Rory Stewart on T. E. Lawrence
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 พ.ย. 2024
- On Monday 7 June 2021, 6:00 - 7:00PM BST, Rory Stewart joined us to discuss how the life and writings of T.E. Lawrence have inspired him during his career.
Rory Stewart is a Senior Fellow at the Jackson Institute, Yale University. He focuses on contemporary politics in crisis and on international development and intervention in fragile and conflict-affected states.
Rory was the UK Secretary of State for International Development where he doubled the U.K.’s investment in international climate and environment. Prior to that, he served in a variety of roles including Minister of the environment, Minister of State responsible for development policy in the Middle East and Asia and UK policy in Africa, as Minister of State for Justice, and as Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee. Earlier in his career, he served briefly as an infantry officer and then as a diplomat for the UK government in Indonesia, the Balkans and Iraq. He founded and ran the Turquoise Mountain Foundation in Afghanistan and was the Director of the Carr Centre and the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has also written four books: The Places in Between, Occupational Hazards or The Prince of the Marshes, Can Intervention Work?, and The Marches.
Britain needs a leader like Rory Stewart a brave and clever fellow.
Unfortunately we wound up with Boris. Oh dear.
@@thenefyncat6970 Truss now.. dearie, dearie me..
Like Starmer he hardly looks like a leader of men - would be better off as a Stan Laurel impersonator ! .
@@yorkiegilly4355 Looks can be deceiving - Don’t judge a book by its cover !
Rory was my MP, while he was a member of Theresa May's cabinet, trying to find the best way to implement Brexit. I exchanged many emails with him, trying to persuade him that it was a thankless task in that May's solution would please no-one: Remainers would lose the ability to influence EU laws, and the UK would become a rule-taker; while Leavers would still be bound by EU laws and regulations. But the NI situation and the Good Friday Agreement prevented a "hard" Brexit if the integrity of the UK was to be preserved and we were to avoid a border down the Irish Sea, which everyone agreed (at the time) was completely unthinkable. So I maintained that there would be no solution, and Rory was backing the wrong horse.
Rory's responses were all friendly and timely, but always stated that although he disagreed with the referendum result he would honour it, and would work to achieve the best Brexit he could. Finally, May found that her solution was not acceptable to anyone except the DUP, and resigned. Rory recognised that Johnson was unfit to become Tory Leader and Prime Minister, and refused to accept any position in his government should he win the leadership position. As a result he lost his seat and his political career. But before he left I made a point of meeting him, shaking him by the hand, and thanking him for his principled response to the Brexit referendum, and for taking his stand against Johnson. I called him "friend", and saw the surprise on his face when I did so: After our email argument about Brexit over the previous couple of years, that was the last thing he expected.
Rory Stewart was the only Tory MP I would have voted for. Possibly that I will ever vote for. Although I detest the Tories, he will always be, for me, the leader we should have had.
We really need intelligent and truthful men like Rory to help this damaged old country out !!
The best explanation of Lawrence I've ever heard or read.
Rory Stewart is very thoughtful, we need his intelligence in Britain.
A truly lovely soul. Rory Stewart is no failure. He is a hero.
I could listen to this man all day, every day. Such a tragedy that he has left British politics.
He didn't so much leave as was kicked out by that charlatan, Johnson.
I know him personally and you're right. His father was equally interesting and would spend much longer talking with you.
Rory is a very busy man, but his dad was writing, painting, planning and designing well into his 90s.
My politics are way different from them, but great respect for genuine human beings.
I was a member of the conservative party when we had the voting for the next leader and Rory was one of the candidates alongside Boris and co.... My vote was going to Rory, but allowed myself to be convinced by others in the membership that Rory had no charisma and that Boris was the one to unite the party. I regret my decision to today( even though i appreciate that Rory probably would have struggled as leader).
@@spike6643 I was at his side when that happened - I'd done the groundwork he capitalised in Afghanistan. During that time, I'd demonstrated a similar mild miracle, and that brought the eye of evil upon us. We all went, Johnny Mercer, David Davis, Rory, Andrew Mitchell, anyone with probity, bottom, competence. Dana's chum, if you see him.
