Hanif Kureishi and the Nurses
anecdote · personal/autobiographical ·
retold in 4 talks
Writer Hanif Kureishi, paralyzed from the neck down, discovered that his nurses, despite low pay, stayed due to a 'sense of vocation', a profound inability to not care for him, transcending rational egoism.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 4
“You wouldn't be able to look yourself into the mirror if you don't do it.”
“he asked them but why don't you change your job and he got from many of them this simple reaction but people depend on me I cannot let them”
“But I'm here to do this, that's my vocation. I have no moral right to abandon you here.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
concrete universality
×1
Berufung/vocation
×1
people worse and better than they believe
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Hanif Kureishi4King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud1Otto von Habsburg1Frank Wilderson1Calvin Warren1Fred Moten1Shirō Ishii1Deborah Feldman1
alongside works
Every retelling 4
37:07 Slavoj Žižek on Christian Atheism, Dawkins & why young people don't read anymore2024-10-13 · 37:41
Writer Hanif Kureishi, paralyzed from the neck down, discovered that his nurses, despite low pay, stayed due to a 'sense of vocation', a profound inability to not care for him, transcending rational egoism., illustrating ethics,subjectivity
Kureishi, severely disabled and cared for by NHS workers, discovered that many low-paid care workers refused to change jobs despite bad conditions, saying 'people depend on me.' Žižek uses this to show humans are better than the egotist liberal image: obligation and care persist despite economic incentive to leave., illustrating human nature better than liberal image,concrete universality,care ethics
~2:57 Slavoj Žižek: God, Marxism, Philosophy, and Quantum Mechanics | Robinson's Podcast #2132024-06-23 · 1:16:29
After a debilitating accident Kureishi noticed that low-paid hospital carers, asked why they don't quit for better pay, all gave the same uncoordinated answer: this is my vocation, I have no moral right to leave you., illustrating vocation,people worse and better than they believe
13:54 Why Radical Politics Needs Philosophy? A Masterclass With Slavoj Zizek. Day 12023-11-21 · 2:21:23
Žižek mentions his friend Hanif Kureishi is in a vegetative state to explain his urgency and emotional state before starting the Q&A., illustrating everyday-life