Lady Laura Teresa Alma-Tadema paintings

Louise Abbema paintings

Leonardo da Vinci paintings

Lord Frederick Leighton paintings

Mark Rothko paintings

Montague Dawson paintings

Mary Cassatt paintings

Maxfield Parrish paintings

Martin Johnson Heade paintings

Nancy O'Toole paintings

Philip Craig paintings

Paul McCormack paintings

Patrick Devonas paintings

Peder Mork Monsted paintings

Pierre Auguste Renoir paintings

Peder Severin Kroyer paintings

Pieter de Hooch paintings

Pietro Perugino paintings

Peter Paul Rubens paintings

Rudolf Ernst paintings

Robert Campin paintings

Rembrandt paintings

Raphael paintings

Salvador Dali paintings

Stephen Gjertson paintings

Sir Henry Raeburn paintings

Thomas Cole paintings

Theodore Robinson paintings

Titian paintings

Theodore Chasseriau paintings

Ted Seth Jacobs paintings

Vincent van Gogh paintings

Vittore Carpaccio paintings

Warren Kimble paintings

Wassily Kandinsky paintings

William Etty paintings

William Merritt Chase paintings

William Blake paintings

Winslow Homer paintings

William Bouguereau paintings

Posted by: handmade painting at May 26, 2008 06:27 AM Permalink

Tribal and Individual

Amritas gives me his first in-context link. Needless to say, I am very gratified. He says:

David Boxenhorn made me see that humans are caught between being tribal animals and truly independent beings.

I started this blog because I wanted to communicate. Communicate what? Just communicate – humans are communicating beings, it is one of our defining characteristics. (This is one aspect of our tribal nature – individuals have no need to communicate.) However, if I were to pick one thing, it would be my worldview. I don’t have the time or inclination to sit down and write it out in one cohesive fell swoop – writing these short posts are enough of a challenge for me. But I’ve put a lot of time and effort into figuring out my worldview, and I hope that with the passage of time it will become clear.

I don’t know how Amritas meant his statement, but if I put on my western-culture hat for a moment, it sounds negative to me – it sounds like humans should strive to overcome their tribal past and be “independent beings.” To me, this is a lost cause – we can’t change our nature, and any attempt to deny it only makes us miserable.

Putting my own hat back on, it sounds different (perhaps this is what Amritas meant, too?) – humans are both tribal animals and independent beings. With the proper attitude, these two ideas are not contradictory.

This is deeper than it seems in translation. The Hebrew doesn’t use the word “only” in the second line; instead it uses two different words for “for myself”. The word it uses in the second line can also be translated as “by myself”.

The individual strengthens his individuality by strengthening the tribe, and the tribe strengthens its tribalness by strengthening the individual. This is no play on words, nor is it a ruse to fool people into supporting socialism – I most emphatically reject socialism as a dehumanizing idea. I also reject that stream of rational-individualist thought that denies our native tribal inclinations – that irrationally builds a system of values that is incompatible with human nature, and asks that we reject our nature in favor of “the truth”. I prefer what I might call a “neo-rational” solution, which satisfies both reason and human nature – my personal version of Occam’s razor – a truth that also makes us happy and psychologically healthy. According to this truth, being “caught between being tribal animals and truly independent beings” is not a curse, but a blessing. But more important, it is the truth that we must live with whether we admit it or not.

Comment:

My favorite artist is Renior,how about you?