Yes and yes,
Lawrence's advice to agree, support, and persuade: I saw that in action once, 20 years ago. I was an engineer, presenting my proposed design for factory integration to my senior French customer in Paris, with my boss along to provide the "equal" seniority during our discussions. Very early in our meeting, the customer rejected my design outright, and started drawing an outline on a whiteboard of what he wanted the design to be. With the customer's back turned to us, we had a short exchange of sign language between me and my boss as to how to tell the customer not to be such an idiot. :o) My response would have been to be very critical of the customer's half-baked ideas. But my boss signed to me to leave it to him, so I sat back...
After the customer had sketched his design out, my boss took the line of "I see where you're coming from..." but asked the customer to expand on a couple of areas which lacked detail. The customer turned back to the board and added some detail, but now he had had a chance to think more deeply, and his additions made more sense. Then my boss pointed out a small correction where the new detail conflicted with the original sketch. The customer agreed, went back and revised it. Over the next half an hour, my boss continued in this vein, with the sketched outline becoming increasingly detailed and increasingly sensible. By the end of the meeting, our customer had on his board exactly what I had proposed in my report, but he now believed that it was his idea and that he had proven our design (MY design) wrong. We left with the knowledge that the agreed design was exactly what we wanted, and with a very happy and self-satisfied customer.
It was an object lesson in diplomacy which I have never forgotten.
I am almost lost for words by the brilliance of this man. His penetrating analysis of Lawrence has such a ring of authenticity that
it seems his own life experiences parallel certain aspects of Lawrence’s conflicts.
An outstanding video which demands a second viewing.
Indeed, though there's a danger of Rory who describes himself as "too idealistic" now, perhaps putting himself too much into Lawrence's motivations, one of Rory's themes is public service.
Listening now I wonder if TEL was punishing himself later, we can probably agree that HMG & Sheikhs pursued their own interests, TEL was a conduit of financial power. Money had historically been an effective tool of the Empire, fighting leaves scars on those involved so he may have had a survivors guilt as well as having a sense of misleading Arabs by being dumped .. too idealistic lolol
Rory's suggestion of going to the ranks for honour and duty, that seems a bit feeble to me, I suspect the withdrawal from prominence may be from an imposter syndrome, he lived out a dream but it was incompatible with the reality of Empire which wanted compensations for the sacrifice of WW1
Rory Stewart is an amazing intelligent man.. He would have made a fabulous PM ..
I wholeheartedly agree with you....x
Possibly a deep thinker who would pontificate too much when quick political decisions were needed.
@@robert3987 He has a history as a soldier and diplomat. I am sure he has needed to think far quicker than most people.
If you are intelligent you can think fast, those two things are literally synonymous. He clearly can deal with stress so I have absolutely no idea why you think his ability to think well when there isnt a time restriction would indicate that he cant think fast when need be.
Totally agree with you. Tremendous loss and that is both telling and a benchmark to gauge the current crop of politicians.
Why „would have“?
This is not yet fully clear once the ERG plague has to leave.
I think Rory's revealing description of Lawrence would have touched a nerve in each of us. As if he were describing a particular facet of our own personally and revealing certain aspirations we carried in our youth.
Interestingly, in this age of celebrity culture, those same attributes that Lawrence rejected have become standard issue and actively promoted in convincing the most ordinary of people that they are in fact exceptional.
You've gotta love Rory ❤️
If he had become Prime Minister I would have voted for a Conservative MP for the first time in my life.
An intelligent a man of dignity. We need him now more than ever to stabilise government
Oh[ yes let's aLbandon the false] wokery that colours our opinions now.
Rory is happier being a commentator. He is not slippery enough to be a politician but he could contribute to political life by developing ideas to improve Britain. Ideas about nationhood, family, getting the right balance been public and private systems to produce goods and services. Ideas and principles about individual responsibility, our duty towards others etc etc. I think this is where his heart is.
Enjoy this so much Lawrence of Arabia was always such a fascinating figure and Rory Stewart is definitely another fascinating figure
To think we could have had this man as our PM instead of Johnson. Gravitas and integrity - Boris couldn't spell the words.
No. We couldn't.
PM is leader of the party with most MPs in Parliament. Leader is chosen by one or other combination of sitting MPs and constituency members. He was never going to be selected by his fellow MPs to be one of the options offered to the Conservative Party members.
