Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Vaclav Havel

Quote by Vaclav Havel

“It would appear that the traditional parliamentary democracies can offer no fundamental opposition to that automatism of technological civilization and the industrial-consumer society, for they too are being dragged helplessly along by it. People are manipulated in ways that are infinitely more subtle and refined than the brutal methods used in post-totalitarian societies.”

Quote by Vaclav Havel

Book:The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe
Create image

Work

The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe: Citizens Against the State in Central Eastern Europe

The Power of the Powerless examines the strategies and actions of individuals and groups who resist oppressive state control in Central Eastern Europe. The book delves into the dynamics of civil disobedience, grassroots movements, and the impact of collective action on political change in the region. more

Author

Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel

Vaclav Havel, born on October 5, 1936, was the former president of Czechoslovakia. He was a playwright, politician, and a leading figure in the Velvet Revolution. Known for his unwavering commitment to freedom, democracy, and human rights, Havel's works and actions had a profound impact on European politics in the post-Cold War era. more

You May Also Like

“Let us be bold enough to ask ourselves as Christians whether the Church of the Lord Jesus in the United States has anything to say to our nation and its ideologies of materialism, possessiveness, and the worship of financial security. Are we courageous enough to be a sign of contradiction to consumerism through our living faith in Jesus Christ? Are we committed enough to his gospel to become a countercurrent to the drift?”

StatesEnoughChristianAsksJesusNationsChristChurchUnitedLordUnited StatesSecurityWorshipJesus ChristFinancialCommittedIdeologyContradictionMaterialismCourageousConsumerismOverconsumptionPossessivenessFaith In JesusFinancial Security
Book:The Signature of Jesus
Create image

“Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know.”

KnowsWantMindLittlesMadeDiesPayMysteryReadyWindowRaisesProfitNeighborCardsOur FutureVacationConsumerismYour FutureAnnualsOverconsumptionDrawers
Book:A Country of Marriage: Poems
Create image

“Democracy encourages a taste for physical gratification; this taste, if it becomes excessive, soon disposes men to believe that all is matter only; and materialism, in its turn, hurries them on with mad impatience to these same delights; such is the fatal circle within which democratic nations are driven round. It were well that they should see the danger and hold back.”

IfsMenShouldBelieveWellsMatterTurnsNationsDemocracyDangerTasteMadDemocraticRoundsDelightDrivenCirclesMaterialismConsumerismGratificationImpatienceOverconsumption
Book:Democracy in America - Vol. I. and II.
Create image

“McWorld is a product of popular culture driven by expansionist commerce. Its template is American, its form style. Its goods are as much images as matériel, an aesthetic as well as a product line. It is about culture as commodity, apparel as ideology. Its symbols are Harley-Davidson motorcycles and Cadillac motorcars hoisted from the roadways, where they once represented a mode of transportation, to the marquees of global market cafés like Harley-Davidson's and the Hard Rock where they become icons of lifestyle.”

WellsHardFormCultureLinesRocksStyleProductsDrivenLifestyleIdeologySymbolsGoodsAestheticCommerceConsumerismCommodityIconsTransportationMotorcycleOverconsumptionPopular CultureApparelCadillacsHard RockHarleyMarqueeHarley Davidson
Author:Benjamin Barber
Create image

“The danger, then, is that materialism is not only shaping how we live but the way we think as well. It influences our consumer tastes and our preference for high-paying jobs, but it also alters our capacity to pray, the nature of our prayers, and the ways in which religious tutelage instructs our values.”

ThinkingWayWellsJobsValuesReligiousPrayerInfluenceDangerPrayingTasteCapacityConsumersMaterialismConsumerismPreferenceOur PrayersOverconsumptionTutelage
Author:Robert Wuthnow
Create image

“The goals of development are always and everywhere stated in terms of consumer value packages standardized around the North Atlantic-and therefore always and everywhere imply more privileges for a few... Underdevelopment is the result of a state of mind common to both socialist and capitalist countries. Present development goals are neither desirable nor reasonable. Unfortunately antiimperialism is no antidote.”

MindCountryStatesValuesGoalTermResultsCommonDevelopmentPrivilegeConsumersReasonableState Of MindCapitalistSocialistConsumerismDesirablePackagesAntidoteOverconsumptionUnderdevelopment
Author:Ivan Illich
Create image

“The idea that the profits of capital are really the rewards of a just society for the foresight and thrift of those who sacrificed the immediate pleasures of spending in order that society might have productive capital, had a certain validity in the early days of capitalism, when productive enterprise was frequently initiated through capital saved out of modest incomes.”

IdeasMightCertainOrderPleasureCapitalismRewardsProfitSpendingSavedIncomeEnterpriseProductiveConsumerismModestForesightValidityOverconsumptionThrift
Book:Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics
Create image