Simone de Beauvoir Quotes
And without a doubt it is more comfortable to endure blind bondage than to work for one's liberation; the dead, too, are better suited to the earth than the living.
Beauvoir, Simone de. The Ethics of Ambiguity. Translated by Bernard Frechtman, Philosophical Library, 1948.
He was opposed to the existing Fijian constitution but could not muster enough political support to amend it. He therefore stated that he would ignore it. He was overthrown by a coup several weeks later. One provision that was particularly vexing to him was communal voting, which reserved almost two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives for persons registered on ethnic electoral rolls; this tended to polarize the nation and gave foundation to politicians with extreme views
The essential conundrum for the Southerners of the Early United States was their independence as individual states vis a vis the trust and dependence that would be required if they gave up much of their traditional authority to manage their own affairs. However, if they chose to maintain States’ rights and other States did as well, they not only lose the security and unity of a nation, but the other states were more economically powerful, better educated, with stronger infrastructures as well. The changing world politics, industrialization, and technology was making it more and more difficult for a Southern State to have it both ways. They could have a loose affiliation of states, maintain their own autonomy but would be saddled with war debt and a slave-dependent economy that was itself deteriorating. Or they would be in a strong union where they were the weaker economic and political forces and might be politically and culturally dominated by states like Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts which would force major social and economic reforms upon the South. The knot to which Lee referred was the mythical one so complex that non could untie it, but it could instantly be cut with a sword. Lee argued that the Southern states would have to accept the dominance of the other states (which was like political slavery) or just cut the knot and not ratify the Constitution. More negotiating and trying to untie the knot would be useless.
The slaves to which he is referring were the serfs of Slovakia who for hundreds of years had literally been the property of the Hungarian nobility. The problem however has been observed about any long-term slavery.
Southerners complained that abolitionists were advocating revolution. While most did not, some did advocate mass rebellion. The fact that Remond was himself a Black, created even more distress to the South.
Ernestine Louise Polowsky. Most abolitionists were not as concerned with female emancipation. Rose was one of the exceptions.
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory.