Indeed, he only got to be an MP because of a freakish and short-lived experiment to select candidates from open hustings. The Conservative members of the constituency did not select him as Conservative candidate. The non-Conservatives who attended the hustings selected him as the Conservative candidate and outvoted the Conservative members. Non-Conservatives went on to vote for him to be the constituency MP.
Fascinating insight by a brilliant scholar and intellect.Thank you. Years ago Lawrence recognised the fundamental problem of foreign intervention. A lesson that, still to this day, has not been acknowledged or learnt.
Thank you Rory for opening a a world of real heroes$
Rory Stewart is an astonishingly talented individual. His use of the English language is exquisite - I particularly enjoyed his observation that T. E. Lawrence ‘had a great genius for friendship’. Beautifully expressed. I think Rory is very hard on himself - ‘failure’ is not a word I would associate with him or with his distinguished career to date. I was also struck by the wise advice of T. E. Lawrence on working with Arabs, which remains just as relevant today. Thank you Jesus College Alumni for producing this talk.
I find it almost impossible to find things that can hold my attention. This was a very rare success watched and listened to without interruption or rewind. Thanks for sharing.
Ditto. I am reading The Seven Pillars of Wisdom and needed some objective commentary to put it in context. Rory Stewart's analysis is respectful of the myth without being in thrall to it.
Doesn't it break your heart how we can only see his brilliance after we've rejected him.
Same here... since build up to heart attack in 2020. I can focus on manual stuff like digging my daughter's garden or relatively heavy-duty DiY. But I seem to have a 12-minute focus on most reading and viewing stuff with weight. I had a lot of core fitness which helped survive and recover physically but something has flipped on my ability to focus. Not least, I do need to keep moving, standing, moving slowly around an art gallery, sitting sees my heart rate drop which probably relates to blood flow in the brain and ability to focus
@@cuebjinteresting. PTSD? I see a correlation since cancer diagnosis a few years ago.
It is indeed rare and refreshing to listen to an intellect which does not waste words...much meat on the bone. Bravo Mr Stewart.
Here in late 2023, I would love to have heard Rory's view of Arab independence in light of the current Hama/Israel situation.
I am glad Rory lost his bid to become leader of the conservative and PM. Rory is a brilliant speaker, an academic and I believe he is a vey decent man who has integrity. Politics at the lrevel of PM would have ruined him. We benefit more from him as an academic and researcher than we ever would from him if he had stayed in politics. There are very few if any ministers or secretaries in recent government cabinets who can match him for intellect or integrity.
...and I lost a £5 bet.
The question remains will he be given the opportunity to try again?.... Doubtful , as we are going to witness the hard right survive the pummelling that the Conservative party will undoubtedly receive at the ballot box in Autumn? 2024.
The problem is that we badly need people like RS in political life. Once upon a time, there were more intelligent, serious-minded, erudite and cultured men like him across the political divide. Sadly, the calibre of British politicians has been on a very steep decline over the last 30 plus years.
@@goodwill8750 I agree👍👍
Ideally, he, and other honest politicians would have up to ten years in Parliament to learn the ropes of constituency MP and as minister before leaving for 5 to ten years to reflect. Then back with wisdom and experience and knowledge of working with departments, civil service, constituents, local authorities that overlap their constituency, etc. He has written about how the current system inevitably selects people who are utterly ignorant of how to be MPs or ministers
A very interesting talk,thank you all. I am Hossin from Iran
David Lean's film on Lawrence remains a favourite and led me to research his life.
There is an undoubted symmetry between Rory and T.E's experiences and outlook. I hope the former is allowed to substantially influence the moral fibre of our nation in the years ahead.
First, we must clear the dross. I laid the agreements Rory benefited from, in passing, we were friends. We cannot work from the feudal heritage of entitlement, where second-rate aristocrats claim the virtues of heritage while not having it in them.
fabulous.
