An Unforgettable Conversation | Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal

Essential reading for troubled times | Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal | Rob Riemen

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	• Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal Rob Riemen Yale University Press, 2008 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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All times are desperate and require much of us

Rob Riemen has composed a deeply satisfying work in which he calls on a selection of prescient "thinkers" of the past, going as far back as Socrates, to speak to the basic but pervasive conflicts that threaten civilization. His fluid and fluent referential prose bring these voices into a startling alignment with the present, and we realize that some things may be ever-present, namely good and evil, liberty and oppression, truth and the lie. The final chapter builds to an intensity of invocation at which point the author leaves us with the urgent plea to "be brave." It is a call to life.

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An Unforgettable Conversation

The Nobility of Spirit profoundly resonates with the 21st century reader the striking realization that the struggle to protect human dignity, and thus civilization, is a recurrent theme throughout history. While often the subject of Socrates, this battle waged on through the 20th century and is exemplified in the 9/11 attacks in America. So taking from Socratic thought, Riemen's extremely substantive essay seeks to tie the theme of Socratic bravery to the works of Thomas Mann, the example of Leone Ginzburg, and portray this struggle through a series of historical conversations. In doing so, Riemen brilliantly stages his premise of the 21st century applicability for need of intellectual integrity, or intellectual bravery in the Socratic sense, in protecting human dignity which is the freedom of individual aspiration towards the truth. Citing Thomas Mann's belief that this freedom is the absolute standard by which human dignity is measured, he believes that a democracy is the best social order to protect it, so long as it has an aristocracy, a nobility, not determined by birthright, but a nobility of spirit, willing to recognize and sustain this belief as an essential perogative. A nobility of intellectuals that possess the integrity to stand up and protect human dignity in its quest for the truth that is continually at odds with politicized minds, communism, fascism, nihilism, fundamentalist terrorism, and the betrayal of intellectuals, that attack western civilization and democracy. Rieman berates intellectuals who "legitimize what never should be legitimized" and who "subordinate the distinction between good and evil to the dogmas of their political ideology". Reimen believes that the lack of intellectual integrity and enormous betrayal of the nobility of spirit by the intellectual has its roots in their need for power, their bad faith which discredits human values, and the immense influence of the scientific paradigm. He calls for a renewed sense of morality which transcends politics and holds what is good and what is virtuous above all else as the standard bearer of human civilization. Hats off to Mr. Riemen for his absolutely timely and pertinent work. Absolutely brilliant. A priceless gift worthy of great attention.

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Essential reading for troubled times

This slim volume stands as the most stirring redoubt against the ascendant forces of know-nothingness that I've come across in a long time. A full-throated, unapologetic defense of the virtues of Western Civ - in which "elite" is not and never should be a dirty word - this inspiring exploration of high art and high ideals is divided into three sections: The first looks at the life of Riemen's great hero Thomas Mann as a model for the examined life. The second imagines a series of conversations from turning points in European intellectual history, populated with the likes of Socrates, Nietzsche and others. The final section, "Be Brave," is nothing less than an exhortation to dig deep, especially in times of risk. The notion of nobility of the spirit might strike some modern ears as quaint but it seems more desperately necessary than ever before, and there are worse ways to read the accessible Nobility of Spirit than as a crash refresher in the Great Thinkers, free of academic jargon and cant. As a meditation on what is at stake when the pursuit of high ideals is elbowed aside by the pursuit of fleeting material gain, however, Nobility of Spirit might well be the most prescient book I've yet read on what's at stake in the current election cycle and in the developing global situation. Agree or disagree with Riemen's profound, ambitious and high-minded plea, you will be thinking about his words for a long time.

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In the pages of this slim, powerful book Rob Riemen argues with passion that ?nobility of spirit? is the quintessence of a civilized world. It is, as Thomas Mann believed, the sole corrective for human history. Without nobility of spirit, culture vanishes. Yet in the early twenty-first century, a time when human dignity and freedom are imperiled, the concept of nobility of spirit is scarcely considered.

Riemen insists that if we hope to move beyond the war on terror and create a life-affirming culture, we must address timeless but neglected questions: What is a good society? Why art? Why culture? What is the responsibility of intellectuals? Why anti-Americanism? Why nihilism? Why the cult of death of fundamentalists? In a series of three essays, the author identifies nobility of spirit in the life and work of Baruch Spinoza and of Thomas Mann; explores the quest for the good society in our own time; and addresses the pursuit of truth and freedom that engaged figures as disparate as Socrates and Leone Ginzburg, a Jewish Italian intellectual murdered by Nazis.

?The forces now aligned against humanistic values are manifold,? observes George Steiner in the foreword to the book. In this imaginative and compelling volume, Riemen addresses these forces and speaks to every reader who believes in the power of classical ideas to restore Western civilization?s highest values.

(20080610)

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