Quotes About Society

In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation.

Just as early industrial capitalism moved the focus of existence from being to having, post-industrial culture has moved that focus from having to appearing.

The more powerful the class, the more it claims not to exist.

Never work.

In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation.

The spectacle is the nightmare of imprisoned modern society which ultimately expresses nothing more than its desire to sleep. The spectacle is the guardian of sleep.

This society eliminates geographical distance only to produce a new internal separation.

The spectacle is capital accumulated to the point where it becomes image.

Where the real world changes into simple images, the simple images become real beings and effective motivations of hypnotic behavior.

capitalism could appropriate even the most radical ideas and return them safely in the form of harmless ideologies.

None of the activity stolen by work can be regained by submitting to what work has produced. - The Society of The Spectacle

The society whose modernisation has reached the stage of integrated spectacle is characterised by the combined effect of five principal factors: incessant technological renewal, integration of state and economy, generalised secrecy, unanswerable lies, and eternal present . . . — The Society of the Spectacle

there is an inverse correlation between the complexity of society and of word structure!

Linguistic "technology" in the form of sophisticate grammatical structures is not a prerogative of advanced civilization, but is found even in the languages of the most primitive hunter-gatherers. As the linguist Edward Sapir memorably put it in 1921, when it comes to the complexity of grammatical structures "Plato walks with the Macedonian swineherd, Confucius with the head-hunting savage of Assam".

Will there ever be a time when it is not a curse to be born a woman? When we can do no more, than stand by and be extremely brave and watch them die?

Her mother used to call her erimitsu, "clever one" in their own dialect... Kasia had a reputation already that made her almost unmarriageable at home. Too clever by half, and too thin by more than that in a tribe where women were valued for full hips and soft figures -- promise of comfort in the long cold and children easily birthed.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes reminded us, it is a 'less evil that some criminals should escape than that the government should play an ignoble part.

Funny enough, if you are looking at people these days who are putting Botox in their face and getting all sorts of plastic surgery, we look at them and go, I can tell you've had Botox. I can tell you've had plastic surgery. You look really strange to me. But no one's saying anything. We're just accepting the fact that they're strange-looking.

Security is a precious asset. It should be a goal of everyone who genuinely wants to build a good society rather than one that facilitates the aggrandizement of a privileged elite who knowingly gain from the insecurities of others. Wanting others to have what you want takes courage. That is what basic income is about.

What is the ethical or philosophical justification for a basic income? A fundamental claim is that it is an instrument of social justice that reflects the intrinsically social or collective character of society's wealth. In the writer's view, social justice is the most important rationale for moving towards basic income as an economic right, although it is complementary to the other two major rationales, namely freedom and economic security.

It is important for women to have a choice, to have an opportunity to plan their families, because if they don't, the Republicans have said this is an ownership society. You are on your own, and they're going to begrudge that child everything, from WIC to a Pell Grant to health insurance.

Her creamy child kissed by the black maid! square on the mouth! World yelled, world writhed, world turned to light and rolled Into her kitchen, nearly knocked her down.

Civilization and culture in North America are more menaced, more strongly threatened, by internal disorders than by external pressure.

Egy halálosan beteg társadalom húsz körömmel kapaszkodik a tulajdon halálos betegségébe. Ha meggyógyítja, beledöglik.