one on the best people in the UK
A couple of things Rory - His time as a soldier and airman was more nuanced than you suggest. He owned a series of the most powerful and expensive motorcyclesmoney could buy - The Brough Superior - which he rode on visits to the great and famous throughout his time at Bovington - Churchill, Shaw, Thomas Hardy et al - I think for example that he stayed stayed at Chartwell where Chaplin was a fellow house guest and at Batemans with Kipling . He didn't live on the base but had his own house - Clouds Hill - nearby. This house was equipped with the best Music reproduction equipment of the day. Today's equivalent would be a super hifi worth tens of thousands. Whilst it didn't have an indoor WC it did boast a complex central heating system and a designer bathroom - so really quite a luxurious hermitage despite its relatively modest size. He had a complex attitude to sexuality to put it mildly. He wrote one of the most interesting books of the 1920's - The Mint - which in its unexpurgated version was as daring and taboo-breaking as D.H Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" . He published super expensive editions of "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" . His work with the airforce was connected with the development of both the very advanced motor torpedo boat and the development of the supermarine spitfire in its earlier incarnation as a racing seaplane in the Schneider Trophy series. He most certainly didn't spend years just folding blankets in some army hut. In many ways he was a man far ahead of his time in terms of exploring modern identity linked to technology and sexuality and conflicted loyalties. All of this makes him more interesting and more complicated - indeed an enigma. It was the betrayal of the arab cause in the Sykes Picot agreement that caused him to recoil from politics but his "retreat" from public life was much more theatrical and self-dramatising in the deepest sense than you suggest.
Interesting comments. Thanks. Of course his motorcycles were bought for him by Mrs George Bernard Shaw which is why his several Broughs were named George 1, 2, 3 etc
He paid for some.
Agh! The Sykes-Picot treaty. Interestingly, a Christopher Sykes always seemed very dismissive of Lawrence; there were plenty of voices trying to pull him down...
Good talk! As an American, I would like to think that one of our politicians could appear so erudite and persuasive. Of course, I can't.
Rory's thesis stacks up well for me. TEL has always been an inspiration. My neighbour and friend Amedeo Guillet was an Italian version, though there are big differences!
Love this fella. A genuinely superb orator, and we need him back in politics sharpish. That said, Polstead Rd in Oxford took some bullets half way through; harsh, I think it's a damn pretty little road
Tremendous insight. Thank you so much for this. I have studied and been inspired by Lawrence my whole adult life, and there are so many new insights in this piece.
and incidentally Rory - don't abandon politics - cross the floor, change parties, stand as an independent - do whatever it takes but your country really does need you and people like you. We have enough pallid academics on the fringes of things - In the destructive element immerse ....
Politics is a filthy trade especially now. Far better for Roy's mental health to teach the next generations.
He would just be a backbencher with little influence. Unless appointed to a joint subcommittee or similar cross-party project with powers to do something
Thankyou Mr Stewart
A true polymath of extraordinary brilliance, as evidenced by this and other podcasts (focused more on current politics). Too bad he currently is out of British political life. He would make a great Prime Minister for a country facing great challenges. (Thus opines an American cousin.)
Don't forget female archeologist/adventurer Gertrude Margaret Bell who mapped important areas in Jordan before World War I
She was there selling ass
Classy, your mum must be proud
Pretty much ignores Lawrence and Bell's intelligence background.
@@jonathanphillips5514 Bell was very brave, working alone providing intelligence reports in a time when women were still openly sold in public markets!
Thankyou Rory, and all of the team, for an excellent video presentation.
In the words of the great man Winston . Rory....K. B.O.
Rory you are a very wonderful brain and spirit. We need you surrounded by others like you, then, back to politics, PLEASE!!!
I was a fan. I’m now a huge fan.
Back in 1980s, I was a tutor in a 16-week experiential cross-culture training programme. It was based in east London Borough of Newham, then the most multiple-deprivation borough in England & Wales.
Candidates came from all over Europe (in one session, one family from USA) and were expecting to work in a country different from their home nation, usually western Europe to two-thirds world but also moving within Europe. Candidates stayed in homes of mostly Indian subcontinent families. A huge amount of what undergirds this talk is what we covered in our course. We aimed to train people to be learners, to ask polite questions, to assume 'It's not wrong, it's different'. We had workshops on culture related to leadership styles, words & meanings, collective decision making, and we taught basic phonetics and how to learn a language without going to language school (LAMP). Shame Lawrence couldn't find such a centre to work in after WW1.
Ironically, British Empire was at its most arrogant at that point just before One Fine Day in 1923, when it reached its peak and started to decline. In earlier decades, BE was, at core, mostly based on trade with some mutual benefit between British interests and some elites or traders of the local people. By end of WW1, BE had become a thing in itself, to be maintained, even expanded, even if no particular trading benefit. While district officers were often first class people (think Pawsey at Kohima), the people imposed as governors began to be people with no roots in learning local cultures, languages, customs.
