liviu librescu

Who should take action ~ who can take action? The common man believes that the government can act, and in his apathy, his laziness, his shirking of responsibility, he does not act in its stead. But there is no "government" - as individual, as force, as source of action - that can act, there is only the slow, emergent response of individuals. In the moment, when faced with crisis, no man can say how he will act. But if the response of individuals is to coalesce into a whole, then some individual must act. There are none who will come to our rescue, there is only us. To he who, when faced with the maelstrom, did act, when all around could only cower paralyzed in the hope that others would act, we owe not just respect, but also gratitude. It is from such exemplars that we can learn what real freedom is. It is from such exemplars that we can learn how to live.