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Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich Quotes

American Political figure

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Famous Barbara Ehrenreich Quotes

“In matters of the heart as well, a certain level of negativity and suspicion is universally recommended. You may try to project a thoroughly positive outlook in order to attract a potential boyfriend, but you are also advised to Google him.”

TryingWellsHeartMayMatterCertainOrderLevelsProjectsSuspicionNegativityGoogleOutlookPositive OutlookMatters Of The Heart
Book:Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
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“I grew up hearing over and over, to the point of tedium, that "hard work" was the secret of success: "Work hard and you'll get ahead" or "It's hard work that got us where we are." No one ever said that you could work hard - harder even than you ever thought possible - and still find yourself sinking ever deeper into poverty and debt.”

SaidStillsHardSecretPovertyHard WorkGrewGrew UpHarderDeeperHearingDebtFinding YourselfSinkingGet AheadSecret To SuccessTedium
Author:Barbara Ehrenreich
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“The question is why one should be so inwardly preoccupied at all. Why not reach out to others in love and solidarity or peer into the natural world for some glimmer of understanding? Why retreat into anxious introspection when, as Emerson might have said, there is a vast world outside to explore? Why spend so much time working on oneself when there is so much real work to be done?”

WorldShouldSaidRealDoneMightUnderstandingNaturalOneselfWhy NotAnxiousReach OutSolidarityPeersIntrospectionRetreatNatural WorldReal WorkWork To Be DoneUnderstanding Why
Book:Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
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“The secret of the truly successful, I believe, is that they learned very early in life how not to be busy. They saw through that adage, repeated to me so often in childhood, that anything worth doing is worth doing well. The truth is, many things are worth doing only in the most slovenly, halfhearted fashion possible, and many other things are not worth doing at all.”

LifeBelieveWellsSuccessI BelieveEffortSecretSuccessfulSawsChildhoodFashionTruth IsBusyAdagesAnything Worth Doing
Book:WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
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“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8,000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”

ProblemViewsVirtueIndustryDrugIncrediblesPoint Of ViewAlcoholAidsHivDoseAnnualsPharmaceuticalHiv AidsPharmaceutical Industry
Book:WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
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“Crime seems to change character when it crosses a bridge or a tunnel. In the city, crime is taken as emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs though, it's intimate and psychological, a mystery resist to generalization, a mystery of the individual soul.”

SoulCharacterSeemsIndividualChangeRaceCitiesClassTakenMysteryCrimeCrossesCriminalsPsychologicalBridgesIntimateTunnelsSuburbsGeneralizationCrime And CriminalsCriminals Crime
Book:WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
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“If that's how it all started, then we might as well face the fact that what's left out there is a great deal of shrapnel and a whole bunch of cinders (one of which is, fortunately, still hot enough and close enough to be good for tanning). Trying to find some sense and order in this mess may be as futile as trying to ... reconstruct the economy of Iowa from a bowl of popcorn. [On searching for evidence of the Big Bang.]”

IfsTryingWellsMayStillsEnoughWholeFactsBigsMightFacesScienceOrderUniverseLeftDealsEconomyEvidenceHotBe GoodBunchMessBowlsBangsLeft OutIowaPopcornTanning
Book:WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
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“If men were equally at risk from this condition - if they knew their bellies might swell as if they were suffering from end-stage cirrhosis, that they would have to go nearly a year without a stiff drink, a cigarette, or even an aspirin, that they would be subject to fainting spells and unable to fight their way onto commuter trains - then I am sure that pregnancy would be classified as a sexually transmitted disease and abortions would be no more controversial than emergency appendectomies.”

IfsMenWayYearsEndsMightWould BeSufferingFightingRiskConditionsSubjectsStageDrinkDiseaseTrainAbortionPregnancySpellsCigaretteBellyEmergenciesControversialSexuallyAspirinFaintingSexually Transmitted DiseasesCirrhosis
Author:Barbara Ehrenreich
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“A free-enterprise economy depends only on markets, and according to the most advanced mathematical macroeconomic theory, markets depend only on moods: specifically, the mood of the men in the pinstripes, also known as the Boys on the Street. When the Boys are in a good mood, the market thrives; when they get scared or sullen, it is time for each one of us to look into the retail apple business.”