A second flaw through the whole empire myth was its Graeco-Roman take on Christianity (as was much of the Christianity in UK). Tom Holland, Dominion, picks up on this. It was Christian in name only. It was power from top down. It was not about incarnational service (even if individual district officers might have worked as if it was). It became extractive rather than honest trading. It looked to some sort of manifest destiny resembling Hebrews moving into the promised land and slaughtering or enslaving the existing populations. Other ethno-religio-linguistic groups who became regional powers rarely, if ever, had the basis for an ethics that rendered how BE worked as being totally out of order. International law is a very recent idea going back to mid 20th century. Before then, nations who felt strong enough simply muscled in and took whatever they wanted from whomsoever they could take it. There was not much sense of right and wrong about building a regional control and then a larger empire beyond something like 'don't chop down the orchards to build siege engines'.
Mr Stewart speaks I think from his own experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan before political service.
I'm a big admirer of RS and his deeply intelligent approach gives me hope that we can do better.
A wonderful heartfelt sense of the real. x
A really illuminating talk.
Brilliant talk, brilliant mind!
I simply love this man and admire him a lot.
Great Rory! Congratulations
When I worked at the Bovington Camp at the end of the road wheich Clouds Hill starts.I was very conscious everyday that Lawrence died on that road.Its a long, straight road nearer the Tank Base and I rode my motorbike down it everyday but his Matchless was a beast and mine a smaller one.
Lawrence was an enigma before his time and deeply understood the duality of life in a Colonial Era Britain.
Rory Stewart thesedays is rather enigmatic himself,on the face of it an intellectual humanist travel writer but a minister in a far right wing Conservative Government,I know the former is what I prefer and admire.
Brough Superior. Pretty brave to ride it every day ✔️
Excellent presentation. Again, Rory delivers.
A fascinating talk by an impressive intellect.
Most brilliant analysis of T.E. Lawrence's motivations.
My only regret is that Rory does not bring the subject of T.E.'s double illegitimacy (he was the illegitimate child of a baronet and his mother was also of illegitimate birth).
I can't imagine that this would not have an influence on T.E.'s sense of belonging to the staid & less than forgiving British society of his youth.
Was I the only one that saw a seam of self revelation in this ?
I've always been fascinated by Rory Stewart. I would give my right arm if I could have his intellect! His analysis of T. E. Lawrence is the best I've heard yet. Lawrence sadly falls into the category of little boys with vivid imaginations emulating the attributes of his boyhood hero's and when things don't workout in the end just crawls into that whole never to show his face again. It's a case of naive, gullible primitive Arabs getting caught up in his vision, being then led down the garden path with both them and him unawares of the fact that Britain was never in the business of parceling out borders in order to accomodate tribal groups but all along only interested in the natural resources and British Colonial interests. Sadly the hopeful and wonderstruck aspirations of an impressionable young Army Officer no matter how well intentioned were seen only as a nuisance as plans were already in full swing to tap into the liquid gold that lay beneath the ground.
Im sorry i missed this conversation. I would like to ask Mr Stuart if TE Lawrences book with regards to the Arab mentality is still valid in todays society.
please run Rory. we need you
As a Kiwi/Aussie, I do not fully understand the British class system. I guess that is why my forebears left the old country. Being ruled by those considered better because of the circumstances of their birth, is something I cannot fathom.
What was the line about Lawrence at his funeral - or when they discovered he's died - This is only a fragment: he was a man like no other
Such an interesting guy and British politics' loss. He reminds me a bit of Churchill and his years in the wilderness 1920s and 30s. I hope Rory is able to make his way back too.
P.s I hope Rory has time to view the film
'I Know Where I'm Going'
Eloquent. Fluid. Golden thread. Nice work.
Something that speaks volumes to me about T E Lawrence is that as a boy he slept in a box.
He was never really a part of his parent's culture, he would always be an imposter, someone who's always going to be an outsider.
A masterclass.
I don't understand how Eton College can on the one hand produce people like Rory Stewart and on the other people like Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and David Cameron.