Edward hopper paintings

Mary Cassatt paintings

gustav klimt paintings

oil painting reproduction

Oil Painting

handmade Oil Painting

mark rothko paintings

Old Master Oil Paintings

Nude Oil Paintings

dropship oil paintings

Mediterranean paintings

Oil Painting Gallery

Alfred Gockel paintings

Alexei Alexeivich Harlamoff paintings

Aubrey Beardsley paintings

Andrea del Sarto paintings

Alexandre Cabanel paintings

Anders Zorn paintings

Anne-Francois-Louis Janmot paintings

Allan R.Banks paintings

Andrea Mantegna paintings

Arthur Hughes paintings

Albert Bierstadt paintings

Andreas Achenbach paintings

Alphonse Maria Mucha paintings

Benjamin Williams Leader paintings

Bartolome Esteban Murillo paintings

Berthe Morisot paintings

Cheri Blum paintings

Camille Pissarro paintings

Carl Fredrik Aagard paintings

Caravaggio paintings

Claude Lorrain paintings

Claude Monet paintings

Charles Chaplin paintings

Diane Romanello paintings

Diego Rivera paintings

Don Li-Leger paintings

David Hardy paintings

Dirck Bouts paintings

Dante Gabriel Rossetti paintings

Daniel Ridgway Knight paintings

Edmund Blair Leighton paintings

Eugene de Blaas paintings

Eduard Manet paintings

Edwin Austin Abbey paintings

Edward Hopper paintings

Edgar Degas paintings

Emile Munier paintings

Edwin Lord Weeks paintings

Fabian Perez paintings

Francois Boucher paintings

Frank Dicksee paintings

Ford Madox Brown paintings

Federico Andreotti paintings

Fra Angelico paintings

Frederic Edwin Church paintings

Frederic Remington paintings

Francisco de Goya paintings

Filippino Lippi paintings

Francisco de Zurbaran paintings

Gustav Klimt paintings

Georgia O'Keeffe paintings

Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger paintings

Guillaume Seignac paintings

George Owen Wynne Apperley paintings

Gustave Courbet paintings

Guido Reni paintings

George Inness paintings

George Frederick Watts paintings

Guercino paintings

Howard Behrens paintings

Henri Fantin-Latour paintings

Horace Vernet paintings

Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky paintings

Il'ya Repin paintings

Igor V.Babailov paintings

Juarez Machado paintings

Joan Miro paintings

Jean-Honore Fragonard paintings

Jehan Georges Vibert paintings

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot paintings

James Childs paintings

John Singleton Copley paintings

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida paintings

Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida paintings

Joseph Mallord William Turner paintings

Julien Dupre paintings

Julius LeBlanc Stewart paintings

Jeffrey T.Larson paintings

Jean-Paul Laurens paintings

Jules Breton paintings

Johannes Vermeer paintings

Jacques-Louis David paintings

John Everett Millais paintings

James Jacques Joseph Tissot paintings

Jules Joseph Lefebvre paintings

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres paintings

John William Godward paintings

John William Waterhouse paintings

John Singer Sargent paintings

Jean-Leon Gerome paintings

Lorenzo Lotto paintings

Louis Aston Knight paintings

Leon Bazile Perrault paintings

Leon-Augustin L'hermitte paintings

Lady Laura Teresa Alma-Tadema paintings

Louise Abbema paintings

Leonardo da Vinci paintings

Lord Frederick Leighton paintings

Mark Rothko paintings

Montague Dawson paintings

Mary Cassatt paintings

Maxfield Parrish paintings

Martin Johnson Heade paintings

Nancy O'Toole paintings

Philip Craig paintings

Paul McCormack paintings

Patrick Devonas paintings

Peder Mork Monsted paintings

Pierre Auguste Renoir paintings

Peder Severin Kroyer paintings

Pieter de Hooch paintings

Pietro Perugino paintings

Peter Paul Rubens paintings

Rudolf Ernst paintings

Robert Campin paintings

Rembrandt paintings

Raphael paintings

Salvador Dali paintings

Stephen Gjertson paintings

Sir Henry Raeburn paintings

Thomas Cole paintings

Theodore Robinson paintings

Titian paintings

Theodore Chasseriau paintings

Ted Seth Jacobs paintings

Vincent van Gogh paintings

Vittore Carpaccio paintings

Warren Kimble paintings

Wassily Kandinsky paintings

William Etty paintings

William Merritt Chase paintings

William Blake paintings

Winslow Homer paintings

William Bouguereau paintings

Posted by: handmade painting at May 26, 2008 06:39 AM Permalink

Teleological Ideas

Scott writes:

Uh, David, how can you distinguish between 3 [Evil for a good cause – DB] and 4 [Evil intent – DB]? Have you read Mein Kampf, or even selected quotes from it? Hitler (ym"sh) thought he was doing the world a favor. And how could you say that communism is a "good" cause? Have you read any Marx? You didn't put quotes around the word "good," so are you implying that communism has some redeeming value in any way?! Communism, and it's (very) close cousin Nazism (National SOCIALIST German WORKER'S Party) are both intrinsically evil. There is not one redeeming feature of either (very similar) ideology.

My intent was not to compare Hitler and Marx, but to compare the movements they created, and especially the mindset of their followers. I know a lot of good people who were taken in by Marxist rhetoric precisely because they felt that people shouldn’t suffer poverty, and some people shouldn’t be richer than others. I cannot condemn these ideals as evil, and in a certain sense I share them myself. It becomes evil (and absurd) when you think that killing people is a legitimate method for achieving these goals.

Good people were taken in by communism because they couldn’t give up their teleological ideas (as Steven Den Beste would say) – it should be true therefore it must be true.