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Activism Quotes

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Activism Quotes

“In the beginning I wrote ceaselessly on religion, but as I kept studying the tenets of the society, I came to realize that the barriers amongst people have invaded every aspect of life and society, much beyond the mere traditional bounds of religion - they have invaded the very lifeblood of society and have been tearing the society apart from inside out. I came to realize that the religion of the future is not going to be christianity, islam, judaism or any such traditional system, rather, the religion of the future is going to be social justice. And the best way to shape the future is to envision it early on and start manufacturing it today. Thus, though initially the primary premise of my work was religion, eventually it acquired much wider and diverse societal roots. My purpose remains the same, that is, to unite you all, to unite my seven billion sisters and brothers of earth, but I had to make a few changes to my approach based on the need of the time as I kept evolving with my work. I started off as a scientist, but the needs of the society turned me into a reformer.”

“To say that there was so much to be afraid of—nuclear winter, ecological devastation, the death spasms of patriarchy. That the next fifty years would see unspeakable suffering. But we could survive it. Overcome it. Surmount the limits of our flesh and our mortality and our separateness. Combine into some new kind of thing, some wobbly magnificent machine who could crack the very fabric of time and space.”

“There would be time to tell Fell all of it. To say that there was so much to be afraid of—nuclear winter, ecological devastation, the death spasms of patriarchy. That the next fifty years would see unspeakable suffering. But we could survive it. Overcome it. Surmount the limits of our flesh and our mortality and our separateness. Combine into some new kind of thing, some wobbly magnificent machine who could crack the very fabric of time and space.”

“You know what a hero is - 9 out of 10 times it's someone who's too tired or too hungry or too cold to give a damn - I don't give a damn - I don't give a damn about the consequences, all I know is, the society that has been handed over to us by our ancestors can't possibly be a human society, it's a society of good-looking savages - and I won't sit still on my couch whining about it like a spineless bug either - it's my society, and I'll either turn it into a human one, or perish in the attempt.”

“Let death come in its most vicious form - I as an accountable human accept it with utter grace - we the humans accept it with utter glory - for if we don't die, children cannot play in the park - if we do not die, lovers cannot walk freely hand in hand - if we do not die, the elderly cannot enjoy their favorite tv series over a cup of coffee. But mark you, our first duty is not to die for nothing - but to live for the society - if we live and work for society, justice will live, inclusion will live, acceptance will live, peace will live - if we live and work for society, only then will the society live.”

“What the society needs is an MBA, that is Master of Benevolent Activism - what the society needs is an MD, that is Maverick of Determination - what the society needs is a PHD, that is Doctor of Perspiring Humanism.”

“If you want civilization, be the epitome of civilization - if you want democracy, be the epitome of democracy - if you want humanity, be the epitome of humanity. Go on saying - "I am civilization, I am democracy, I am humanity".”

“To stand for something, whether in child-rearing or any other sphere, is of course to risk error; it is also to become conspicuous under the gaze of the Other, to give away one's position and to invite rejection. But it is also the only way through which social evolution can take a truly moral direction; it is the inescapable consequence of recognizing and taking seriously the fact that it is we who make the world, not 'it' or 'them'.”

“For there would be no point in painful struggle, in heroic battle against injustice, in the painstaking achievements of culture and learning, in courageous stance against cruelty or adversity, in loving self-sacrifice for others, if in fact the experience gained by just one tortured and despairing individual could simply be 'adjusted' or 'modified' by the appropriate expert.”

“So, here’s the story about that: I was a member of ACT-UP in New York for two years, from its inception in 1986. I was a young gay man and everyone I knew was dying. In 1988, I moved to San Francisco to become a newspaper reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, and that ended my life as an “activist.” To attribute my current work on PACE and related issues to what I did 30+ years ago is preposterous. My opinion that the PACE trial is a piece of crap and likely qualifies as research misconduct is based upon my public health training and expertise.”

“A commitment to disrupting the state's violence when and where we see it takes feminism outside of the realm of words and theories and makes it a living, breathing set of principles. It reminds us that where we can make interventions, we should and that only work that seeks to shake and unsettle the very foundations of the sexist state is feminist work.”

“No one should be asked to feel empathy or compassion for their oppressors. I have learned that we do not need to feel anything for our opponents at all in order to practice love. Love is labor that returns us to wonder—it is seeing another person's humanity, even if they deny their own. We just have to choose to wonder about them.”

“[W]e are the ones to blame for enabling and even nourishing the toxic workplaces. In continuing to cooperate with a profoundly unhealthy and exploitative employment system, we become at once the dagger and the wound. Wounds never heal so long as they continue to cooperate with daggers. In a sense, the cure is in the disease itself. Our silence is the disease. Our serious commitment for change and for exposing power abuses and bullies is the cure.”

“It is a mistake to assume that all we have to do is guarantee the prosecution of the cop who killed Michael Brown. The major challenge of this period is to infuse a consciousness of the structural character of state violence into the movements that spontaneously arise.”

“[D]uring all my university years in the U.S. (doing a master’s and a doctorate degrees), I often noticed that young people were totally quiet when issues like wars and crimes against humanity in the Middle East came up, but they were very active and vocal when issues like recycling, environment, or global warming came up. While all these issues are important, the silences and complicity displayed on some issues rather than others; the selectivity of expressing resistance and rage are hypocritical, to say the least. I found that many choose to be active in what one could consider safe and convenient causes. How can I take seriously enraged rich and privileged students who want us to protect the environment by recycling a plastic bottle, yet it never occurs to them that all the bombs and weapons used in the Middle East are doing a serious damage to their beloved planet? Last time I checked we all live on one planet, unless these privileged students truly live on a different planet.”