As a professional in architectural conservation and having worked as such in the Middle East, I would like RS to give a lecture on the projects and work of Turquoise Mountain in Afghanistan particularly the cultural, aesthetic and technical approaches to architectural conservation in Kabul (e.g. restoration vs minimal conservation of original fabric)
This is a very interesting and important subject.
(I am not an alumni of Jesus College)
Lawrence needed some time as an unknown to make sense of his own abilities. The life of deep remorse of being or failing the ambitions of the Arab independence is significant
I heard Rory's comments about the success of T.E. Lawrence's translation of the Odyssey - not being critically / academically acclaimed? That to me this was its success, still beautifully detailed and yet in a more approachable and maybe more modern style. I learned long ago you need two books to read one book. The book itself and then a dictionary - in this case J.E. Zimmerman's Dictionary of Classical Mythology....
Nowadays, one can use Internet on a smartphone to accompany serious reading of a book; lighter to carry than a dictionary.
Superb stuff. What a loss to the Tories.
from the point of view of ongoing generations of woe in the middle east that have resulted from the destruction of the Ottoman empire , TE Lawrence's heroism feels so awfully wasted , in service ultimately to the liberation only of Oil
I know motorcycles aren’t really discussed here but for anyone who hasn’t ridden one of them or travelled any distance on one you can’t fully understand the effect they can have on the mind. They can provide complete peace of mind and exhilaration almost at the same time. The concentration needed can lead to an almost meditative state.
Wonderful erudite talk, thank you. Do you think that Lawrence's realisation that he had been an instrument of betrayal of the Arabs by the British is what destroyed his vision for himself as a hero figure?
Bloody Richard Aldington... my best friend at school wrote a magnificent 'Baldingtonization' of me once. We used to skip off from school to read up on Lawrence at the Imperial War reading room 😊
I’ll vote for you
I was at a T.E. Lawrence exhibit at Magdalene College's old library (August 2023), which notes his presence at & as an alumnus of that college? Did he therefore study at two Oxford colleges -- Jesus and Magdalene?.... Oh yes at 15.04 min, R. Stewart did note Lawrence "moved from Jesus to Magdalene" (perhaps for a graduate degree)
It's to be noted that the English archaeology community, typified by Reginald Bagnold, carried his inspiration into the Long Range Desert Group, who pioneered the desert skills the SAS learned from.
good work
@Rory Stewart, Sounds like Birch Bay Semiahmoo area. Is this recorded at the Visitor’s Center Museum? Cheers.
Excellent 👍
Rory could never lead any current political party. He's far too decent a human being. Fascinating lecture.
And Mr Stewart if you need support and help in you future political ambitions let me know
Rory recently commented he was 50/50 about returning to politics.
I would very much I like see him back in harness, but I worry that his own side would not welcome a man of integrity and honour amongst a gang culture within the House, where such traits are today are sorely lacking and seen as a sign of weakness.
So is that a Lummi whale behind you? I think that in 1985, there was a Lummi Rhodes Scholar. Our trees are not strange--just tall, but you can share the sense of awe that James Cook must have felt while exploring the area. Oh dear, and here I thought Lawrence was a great translator of Classical Greek and student of architecture. How wrong I was.
This was a superb presentation, but what is studiously missing is any reference to his personal life. Did Lawrence have intimate relationships with men, women and if so how did this shape his life and view of himself? He did have close friendships with other men, were these exclusively platonic, or sexual?
In his book "T.E. Lawrence" (pp 276-280), Desmond Stewart argues that Lawrence was a homosexual masochist who was aroused by being birched. My opinion of Lawrence's book "The Mint" is that it is memorable for its repressed homoeroticism. But whether that is relevant to Lawrence's career is perhaps debatable.
@@bikerpaul68 thank you for your insights! Are you a historian? An interest in this complex man?
@@juliancoulden1753 No, I'm not a historian, just a retired psychiatrist and gay sado-masochist. That's probably why I find Lawrence fascinating, although I would claim to understand only certain aspects of his personality.
@@bikerpaul68 ahaha a personal and professional interest!,
wonderful
Churchill's man was Sir Ernest Gower. Boris' search for the equivalent, the "geeks and weirdos", forgot the hammer of the desert, the privation which disposes of the dross. We do nothing to create this level of excellence, but instead drag it down so everyone is somebody, and no-one's anybody.
and, Jesus, we got Nadine Dorries...
