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Quote by Geoffrey Blainey

Work

The Great Seesaw: A New View of the Western World, 1750-2000

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Author

Geoffrey Blainey
Geoffrey Blainey

Geoffrey Blainey is an Australian historian renowned for his research on Australian history. His extensive works cover various aspects from European colonization to modern Australia. more

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“The rights and liberties represented by democracy, many agreed, were losing ground across the globe to restrictions imposed by authoritarian autocracy… It appeared ignorance had indeed managed to secure an alliance with power (to paraphrase James Baldwin’s famous quote) to become the most ferocious enemy of justice on the contemporary historical landscape.”

“Perhaps they'd been conditioned by all the quarantines and blackouts, all the invisible boundaries CSIRA erected on a moment's notice. The rules changed from one second to the next, the rug could get pulled out just because the wind blew some exotic weed outside its acceptable home range. You couldn't fight something like that, you couldn't fight the wind. All you could do was adapt. People were evolving into herd animals. Or maybe just accepting that that's what they'd always been.”

“Everybody is a terrorist, till you see the reformist (The Sonnet) Everybody is a president, till you see the first servant. Everybody is king kong, till emerges the first sapiens. Everybody is marconi, till you meet the Nikola. Everybody is prime minister, till you see the transformer. Everybody is mercenary, till you see the tsunami. Everybody is a godman, till awakens commoner godly. Everybody is police, till comes the vessel of peace. Everybody is a terrorist, till you see the reformist.”

“Civil Sanity (Sonnet 1631) You know what the problem is! We question love more than we question hate. We question humility more than we question arrogance. We question benevolence more than we question biases. We question integrity more than we question deceit. We question curiosity more than we question prejudice. We question character more than we question cowardice. Problem is, we question humanity more than we question inhumanity. Grow out of such prehistoric normalcy, and the world will encounter civil sanity.”

“Seek yourself in the joy of neighbors, You shall know the meaning of justice. Seek yourself in smiles of the world, You shall emerge as antidote to malice.”