Intellectuals

Nels 2022-01-21 08:02:18

I watched a fragment of a movie, telling how the French writer Zola did not fear the conflict between justice and order in the Dreyfus incident, protested the unfair judgment of the military court, accused the trial of wrong cases, and performed justice. After Zola wrote "I Accuse" and the manifesto "Protest", a group of artists, writers and scholars who responded to it were later called "Dreyfusists", and they were the French concept of "intellectuals" origin of. Only then can I understand why the teacher recommended this movie about Zola.
I appreciate that intellectuals stem from the appreciation of their moral consciousness, truth-seeking nature, and social responsibility. Therefore, I agree with people's view that publicity and criticality are the attributes of intellectuals. Publicity means that intellectuals regard social and political issues as moral issues and hold a sense of obligation. They regard public interest incidents as personal responsibility to care about, while criticality is used as a means of execution to express their public interest. Sexual spiritual personality, this way of expression has universal significance for intellectuals. Therefore, some people often regard intellectuals as opponents who maintain dissent and have reverse thinking, especially the opposition of the regime. This kind of thinking is also easy to understand: in the public domain where there are still shortcomings in the pursuit of freedom, justice, and constitutional value, the shortcoming means the existence of shortcomings, including deceit and lies, and the government is the main manipulator of the public domain, intellectuals Asking questions out of the truth-seeking nature, naturally stood in a political confrontational position. Of course, in a society with a more complete free, democratic and legal system, I personally hope that the public spiritual personality can surpass the critical means of expression, but I have to admit that the critics must exist.
However, in an immature democratic society, the price that intellectuals pay for critical behavior becomes more frightening. The more immature a democratic society is, the more critical the power of intellectuals is needed. This contradiction has caused a change in the definition of intellectuals in today's society. Intellectuals are regarded as knowledge practitioners or senior brain workers. However, as far as the original nature of intellectuals is concerned, those who are limited to the generation of professional fields, dissemination and creation of knowledge, do not reflect the "publicity" that transcends professional fields, just as Zola, as a writer, intervened in the injustice of legal proceedings. From this perspective, the intellectuals defined by the masses nowadays, as the so-called professors say, they only have a career but no ambitions. Therefore, even those with high-level knowledge are not intellectuals of the national backbone. In other words, they lack the qualities and attributes of intellectuals.
It is against this background that intellectuals have gradually become marginalized. Some people who break away from the marginalized and move toward the center of society are accompanied by a shift in attention. Let’s not talk about the exquisite culture of Xiaotiandi, or the fun and enjoyment of worldly life. The problem is that materialism somewhat dissolves the social conscience of intellectuals. This shift and dissolution makes people less passionate about social issues. If you are enjoying materialism The era of doctrine has been slow to answer some of the spiritual propositions of this era, so this generation is negligent and sad.
——By Carol

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Extended Reading
  • Laurie 2022-04-22 07:01:49

    Watching it for Zola was like watching a foreign movie in the 1930s for the first time. After all, the background is in France, and the dialogue and newspapers and books are all in English, but it feels weird. Other than that, it's okay. I'm not very satisfied with the fact that I've been living in loneliness when I was young, became famous with "Nana", and had a friendship with Cézanne. In my opinion, a writer's biography is best to show more of his works and creations, of course, I am not saying that the Dreyfus case is not important in Zola's biography. The characters are very full, and Zola's transformation from inattentive at the beginning of the case to defending Dreyfus is very expressive. Faced with Mrs. Dreyfus' plea, Zola did not agree with righteous indignation, but hesitantly, because Dreyfus, who stood up and publicly defended the crime at that time with "iron-proof evidence", was a terrible thing and must give up. As a well-known writer, he has all the fame and honor, but he finally made the choice to fight for justice and wrote the "I accuse" that has been handed down through the ages. The courage and selflessness are vividly reflected, which is a greatness worth remembering for future generations. act of righteousness.

  • Gregorio 2022-04-23 07:04:07

    I saw it a long time ago, I forgot

The Life of Emile Zola quotes

  • Émile Zola: [reading from his letter "I Accuse"] I shall tell the truth. Because if I did not, my nights would be haunted by the spectre of an innocent man expiating under the most frightful torture a crime he never committed.

  • La Rue: We've been watching your writings, young man. You're a troublemaker! These articles of yours, attacking our leading men of letters, the arts! Criticizing the civic authorities!

    Émile Zola: Perhaps you know of something better for me to criticize?