Quotes About Society

Contemporary society preaches this ideal of unindividualized equality because it needs human atoms, each one the same, to make them function in a mass aggregation, smoothly, without friction; all obeying the same commands, yet everybody being convinced that he is following his own desires.

modern man lives under the illusion that he knows what he wants, while he actually wants what he is supposed to want. In order to accept this it is necessary to realize that to know what one really wants is not comparatively easy, as most people think, but one of the most difficult problems any human being has to solve.

The only haven for having a sense of identity is conformity. Being acceptable really means not being different from anybody else. Feeling inferior stems from feeling different, and no question is asked whether the difference is for the better or the worse.

The martyr's characteristics are being, giving, sharing; the hero's, having, exploiting, forcing. (It should be added that the formation of the pagan hero is connected with the patriarchal victory over mother-centered society. Men's dominance of women is the first act of conquest and the first exploitative use of force; in all patriarchal societies after the men's victory, these principles have become the basis of men's character.)

the individual must blind himself from seeing that which his group claims does not exist, or accept as truth that which the majority says is true, even if his own eyes could convince him that it is false. The herd is so vitally important for the individual that their views, beliefs, feelings, constitute reality for him, more so than what his senses and his reason tell him.

There are thousands of Himmlers living among us.

Notóriusan boldogtalan emberek társadalma a miénk: magányosak, félelmektÅ'l gyötörtek, depressziósak, rombolók, függÅ'k vagyunk - olyan emberek, akik boldogok, ha sikerül agyonütniük azt az idÅ't, amelyet szüntelenül meg akarnak spórolni.

The limits of the growth of individuation and self are set partly by individual conditions, but essentially by social conditions

FaÅŸizm ve benzeri hareketler (ki, bunlar?n isimlerini onlar ortaya ç?k?p geliÅŸtikten sonra koyar?z ) ancak, hem ferdi ve hem de toplumsal hayat? etkileyen kararlar? verme noktas?nda yayg?n bir pasifliÄŸin olduÄŸu ve insanlar?n kat?l?mc? olmad??? toplumlarda yeÅŸerirler. (Hayat? Sevmek)

We naïvely believe that things like tables and lamps exist as such, and we fail to see that society teaches us to transform sensations into perceptions that permit us to manipulate the world around us in order to enable us to survive in a given culture. Once we have given such percepts a name, the name seems to guarantee the final and unchangeable reality of the percept.

we must admit that all human history so far (perhaps with the exception of certain primitive societies) has been based on force: the force and power of a prosperous minority over a majority who work hard and enjoy little.

Exploitation was not personal any more, but it had become anonymous, as it were. It was the law of the market that condemned a man to work for starvation wages, rather than the intention or greed of any one individual. Nobody was responsible or guilty, nobody could change conditions either. One was dealing with the iron laws of society, or so it seemed.

Toda sociedad que excluya, relativamente, el desarrollo del amor, a la larga perece a causa de su propia contradicción con las necesidades básicas de la naturaleza del hombre.

Those individual and social conditions that make for suppression of life produce the passion for destruction that forms, so to speak, the reservoir from which the particular hostile tendencies - either against others or against oneself - are nourished.

While psychiatry is concerned with the question of why some people become insane, the real question is why most people do not become insane.

sane society is that which corresponds to the needs of man—

But even without theoretical analysis the observable data show most clearly that our kind of "pursuit of happiness" does not produce well-being. We are a society of notoriously unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive, dependent—people who are glad when we have killed the time we are trying so hard to save.

the structure of modern society affects man in two ways simultaneously: he becomes more independent, self-reliant, and critical, and he becomes more isolated, alone, and afraid. The understanding of the whole problem of freedom depends on the very ability to see both sides of the process and not to lose track of one side while following the other.

Ich lüge auch. Aber ich weiß es. Ich weiß, dass das System falsch ist. Bei uns in der Wirtschaft sieht das ein Blinder. Aber ich diene dem falschen System mit Hingabe. Denn im Rahmen des falschen Systems, dem ich mein bescheidenes Talent zur Verfügung stelle, sind die falschen Maßnahmen naturgemäß richtig und die richtigen sind begreiflicherweise falsch.

Auf jeder Stufe standen Leute. Sie blickten interessiert nach oben und griffen einander in die Taschen. Jeder bestahl jeden. Jeder wühlte heimlich in den Taschen des Vordermannes, und während er das tat, wurde er vom Hintermann beraubt.

Die bequemste öffentliche Meinung ist noch immer die öffentliche Meinungslosigkeit.

Some day perhaps our time will be known as the age of irony. Not the witty irony of the eighteenth century, but the stupid or malignant irony of a crude age of technological progress and cultural regression.

See what has become of us. As far as I know, only the old Greeks had gods of drinking and the joy of life: Bacchus and Dionysus. Instead of that we have Freud, inferiority complexes and the psychoanalysis. We're afraid of the too great words in love and not afraid of much too great words in politics. A sorry generation!

Amžina žmonijos scena: prievartos tarnai, j? auka, o greta - visada ir visais laikais - tre?ias, ži?rovas, kuris nepakelia rankos apginti auk? ir nebando jos išvaduoti, nes bijosi d?l sav?s. Ir kaip tik d?l to jam nuolatos gresia pavojus.