Time for Outrage: Indignez-vous!

Written by Stephane Hessel

Narrated by Bob Walter

This controversial, impassioned call-to-arms for a return to the ideals that fueled the French Resistance has sold millions of copies worldwide since its publication in France in October 2010. Rejecting the dictatorship of world financial markets and defending the social values of modern democracy, 93-old Stéphane Hessel -- Resistance leader, concentration camp survivor, and former UN speechwriter -- reminds us that life and liberty must still be fought for, and urges us to reclaim those essential rights we have permitted our governments to erode since the end of World War II.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Sep 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9781611137224

Reviews for Time for Outrage

[xirxe · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Empört Euch! ist ein 15seitiger Aufruf gegen die Gleichgültigkeit, die in weiten Teilen unserer Gesellschaft grassiert. Der Autor, der sich zeit seines 93jährigen Lebens empört hat und auch Widerstand leistete, vermisst dies heute und fordert mit seiner kurzen Streitschrift seine MitbürgerInnen auf, sich auch heute zu entrüsten und einzusetzen ("Wenn man sich über etwas empört,..., wird man aktiv, stark und engagiert."). Er räumt ein, dass es in den jetzigen Zeiten schwieriger ist klar Stellung zu beziehen als im III. Reich, wo der Gegner offensichtlich war. Die politischen und wirtschaftlichen Verhältnisse sind komplexer, nicht jede scheinbar eindeutige Situation stellt sich als derart unstrittig heraus wie man es sich wünsche würde. Dennoch gibt es noch immer genügend Gelegenheiten die die Möglichkeit der Empörung bieten, wie Stéphane Hessel aufführt.
Ich habe mir wohl etwas zuviel von der Lektüre versprochen, denn Empörung allein bringt einen nicht automatisch weiter. Vielmehr erhoffte ich mir Impulse, wie ich und andere diese Empörung konstruktiv einsetzen könnten, sodass nicht nach der ersten Welle der Entrüstung gleich alles wieder verebbt. Wie könnte man die Aufregung nachhaltig kanalisieren? In Bahnen leiten um tatsächliche Veränderungen zu erreichen, ohne dass man gleich seinen Beruf und sein ganzes restliches Leben aufgeben muss? Fragen, die unmittelbar nach der Empörung kommen und noch immer nicht geklärt sind.

[widsith_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Stéphane Hessel lived for nearly a century and almost everything he achieved in that time was extraordinary. He fought in the French Resistance; he was captured by the Nazis, sent to Buchenwald, waterboarded; he was in the room as they drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Not the least of his achievements was Indignez-vous!.

Who would have believed that a 30-page political pamphlet written by a nonagenarian diplomat would be translated into 15 languages, and spark protest movements across the world? This was the essay that was poking out of the pockets of students in Tunis and Basra, and it was one of the direct influences on the Occupy movement in the US.

He was amazed by its success, but it came at the right time. Unlike many more important political thinkers, Hessel wrote essays rather than tomes; and instead of post-modern jargon his sentences have the simplicity of experience: he lived through it all and had nothing to prove. Even those who disagreed most strongly with him granted him that much.

For a man in his nineties he is refreshingly un-mellow. He is pissed-off about the state of the world, and his point is that you should be too. It may have been more clear-cut to face the Nazis than to face modern politcal elites, but that doesn't mean there are fewer things to be outraged over today. Hessel touches on three areas which particularly exercise his fury – the growing gap between rich and poor, the treatment of immigrants, and the fate of the Palestinians – but the main thing is that you find something that annoys you, and focus on it. That is how changes are made. La pire des attitudes est l'indifference: the worst attitude is indifference.

Hessel was an optimist, not a doom-monger. The necessity of hope is part of the point of Indignez-vous! and one of its most appealing features – and god knows it's good to see that this stance is not just the preserve of the young. Admittedly, some people have taken Hessel's message in some odd directions, but for him the specific targets were secondary to the fact of provoking a reaction. Idealism and political naïveté might be irritating, but they are infinitely preferable to not caring at all.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Het is zonder meer bewonderenswaardig dat een 93-jarige nog het heilige vuur van de verontwaardiging bezit en daaruit kracht put om de jongere generaties tot actie aan te manen. Hessel doet dat in dit pamfletje van goed 20 bladzijde. Het lijstje van zijn focuspunten is wat warrig en - met alle respect - nogal modieus, maar het de terechtwijzing ("kijk om je heen en kom uit je zetel") komt in elk geval over. Zoals trouwens blijkt uit de indignados-beweging die intussen in vele landen is opgekomen.

[bibliovermis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very short book—more of a pamphlet. Stéphane Hessel has lived an extraordinary life, and in this text he calls for the young people of today to stand up for the rights and freedoms he fought and was tortured for as part of the WWII French Resistance and codified as a member of the UN Human Rights Commission, who drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

While interesting, and yes, inspiring indignation, the main effect of this book was to make me want to read Hessel's memoirs, as he seems to have done EVERYTHING. What a treasure this man is.

[nfo_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

i like this book because it shows us whats going wrong ...
i dislike the book because there is nothing new, no solution for any problem..