MenLooksKnownBoysEconomyStreetsHe ManTheoryDependsScaredMoodMathematicalApplesEnterpriseThriveRetailFree EnterpriseSullenGood MoodMacroeconomics
Author:Barbara Ehrenreich
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“Some of us still get all weepy when we think about the Gaia Hypothesis, the idea that earth is a big furry goddess-creature who resembles everybody's mom in that she knows what's best for us. But if you look at the historical record - Krakatoa, Mt. Vesuvius, Hurricane Charley, poison ivy, and so forth down the ages - you have to ask yourself: Whose side is she on, anyway?”

IfsThinkingKnowsLooksStillsIdeasGodBigsAgeEarthAsksSidesRecordsAtheismMomCreaturesHistoricalPoisonGoddessHypothesisHurricanesIvyFurryGaiaPoison Ivy
Book:WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
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“What we need is a tough new kind of feminism with no illusions. Women do not change institutions simply by assimilating into them. We need a feminism that teaches a woman to say no - not just to the date rapist or overly insistent boyfriend but, when necessary, to the military or corporate hierarchy within which she finds herself. We need a kind of feminism that aims not just to assimilate into the institutions that men have created over the centuries, but to infiltrate and subvert them.”

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Author:Barbara Ehrenreich
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“Surely there must be some way to find a husband or, for that matter, merely an escort, without sacrificing one's privacy, self-respect, and interior decorating scheme. For example, men could be imported from the developing countries, many parts of which are suffering from a man excess, at least in relation to local food supply.”

MenWaySelfCountryMatterSufferingRelationshipSacrificeExampleHusbandRelationLocalsDevelopingSelf RespectPrivacyExcessSchemesInteriorsDeveloping CountriesDecoratingFood SupplyLocal FoodInterior Decorating
Book:WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
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“The only truly new ideas [the right] has come up with in the last twenty years are (1) supply side economics, which is a way of redistributing the wealth upward toward those who already have more than they know what to do with, and (2) creationism, which is a parallel idea for redistributing ignorance out from its fundamentalist strongholds to those who know more than they need to.”

KnowsWayNeedsYearsIdeasLastsPoliticalPoliticsSidesWealthIgnoranceEconomicsTwentiesCome UpNew IdeasParallelsFundamentalistCreationismStrongholdsSupply Side Economics
Book:WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
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“Then, in the 1980's, came the paroxysm of downsizing, and the very nature of the corporation was thrown into doubt. In what began almost as a fad and quickly matured into an unshakable habit, companies were 'restructuring,' 'reengineering,' and generally cutting as many jobs as possible, white collar as well as blue . . . The New York Times captured the new corporate order succinctly in 1987, reporting that... 'All such allegiances are viewed as expendable under the new rules. With survival at stake, only market leadership, strong profits and a high stock price can be allowed to matter'.”

WellsMatterJobsOrderStrongWhiteCompanyDoubtCuttingNew YorkHabitSurvivalBlueMarketingProfitCorporateCorporationsThrownInsightfulStakesCapturedAllegianceNew York TimesCollarsFadsMaturedUnshakableDownsizingWhite CollarRestructuringStock PriceExpendables
Author:Barbara Ehrenreich
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“Human intellectual progress, such as it has been, results from our long struggle to see things 'as they are,' or in the most universally comprehensible way, and not as projections of our own emotions. Thunder is not a tantrum in the sky, disease is not a divine punishment, and not every death or accident results from witchcraft. What we call the Enlightenment and hold on to only tenuously, by our fingernails, is the slow-dawning understanding that the world is unfolding according to its own inner algorithms of cause and effect, probability and chance, without any regard for human feelings.”

WorldWayHumansLongHas BeensFeelingsCausesUnderstandingChanceResultsEmotionStruggleProgressSkyEffectsDivineDiseaseIntellectualEnlightenmentRegardAccidentsPunishmentProbabilityThunderProjectionWitchcraftUnfoldingCause And EffectAlgorithmsFingernailsTantrums
Book:Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
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