Word: wiesel
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Simon S. Kuznets 1971 Economics Kenneth J. Arrow 1972 Economics Wassily W. Leontif 1973 Economics William N. Lipscomb 1976 Chemistry John H. Van Vleck 1977 Physics Sheldon L. Glashow 1979 Physics Steven Weinberg 1979 Physics Baruj Benacerraf 1980 Medicine, Physiology Walter Gilbert 1980 Chemistry David Hubel 1981 Medicine Torsten Wiesel 1981 Medicine Nicolaas Bloembergen 1981 Physics Carlo Rubbia 1984 Physics Bernard Lown 1985 Peace Dudley Herschbach 1986 Chemistry Norman F. Ramsey 1989 Physics Joseph E. Murray 1990 Medicine Elias J. Corey 1990 Chemistry
...Wiesel's moral authority that brought together Vaclav Havel and Nelson Mandela; Jimmy Carter and Francois Mitterrand; the authors Gunter Grass and Nadine Gordimer; Chai Ling and Li Lu, leaders of the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square -- an astonishing collection of Nobel prizewinners, professors, rectors, saints. A man could not make his way through the SAS Scandinavia Hotel in Oslo without ricocheting off one paragon or another. Such saturations of virtue and celebrity gave me a jolt of anxiety: this is a perfect target for a bomb. But the choice of Oslo was canny. Norway has its immunities...
Hate is difficult to discuss. The mind resists it. The subject is amorphous, disorderly, malignant. Presiding over the Oslo conference, Elie Wiesel controlled a red light on the podium that he used to warn a speaker when his time was up (even Carter got red-lighted). It was as if hatred is intellectually and morally such a dangerous, unmanageable mess, such a monster, that Wiesel, the kindest of men, had to police the dialogue like an anxious warden. He said he had nightmares about the red light...
What is hate? A "black sun," as Wiesel wrote? The image may give hate too much of a strange literary prestige. Black sun. White whale. Whatever. The reason the subject is hard to discuss is that hate is simultaneously a mystery and a moron. It seems either too profound to understand or too shallow and stupid to bear much analysis -- a cretin with a club, violent, repulsive, irrational, a black intoxication, an accomplice of death...
...Elie Wiesel assembled an astonishing collection of political, intellectual and moral leaders in Oslo to talk about hate. The subject remains an ugly mystery...