Pierce reviewed Empört Euch! by Stéphane Hessel
Review of 'Empört Euch!' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A short but no less powerful plea for engagement, indignation, and resistance. Admittedly, many reasons to be indignant and thus initiate change are not as obvious today as they were in Stéphane Hessel’s time in the Résistance - as he points out - but this does not mean that there are no reasons, or that this can be used as an excuse to not be indignant. The strengthening of the right, especially in Europe and the US, and the effects of climate change are now much more prominent than they may have been a few years ago. What particularly infuriates me is how blatantly human rights are being mistreated. The fact that many countries, especially when it comes to the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community and self-determination, resist human rights with excuses like »we’ve always done it this way« and »if you allow these rights, society will collapse« is simply …
A short but no less powerful plea for engagement, indignation, and resistance. Admittedly, many reasons to be indignant and thus initiate change are not as obvious today as they were in Stéphane Hessel’s time in the Résistance - as he points out - but this does not mean that there are no reasons, or that this can be used as an excuse to not be indignant. The strengthening of the right, especially in Europe and the US, and the effects of climate change are now much more prominent than they may have been a few years ago. What particularly infuriates me is how blatantly human rights are being mistreated. The fact that many countries, especially when it comes to the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community and self-determination, resist human rights with excuses like »we’ve always done it this way« and »if you allow these rights, society will collapse« is simply inhumane and untrue.
The book often reminded me of a quote by Hannah Arendt, especially when Hessel talks about change.
Evil is always only extreme, but never radical, it has no depth, no demonism. It can devastate the whole world precisely because it continues to grow like a fungus on the surface. But deep and radical is always only the good.
»Indignez-vous !« by a Résistance fighter, concentration camp survivor, and co-author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, urges us to be indignant, and rightfully so. A must-read for basically everyone!