Nicolai A. Berdyaev, A "Radical Christian" in the Best Sense

I last quoted Nicolai back last March but you can't get hurt having a little more.

"Egoism, self-seeking, self-conceit, pride, the will to power, hatred of others, violence, all become virtues when transferred from personality to the nation as a whole...National self-conceit and pride is a lie, just as much as it is by the way ludicrous and stupid...[nationalism precipitates] men into a fictitious and illusory life."    -- from Slavery and Freedom


"The greatest temptation of human history is the temptation to exercise sovereignty and in it there is concealed a most powerful enslaving force...The whole disquieting and tangled problem of sovereignty is bound up with the fact that man has a natural disposition to dominate others. He is in search of his kingdom and he devotes his strength to the establishment of it, but his kingdom makes him a slave."    --from Slavery and Freedom


"Habitual, time-hardened slavery may not appear to be a form of violence, while a movement which is directed to the abolition of slavery may appear to be violence." from "Slavery and Freedom"

Nicolai A. Berdyaev

Tahrir Square Cairo, Getty Images, MacDiarmid

Egyptian Army Called In as Protests Rage

Oil Price Spikes Towards $100

                                               28 January 2011 Uprising in Egypt