by Chocolate Covered Katie. A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic. (page 107 in the 1958 Crest paperback reprint). In conclusion, the saying was attributed to Joseph Stalin by 1947, but the evidentiary support for the linkage was not clear to QI. I can’t find it too terrible! But I hope when reading about the hundreds of thousands of families that have lost loved ones, of the millions of health care workers that are fighting to keep patients alive, of the tens of millions that are struggling to come up with next month’s rent — we can empathize, and perhaps act. (Verified with Google Books Preview of 2005 reprint), 1932, Lerne Lachen Ohne Zu Weinen (Learn To Laugh Without Crying) by Kurt Tucholsky, Section: Französischer Witz (French Wit), Start Page 147, Quote Page 148, Ernst Rowohlt Verlag, Berlin, Germany. Death is a natural process. Each moment, death is happening in us at the organ and cellular levels. To sate the lust of power; more horrid still, In October 1948 “The Atlantic” monthly magazine published an instance, but the words were not attributed to Stalin; instead, the speaker was characterized only as a “Frenchman”. The passage in Erich Maria Remarque’s novel The Black Obelisk (1957) goes: Porteus later became a Bishop in the Church of England. What is the best paraphrase of this passage? Hunderttausend Tote: das ist eine Statistik!” (Tucholsky, Gesamtausgabe, Band 7, Text 136, page 375). Seems like 4000 deaths in NY alone. Joseph Stalin is reputed to have said that the death of one person is a tragedy; the death of one million is a statistic. A person that we never knew or heard of before today, and yet his story resonated deeply with me. Columnist Lyons stated that the words were spoken during a meeting “of the highest ranking Commissars”. one death : tragedy :: a million deaths : statistic. In Act 3, Scene v, Of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Lady Capulet believes Juliet is grieving Tybalt's death. It being from Remarque would give it a different meaning – Remarque was famous for writing a lot about war and wartime death, specifically its meaninglessness. It’s strange, I think, all of us have seen so many dead in the war and we know that over two million of us fell uselessly—why, then, are we so excited about a single man, when we have practically forgotten the two million already? A few months ago, my wife shared a GoFundMe campaign for a young husband and father that passed away, survived by his wife and two kids. Thanks to commenters Mary and Tucker Lieberman for pointing to Erich Maria Remarque.). While anecdotal evidence is typically unscientific, in the last several decades the evaluation of anecdotes has … Erich Maria Remarque? Thanks to Alex Stroup who also pointed to “Monsieur Verdoux”. Dear Quote Investigator: There is a vivid statement that typifies a heartless attitude toward human mortality: A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic. Joseph Stalin? (ProQuest Historical Newspapers), 1939 September 9, Sheboygan Press, With the State Press, Quote Page 20, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Hitler's invasion of Poland … Jews have a firm belief in an afterlife. A line from the script written and spoken by Chaplin echoed the words Beilby Porteus: 7. There are several interesting precursors that illustrate the possible evolution of this expression, and additional selected citations are presented below in chronological order. But it doesn’t. Update history: On January 27, 2016 the entry was rewritten, and several citations were added including the ones dated 1759, 1916, and 1932. And so our brain reduces that large number of deaths to a statistic, thus numbing our ability to empathize. In the text above the large number of deaths was not simply dismissed as a “statistic”. Here was the original text together with an English translation: 4, Darauf sagt ein Diplomat vom Quai d’Orsay: „Der Krieg? One death is a tragedy. One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic. Perhaps future researchers will locate further relevant evidence. Our deaths, like our lives, have meaning according to God’s plan. On February 2, 2016 the date of the 1932 citation was updated to reflect an earlier 1925 publication date. a very sad event or situation, especially one involving death or suffering: The pilot averted a tragedy when he succeeded in preventing the plane from crashing. Because human life is far too valuable to be reduced to a statistic. If you kill a couple persons you are a gangster. In communication studies, science communication, psycholinguistics and choice theory, anecdotal value refers to the primarily social and political value of an anecdote or anecdotal evidence in promoting understanding of a social, cultural, or economic phenomenon. Remarque included an instance without attribution: 9. (Google Books Full View), 1916 May 1, The Blast, Volume 1, Number 12, Edited by Alexander Berkman, A Timely Thought, Quote Page 104, Column 2, (Page 6 in original publication), San Francisco, California. Millions a Hero. Then this happened, and so suddenly. Death Million Statistic. These words are often attributed to the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, but I have not found a precise citation for this harsh expression. That’s the history of many a big business. Death