An erudite man talking about a fascinating man. Two things: 1) what a loss Rory is to politics and 2) imagine that we could spend an hour watching him and Stephen Fry in conversation.
Arabist Anthony Nutting's bio is still one of the Best.
His prose is enough to put him in Parnasus. The petty events of his busy life, less important.
Cant imagine why, this place was him denied. Was it?
Roy shalom, thank you very much for this absolutely fantastic sharing. sincerely. david
I have to think that Lawrence would (probably without stating it outright) have been contemptuous of certain aspects of "the Bloomsbury set". Such things as a couple of its members getting "conscientious objector" status during WWI because they had money or connections to those that did.
Exceptional
You've explained it well, but I've never read in any of the books about Lawrence any suggestion that he was "flaky" so that came as a surprise. But you failed to mention that he twice changed his name to keep as far away from the limelight as possible after the War..and the name Lawrence.
Sadly Rory was also damaged in a Public School, called Eaton. Just like Cameron and Johnson.
My interpretation of Lawrence is the opposite. I feel he was very humble and unassuming, Probably assuming a more Muslim philosophy about living, and not wishing to be the hero you suggest. Refusing a knighthood and then joining the RAF under an assumed name does not suggest a man who seeks glory - unlike our politicians these days - mostly in it for recognition. Remember, in those days, the media was not like it is now. I had you down for being a similar character as Lawrence. So why after a very successful, albeit relatively short lived career in politics, do you think you have failed? Your book "Politics on the Edge" tells me you are an honourable man. Of which you should be proud. Your achievements are great. Of which you should be proud. You are still fit and healthy, of which you should be grateful, and with your expertise and experience you can still to go on and do great thinks. But instead of blowing up bridges, why not just keep on at trying to save lives. Especially in Gaza. As Bear Grylls would say... NEVER GIVE UP!
Furthermore, a man who took time to understand the Arab language, and the local dialects doused not speak to me of a man with an ego. Reading about heroes does not suggest you wish to be a hero. I have read many books from Alexander The Great to David Stirling, founder of the SAS. It did not make me want to be a hero. My wife and doggie love me. That will do for me🥰
10:34 That's a photograph of General Lord Rawlinson (1864-1925), not his father Sir Henry (1810-1895) to whom Stewart refers, & his attendant commentary mixes up 2 men erroneously into one.
I think the error when dealing with TE Lawrence is mistaking the accidental for planning. If one drew one of those graphs we're so fond today of his life's trajectory pre-war where would he be in 1925. I suggest he would be low to mid level civil servant, lecturer in one of the empires universities or a monastery. That he was temperamentally in tune to the extent he was able to guide the Arabian nomads would suggest a path within the post war empire would be sticky indeed.
13:39 which young man in that photo of lawrence brothers is t. e. lawrence? the eldest?
15:36 two blokes in blazers … which one is lawrence?
I’ve always found something quasi-imperialistic about Rory’s love for t.e Lawrence… all about the well-educated, white British man who travels to the third world to provide them with guidance
Well - yes. Lawrence was the right man at the right time. Individual, perverse and rebellious enough to grasp the nettle and act outside of 'orders' (or certainly without 'permission') and well educated enough to understand the arabs at the time.
No shit
@@farzanamughal5933 :( be nice bro
Perhaps Lawrence didn’t feel personally judged by the Arabs, felt comfortable in the company of Arab men, felt comfortable outside the confines of British social and cultural norms. He could be a free spirit and allow his deep emotions to have expression. I’ve not read about or researched his life, so I’m simply imagining and going on what I’ve heard. I’m curious why Rory didn’t once touch on Lawrence most basic drives - his sexuality. He was attracted to the same sex. Arabia at that time would have been a place where such same sex encounters would have been much more the norm and part of the culture.
Then Arabia, lost of her former splendours and world empire, under turkish rule, was poor. And Lawrence did not come to see her after the oil revenue rewards, which makes his piercing insights of the semite in the desert, even more interesting - to compare with their use of luxus and actual bonanza.
Hopefully, he‘ll get back into politics
You are so much talented. your political failures got you on a better personal and professional position. try to focus on your own worldvision. I, WE support you. any podcast? keep safe, keep well.