Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor
Liberian politician who was the 22nd President of Liberia, serving from 1997 until his resignation in 2003. He was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment in 2012 for committing crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War and the Second Liberian Civil War.
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth28 January 1948
CityArthington, Liberia
commitment who-i-am knowing
To know who I am is a species of knowing where I stand. My identity is defined by the commitments and identifications which provide the frame or horizon within which I can try to determine from case to case what is good, or valuable, or what ought to be done, or what I endorse or oppose. In other words, it is the horizon within which I am capable of taking a stand.
running should-have principles
What should have died along with communism is the belief that modern societies can be run on a single principle, whether that of planning under the general will or that of free-market allocations.
country luxury facts
Little countries do not have this luxury of defending themselves. We have to do it before the fact, not after the fact
unique voice demand
[E]ach of our voices has something unique to say. Not only should I not mold my life to the demands of external conformity; I can't even find the model by which to live outside myself. I can only find it within.
loss ifs
There is a widespread sense of loss here, if not always of God, then at least of meaning.
giving missing way
There is a certain way of being human that is my way. I am called upon to live my life in this way, and not in imitation of anyone else's life. But this notion gives a new importance to being true to myself. If I am not, I miss the point of my life; I miss what being human is for me.
expression understanding identity
We become full human agents, capable of understanding ourselves, and hence of defining our identity, through our acquisition of rich human languages of expression.
struggle long parent
We define our identity always in dialogue with, sometimes in struggle against, the things our significant others want to see in us. Even after we outgrow some of these others—our parents, for instance—and they disappear from our lives, the conversation with them continues within us as long as we live.
issues
There are other issues about how I got here.
arrival departure dependent leaving office
So my leaving from office is not dependent on the arrival or the departure of the Americans,