is inherently bad. Boldface has been added to excerpts: 2. Seeing as no one can realiably source it to the monster, I’d be in favour of Remarque having written it – he often commented this way, using irony and pointing out wrong ways of thinking like this. tragedy meaning: 1. a very sad event or situation, especially one involving death or suffering: 2. a play about…. Would you please explore this topic? Life Man Own. But probably the reason is that one dead man is death—and two million are only a statistic. In fact, a study found that compassion decreased even as the number of affected went from one to two. These words are often attributed to the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, but I have not found a precise citation for this harsh expression. "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic." In 1957 it was translated into English and published as “The Black Obelisk”. Welcome to my first blog! If I feel X pain for the death of one person that I don’t know, shouldn’t I feel 4000X pain for the death of 4000 people? The following excerpt did not contain the word “statistics”, but it did discuss tyranny and provocatively contrasted the ramifications of small and large casualty numbers. In fact, death began in us even before we were born. Life is meaningful; it’s meaning is completely unrelated to the fact that it eventually ends. I didn’t understand the true meaning of the word until I moved to a foreign country and discovered that not everyone has the freedoms we Americans take as a given. Stephen: Thanks for sharing that valuable information! Understanding this is important as it lets us get past this mindset — and stops it from inhibiting our desire to help. If millions die, that’s only statistics.”, Also in 1947 Charlie Chaplin played the role of Henri Verdoux in the movie “Monsieur Verdoux”. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, … Has everyone else? Jews view in death In Judaism, death is not a tragedy, even it occurs early in life and unfortunate circumstances. The satirist Kurt Tucholsky placed a similar remark into the mouth of a French diplomat in a piece that was available in German by 1925. Scourges as immense as fascism and war present the novelist with a knotty problem of ways and means. The immediate response is discussion of the tragedy because, of course, it is. Suffering is so intimately personal a thing that it must be explained through the personal equation, if at all. Quote Investigator: The earliest evidence known to QI linking this saying to Joseph Stalin was published in 1947 by the popular syndicated newspaper columnist Leonard Lyons in “The Washington Post”. The foulest stain and scandal of our nature He began to enumerate death figures … Stalin interrupted him to say: “If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. One Death is a Tragedy GDNet Lounge Community. Beilby Porteus? Life is inherently good. Perhaps it’s an uncomfortable truth, but one that should be confronted nonetheless. The nervous system can not handle a million tragedies but it should not turn us into zombies of meaningless hearts. This attribution may have been an echo of Tucholsky’s French diplomat: 8. There is double the pathos for us in the death of one little New York waif from hunger than there is in a million deaths from famine in China. (Verified on paper). Actually, death is closer to us than the statistics we read about it. If millions die, that’s only statistics.”. How to use tragedy in a sentence. But I am (and we are) not alone. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a "pain [that] awakens pleasure", for the audience. For some reason I reflected deeply on the topic. NAMES MEANING GENDER; Abdulbaith: Servant of resurrect or slave of one who raises death: Boy: Arabic,Urdu: Islam: Abiba: African - The first child born after death of grandmother; Abeaba and Abeabah are the variant spellings of Abiba In 1916 an anarchist publication based in California called “The Blast” printed a story that contrasted the feelings engendered by the personalized death of one individual versus the depersonalized death of many: 3. As noted previously in this article, in January 1947 the saying was attributed to Stalin in a syndicated column by Leonard Lyons: Stalin interrupted him to say: “If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. Give me a choice and I'll take A Midsummer Night's Dream over Hamlet every time. Vaclav Havel. A French diplomat is represented as saying, “Der Krieg? (Thanks to Stephen Goranson who located the key citations dated 1925 and January 30, 1947. (Verified with scans), 1958 September 28, New York Times, Unwritten Pages at the End of the Diary by Anne Fremantle, (Book review of Anne Frank: A Portrait in Courage by Ernst Schnabel), Quote Page BR3, New York. Ronald Bailey | 1.7.2009 1:32 PM. Mourning practices in Judaism are extensive, but they are not an expression of fear or distaste for death. There are always ‘high profile’ ones that make the front pages, such as that of Molly Russell, and, more recently, Caroline Flack. Simply put, the pain of one person, our brain can imagine. And Mother Teresa once said, "If I … The pain of one million, it cannot. I checked on a Russian search machine – several comments popped up attributing the quote not to Stalin, but to Erich