Favorite Quotes

[SVEN]

"I cannot master the storm whilst I fear the rain."
Sven.

 

[manicstreetbeeper]

"the only thing you can do about the past is to not be like it."

- richey james edwards

 

[quietism]

It is the poverty connected with our species which subordinates one man to another. It is not inequality which is the real misfortune, it is dependence.
- Francois Voltaire, 1977, The Portable Voltaire, p.79

Shunning is wrong. It is unethical. Group shunning is the centerpiece of most social injustice. To bond, or to establish belonging by agreeing to be cruel to the same person, is dehumanizing and socially divisive. It causes terrible pain, and is unjust. If someone asks you to hurt another person, to refuse to speak to them, to cold-shoulder them, to refuse to sit down and hear what they have to say about the consequences of your actions on their lives, then you are being invited into a Supremacy system
[...]
Finally, ultimately, when groups bond over shunning or hurting or blaming another person, it is the state's power that is enhanced. Because the state doesn't want to understand causes, because the state doesn't want things to get better, it doesn't want people to understand each other. State apparatuses are there to maintain the power of those in control and punish those who contest that power; that is what bad families do, and that is what bad friends do. And nothing disrupts dehumanization more quickly than inviting someone over, looking into their eyes, hearing their voice, and listening.
- Sarah Schulman, 2016, Conflict is not abuse: overstating harm, community responsibility, and the duty of repair, p. 254-255