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Quote by Amos Oz

“Niekedy mám dojem, že sme globálna „kindergarten“. Sme v stave akejsi infantilizácie ľudskej rasy. To obrovské vymývanie mozgov, ktoré sledujeme, je iné, ako bolo vymývanie mozgov v komunizme či nacizme. Dnešné vymývanie mozgov sa zakrýva ideou šťastia jedinca, humanity. Hovorí o tom, že život je príjemná hra, všetko je krásne a všetko je ako v škôlke hravé. Ale pritom nám chce globálny svet všetko predať, to, čo reálne nepotrebujeme, ponúknuť nám zábavu, ktorá nás robí detskými. Ale deti sú najlepší zákazníci, lebo nepremýšľajú, nechajú sa rýchlo zviesť a ľahko sa udržia vo svojej naivite. Kdekoľvek v Amerike, v Európe, na Blízkom východe sa nechávame zabávať. Ľudia prestávajú čítať noviny, knihy, nepozerajú televízne správy, nevedia, čo sa deje. Hrajú hry na svojich smartfónoch, vlastné vzťahy riešia ako spoločenskú hru. Je to globálna tendencia byť infantilným. A to sa reflektuje aj v politike: ľudia volia zabávačov, ľudia volia klaunov, volia tak, akoby voľby boli zábavný program. Ľudia v Británii hlasovali za brexit preto, že čakali, aký z toho bude škandál, ak sa to podarí. Keby nehlasovali za brexit, bola by to nuda a oni sa chceli zabávať. Vôbec netušili o ekonomických vzťahoch s EÚ, čo to spraví s medzinárodným obchodom, ako to zasiahne do života miliónov ľudí. Len čakali, že to bude isto vtipné, keď budú hlasovať za brexit.”

Quote by Amos Oz

Author

Amos Oz
Amos Oz

Amos Oz, born on May 4, 1939, is a renowned Israeli writer. His works are known for their profound insights into human nature and unique narrative style. He has won numerous literary awards, including the Israel Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature. more

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“He parted from him on the usual terms outwardly, but he felt obscurely abused by Fulkerson in regard to the Dryfooses, father and son. He did not know but Fulkerson had taken an advantage of him in allowing him to commit himself to their enterprise with out fully and frankly telling him who and what his backer was; he perceived that with young Dryfoos as the publisher and Fulkerson as the general director of the paper there might be very little play for his own ideas of its conduct. Perhaps it was the hurt to his vanity involved by the recognition of this fact that made him forget how little choice he really had in the matter, and how, since he had not accepted the offer to edit the insurance paper, nothing remained for him but to close with Fulkerson. In this moment of suspicion and resentment he accused Fulkerson of hastening his decision in regard to the Grosvenor Green apartment; he now refused to consider it a decision, and said to himself that if he felt disposed to do so he would send Mrs. Green a note reversing it in the morning. But he put it all off till morning with his clothes, when he went to bed, he put off even thinking what his wife would say; he cast Fulkerson and his constructive treachery out of his mind, too, and invited into it some pensive reveries of the past, when he still stood at the parting of the ways, and could take this path or that. In his middle life this was not possible; he must follow the path chosen long, ago, wherever, it led. He was not master of himself, as he once seemed, but the servant of those he loved; if he could do what he liked, perhaps he might renounce this whole New York enterprise, and go off somewhere out of the reach of care; but he could not do what he liked, that was very clear. In the pathos of this conviction he dwelt compassionately upon the thought of poor old Lindau; he resolved to make him accept a handsome sum of money—more than he could spare, something that he would feel the loss of—in payment of the lessons in German and fencing given so long ago. At the usual rate for such lessons, his debt, with interest for twenty-odd years, would run very far into the hundreds. Too far, he perceived, for his wife's joyous approval; he determined not to add the interest; or he believed that Lindau would refuse the interest; he put a fine speech in his mouth, making him do so; and after that he got Lindau employment on 'Every Other Week,' and took care of him till he died.”

“Now was the moment and the moment was now. For in perhaps as little as twenty weeks' time, ill-informed voters, stuffed with incoherent arguments, like hissing geese force-fed nostalgia and hate to produce an idelible pâté of groundless opinion, would be asked to decide nothing less than what sort of country we want to live in and bequeath to those who come after us.”

“Nearly all human cultures plant gardens, and the garden itself has ancient religious connections. For a long time, I've been interested in pre-Christian European beliefs, and the pagan devotions to sacred groves of trees and sacred springs. My German translator gave me a fascinating book on the archaeology of Old Europe, and in it I discovered ancient artifacts that showed that the Old European cultures once revered snakes, just as we Pueblo Indian people still do. So I decided to take all these elements - orchids, gladiolus, ancient gardens, Victorian gardens, Native American gardens, Old European figures of Snake-bird Goddesses - and write a novel about two young sisters at the turn of the century.”

“It may seem strange to call this slow collapse invisible since so much of it is obvious: the deep uncertainties about the union after the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and the establishment of the Scottish Parliament the following year; the consequent rise of English nationalism; the profound regional inequalities within England itself; the generational divergence of values and aspirations; the undermining of the welfare state and its promise of shared citizenship; the contempt for the poor and vulnerable expressed through austerity; the rise of a sensationally self-indulgent and clownish ruling class. But the collective effects of these inter-related developments seem to have been barely visible within the political mainstream until David Cameron accidentally took the lid off by calling the EU referendum and asked people to endorse the status quo. What we see with the mask pulled back and the fog of fantasies at last beginning to dissipate is the revelation that Brexit is much less about Britain's relationship with the EU than it is about Britain's relationship with itself. It is the projection outwards of an inner turmoil. An archaic political system carried on even while its foundations in a collective sense of belonging were crumbling. Brexit in one way alone has done a real service: it has forced the old system to play out its death throes in public. The spectacle is ugly, but at least it shows that a fissiparous four-nation state cannot be governed without radical social and cconstitutional change.”

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