Word: martyrdom
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...object lesson in the negligible value it places on the lives of its own people. President Banisadr announced that he was prepared to allow the hostages in London to be killed rather than accept the demands of the terrorists. Said he: "We are ready to accept the martyrdom of our children in England, but we will not give in to blackmail...
...militants who had seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran declared with equal bravado: "We do not trade plotters, saboteurs and domestic mercenaries for the subversive misdeeds of hirelings outside our borders." Their advice to the Iranian hostages in London: "Do not fear martyrdom. Resist, and victory will be yours." Similarly, Foreign Minister Ghotbzadeh observed that "anyone who has died for Islam goes directly to heaven." After talking to the London gunmen by telephone, Ghotbzadeh rejected their ransom demand and threatened to have one of their imprisoned comrades executed for every member of the London embassy staff who was harmed...
Eliot presents the oft-dramatized story of Becket as a morality play, a lesson in the nature of martyrdom, and eschews all the possible theatrics in the tale. He manipulates a sparse collection of performers--Becket, three priests, four tempters, four knights, and a chorus of women--through a ritual that both plumbs the deep seas of Christian theology and plunders pagan mythology for parallels and a natural background. The mutable verse form, with irregular rhymes and cyclical repetition, can hypnotically enthrall you even if you don't quite catch Eliot's meaning...
...Eliot wrote lengthy parts for the chorus, to make it the passive, fearful substratum of the play, somewhere between mankind and nature. Its members understand even less than the audience what's happening to Becket, but they too participate in a small way in the miracle of Becket's martyrdom and learn something as the play progresses. You wouldn't know it from the actresses at Currier, who maintain the same unbearable level of high-pitched, uncomprehending moaning from start to finish--until the Te Deum they sing at the end, for which their voices suddenly turn saccharine...
...everybody, worsened Jimmy Carter's problem. Talleyrand, the 19th century French diplomat, cautioned against "too much zeal." But how to deal with a nation of zealots, who do not play by the rules of law, who do not or cannot keep their promises, who seem more inclined to martyrdom than to statecraft...