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Quote by Marjane Satrapi

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The Complete Persepolis

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Author

Marjane Satrapi
Marjane Satrapi

Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian-born French novelist and cartoonist, renowned for her graphic novel 'Persepolis'. Born on November 22, 1969, in Tehran, Iran, her work primarily focuses on the experiences of Iranian women and the effects of political and social transformations in Iran. more

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“Karl Popper, in The Open Society and Its Enemies, made a comment that sounds almost prophetic now: that the happy, primitive society (which, by the way, never existed) is lost for all those who have eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The more we try to return to the heroic age of tribalism, Popper warns, the more certainly we will reach the Inquisition, the secret police, and a romanticized gangsterism. But once the existential problems of the individual, who is good by nature, can be blamed on the "evil" society, nothing stands in the way of sheer imagination. The definition of the benevolent society free of all power is only a question of fantasy.”

“Some people in Dolgov, such as Aglaya or even Divanich, couldn’t understand the humane approach taken by the organs. This Shubkin had written an appalling anti-Soviet work and published it in an émigré journal—how could he not be put in jail for that? But there were many things they didn’t understand. For instance, that Shubkin, as we have already noted, was the only one of his kind in the district. If there’d been ten of them, one or two could have been put away. But if you put away the only one, then who would you wage a struggle against?”

“The secret police have several functions, my dear . . . The first is the classical one. They keep an ear out for what people are saying and report it to their superiors. The second function is intimidatory. They want to make it seem as if they have us in their power; they want us to be afraid. . . . The third function consists of staging situations that will compromise us. Gone are the days when they tried to accuse us of plotting the downfall of the state. That would only increase our popularity. Now they slip hashish in our pockets or claim we've raped a twelve-year-old girl. They can always dig up sone girl to back them. . . . They need to trap people . . . to force them to collaborate and set other traps for other people, so that gradually they can turn the whole nation into a single organization of informers.”

“Today we are celebrating days of reconciliation, but the problem is we still have people who want apartheid back. People who think apartheid is the way and they don’t see anything wrong . They think they are superior and are better than other races. They still want to continue doing what they had been forgiven without asking for forgiveness. We have those who think apartheid or racism is their culture. They teach it, share it and laugh about it amongst themselves. They tell themselves they are good and God’s people, while they mistreat , slave, disrespect, abuse, kill, undermine, torture other races that are different than them. Apartheid or racism is crime against humanity. You don’t have to say it or show it. But if in your heart and mind you are racist. Then you are evil , bad and committing crime against humanity .It doesn’t matter how you are justifying it to cleans your heart or trying to get away in doing the most evil, inhuman thing on earth. We are all equal, We are all the same. We are all humans. Let's respect and love each other, embracing our differences without offending one another. Happy Reconciliation day.”