Maria Remarque. Der Tod eines Menschen: das ist eine Katastrophe. The article did not contain a statement matching the quotation, but it did contain a thematically related comment attributed to Stalin that portrayed him as a callous autocrat indifferent to death although the reporter expressed uncertainty about the veracity of the tale: 5, Although the interview which the Shaw-Astor party had with Stalin was theoretically secret, the story is told in Moscow that hardly had his guests been shown into the room when Lady Astor exuberantly opened the conversation with this remark: “Mr. One death is a tragedy and a million is more than the psych can handle but doesn't make it any less meaning full. Tragedy (from the Greek: τραγῳδία, tragōidia) is a form of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. If you shoot one person you are a murderer. His work still goes on. Another says the quote is from the novel “Black obelisk” (I don’t know the English titles, so I am just translating what it said in Russian). QI does not know what source Lyons used to obtain the details of this noteworthy scene and quotation. Have I become an emotionless robot? That statement basically declares that a million deaths is not a tragedy, but a statistic. Der Tod eines Menschen: das ist eine Katastrophe. The truth is that if you can put a face to a tragedy, people will listen. Tragedy definition is - a disastrous event : calamity. I don’t think that death and meaning have anything to do with one another. When one person they know dies it matters and makes it personal. “A tragedy is a tragedy, and at the bottom, all tragedies are stupid. The verse was implicitly critical of this unjustified societal reframing. Death is not the end and it really depends on what you believe in this life on whether death is a tragedy or the beginning of something greater. I don’t write a lot, and this article is certainly not intended to provoke or advise. Usually, he wanted to highlight flaws in society and bad ways of thinking. To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime. Hunderttausend Tote: das ist eine Statistik!”, At which a diplomat from French Ministry of Foreign Affairs replies: “The war? Thanks to Fred Shapiro’s “The Yale Book of Quotations” which included the Chaplin citation and the 1958 citation. But probably the reason is that one dead man is death–and two million are only a statistic.” Any fool with steady hands and a working set of lungs can build up a house of cards and then blow it … One murder makes a villain, millions a hero. And in the midst of that tragedy I don’t think God wants us to praise him for the tragedy, but to learn to lean into him because he’s bigger than any tragedy and can work amazing good even out of a the most horrendous things. In 2018, there were 6,859 suicides in the UK. The tragedy is that we haven't really lived what we estimate to be full, long lives; for most, decline and death come way too soon. ‘Each death is a tragedy with devastating life changing effects on the families of the children killed.’ ‘Random accidents and everyday tragedies become just another ratings-boosting gimmick, filling airtime before the next disaster strikes.’ (Accessed on youtube.com on January 27, 2016), 1948 October, Atlantic, The Atlantic Bookshelf: Reader’s Choice by Charles J. Rolo, Quote Page 106, Atlantic Monthly Co. (Verified on paper), 1957, The Black Obelisk by Erich Maria Remarque, (Translated from German to English by Denver Lindley), Chapter 8, Quote Page 141, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York. One says the meaning of the quote is present in No news from the West. P.S. My friend read it somewhere when we were young (like, 10 years old, so he really just was repeating it; today he’d hardly quote things like that). Tucker Lieberman: Thanks for an interesting citation! (Französischer Witz was previously published by Vossische Zeitung in August 23, 1925 and September 10, 1925; under the titles: Französische Witze (I); and Noch einmal französische Witze (II)) (Scans and bibliographic note in Wikimedia Commons Archive), 1932 December 29, Christian Science Monitor, Revised Impressions of Russia by J. Roscoe Drummond, Quote Page 12, Boston, Massachusetts. The saying may draw on a writing of Kurt Tucholsky from 1925 (and in at least three later printings), Französischer Witz. The definition of statistic is basically a number or a measurement. tra‧ge‧dy /ˈtrædʒədi/ ●●○ noun (plural tragedies) 1 [ countable, uncountable] a very sad event, that shocks people because it involves death The tragedy happened as they were returning home from a night out. In whatever small way we can. The attribution to Stalin could be a meme, i.e., something that sprang up by itself. Reprinted in 2005 by AK Press, Oakland, California. Whether the deaths were viewed as statistical or heroic the shock of mass mortality was downplayed. Kurt Tucholsky? The quotation appeared in a book review column called “The Atlantic Bookshelf” which was written by Charles J. Rolo. Sorry, I did not have time to do a proper search on the Russian web pages, this is just a little something to work on with…. The way it's stated is basically like an analogy. If you are a crazy statesman and send millions to their deaths you are a hero.

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