All posts by diana Stone

About diana Stone

Diana Stone is a performing composer and musician playing Piano Violin & Guitar. She currently plays with Orchard and The Sonic Boomers. Previously with Rock/Roots band Elephant Shelf and also the Delta Ladies who mixed roots acoustic music and electronica until the death of Vicky Martin who formed the band which was active for 17 years. Diana composes in a variety of styles from pop to rock to Jazz and and classical music. Diana is also expert in multi-media recording and music production.

Totalitarianism in the age of Trump: lessons from Hannah Arendt

Musings

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/01/totalitarianism-in-age-donald-trump-lessons-from-hannah-arendt-protests?CMP=fb_gu

On BBC radio and downloadable as a podcast.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. She developed many of her ideas in response to the rise of totalitarianism in the C20th, partly informed by her own experience as a Jew in Nazi Germany before her escape to France and then America. She wanted to understand how politics had taken such a disastrous turn and, drawing on ideas of Greek philosophers as well as her peers, what might be done to create a better political life. Often unsettling, she wrote of ‘the banality of evil’ when covering the trial of Eichmann, one of the organisers of the Holocaust.

Link  http://bbc.in/2ji9V1L

 

WHY MARK 27 JANUARY HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY?

Musings

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January each year. It’s a time for everyone to pause to remember the millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. On HMD we can honour the survivors of these regimes and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our lives today. 27 January marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

HMD is a time when we seek to learn the lessons of the past and to recognise that genocide does not just take place on its own, it’s a steady process which can begin if discrimination, racism and hatred are not checked and prevented. We’re fortunate here in the UK; we are not at risk of genocide. However, discrimination has not ended, nor has the use of the language of hatred or exclusion. There is still much to do to create a safer future and HMD is an opportunity to start this process.

The aims of HMD are laid out in the statement of commitment. HMD activity organisers bring together the diverse strands of their communities to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day in their neighbourhoods. This is a real demonstration of how the lessons of the past can inform our lives today and ensure that everyone works together to create a safer, better future.