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Quote by Octavia E. Butler

“The problem, of course, with throwing people away is that they don't go away. They stay in the society that turned its back on them. And whether that society likes it or not, they find all sorts of things to do.”

Quote by Octavia E. Butler

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Octavia E. Butler

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“Cashiers interact with hundreds of strangers per day, but seem to treat them all like one person. As a result, they seem to laugh at just about anything you say. “Hi, what can I get started for you?” “I’ll take a breakfast muffin.” “Haha, nice! Anything else?” “That’s everything.” “Haha, alright, there you go, sir. Your total is $3.24.” “Okay, here’s $5. Keep the change.” “Haha, no you’re good, haha.” If you want to feel like a stand-up comedian, buy something.”

FunnyComedySocietyConversationFast FoodThe Goodbye SongIntrovertsCashiersSocial Problem
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“Pretty faces have distracted incoming hands ready to stab. Sex has disguised arguments. Politeness has prevented confrontation. Laughing has slowed down revelation. Emotions have been misinterpreted as agreements. Judgment has hampered our listening. Perhaps, for now, we are more accurately defined by what we say or think and not how we seem or look.”

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“There’s so much ‘expression’ today you can’t hear the real problems. Maybe we switch tasks. To trust our current exhibitions can do their job. It is worth a try. A generation sacrificing their pride to save the future. Granted, our art is needed and could reveal our faults, but do evil men watch movies? Something soon must die. To trust the future will take care of itself is to deny an obvious and necessary revolution.”

ArtPhilosophySacrificeSocietyExpressionRevolutionHumanitarianPhilanthropyThe Goodbye Song
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“People used to shop in stores; swiping through hangers, trying on clothes, and being surprised by what looked good on them. Now, clothing is a 2x4 digital image that you scroll past, worn by someone who isn’t you, in a color that isn’t accurate, in a fashion that invites no spontaneity. Our infinity makes us so limited.”

TechnologySocietyFashionClothesShoppingThe Goodbye SongClothingThe FutureThe InternetOnline Shopping
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“Our standard of progress was conceived for a different era with different problems. Our statistics no longer capture the shape of our economy. And this has consequences. Every era needs its own figures. In the eighteenth century, they concerned the size of the harvest. In the nineteenth century, the radius of the rail network, the number of factories, and the volume of coal mining. And in the twentieth century, industrial mass production within the boundaries of the nation-state. But today it's no longer possible to express our prosperity in simple dollars, pounds, or euros. From healthcare to education, from journalism to finance, we're all still fixated on 'efficiency' and 'gains,' as though society were nothing but one big production line. But it's precisely in a service-based economy that simple quantitative targets fail... It's time for a new set of figures.”

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Book:Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World
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