“I am not [...] asserting that humans are either genial or aggressive by inborn biological necessity. Obviously, both kindness and violence lie within the bounds of our nature because we perpetrate both, in spades. I only advance a structural claim that social stability rules nearly all the time and must be based on an overwhelmingly predominant (but tragically ignored) frequency of genial acts, and that geniality is therefore our usual and preferred response nearly all the time. [...] [T]he center of human nature is rooted in ten thousand ordinary acts of kindness that define our days.” HumansLyingSocialKindnessViolenceHuman NatureThousandTenOrdinaryClaimsResponseBoundsStabilityAggressiveUsualRootedIgnoredFrequencyActs Of KindnessSpadesGeniality Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“I think violence against women in America has become ordinary - it's been made absolutely acceptable.” ThinkingMadeAmericaViolenceOrdinaryAcceptableViolence Against Women Author:Eve Ensler
“The communications revolution has given millions of people both a wider and more detailed understanding of the world. Because of technology, ordinary citizens enjoy access to information that formerly was available only to elites and nation-states. One consequence of this change is that citizens have become acutely conscious of environmental destruction, entrenched poverty, health catastrophes, human rights abuses, failing education systems, and escalating violence. Another consequence is that people possess powerful communication tools to coordinate efforts to attack those problems.” PeopleWorldHumansStatesProblemGivenNationsEnjoyUnderstandingPowerfulEffortEducationPovertyMillionsTechnologyRightsViolenceFailingInformationCommunicationRevolutionCitizensHealthyOrdinaryConsciousConsequenceToolsDestructionAbuseEnvironmentalHuman RightsAvailableAccessElitesCatastropheEducation SystemCoordinatesOrdinary CitizensAccess To InformationEscalatingEnvironmental Destruction Author:David Bornstein
“I wrote a call to the contemporary Muslim conscience, saying to the ordinary people that we might not like the video or the cartoons, but that violence certainly isn't the right answer. I don't think laws are going to solve the problem.” PeopleThinkingProblemMightLawAnswersViolenceOrdinaryConscienceSolveVideoContemporaryCartoonOrdinary PeopleRight Answers Author:Tariq Ramadan
“She raised her eyes to his. They had both come from misery, she thought, and survived it. They had been drawn together through violence and tragedy, and had overcome it. They walked different paths and had found a mutual route. Some things last, she thought. Some ordinary things. Like love.” DifferentEyeTogetherLastsFoundPathViolenceOrdinaryOvercomingTragedyMiseryRaisedMutualHer EyesSurvivedRoutesLike LoveOrdinary ThingsDifferent PathsDrawn Together Author:Nora Roberts
“Death is ordinary. Behold it, subtract its patterns and lessons from those of the death that weapons bring, and maybe the residue will show what violence is.” ShowsViolenceLessonsWeaponsOrdinaryPatterns Author:William T. Vollmann
“The ordinary, utterly mundane reason behind the massacre makes it somehow more terrible, and far more depressing. The word 'senseless' springs to mind, and Idris thwarts it. It's what people always say. A senseless act of violence. A senseless murder. As if you could commit sensible murder.” PeopleIfsMindReasonBehindsViolenceTerribleSpringOrdinaryMurderCommitSensibleDepressingMundaneMassacresActs Of Violence Book:And the Mountains Echoed Source: And the Mountains Echoed
“...Virtually never are murderers the ordinary, law-abiding people against whom gun bans are aimed. Almost without exception, murderers are extreme aberrants with lifelong histories of crime, substance abuse, psychopathology, mental retardation and/or irrational violence against those around them, as well as other hazardous behavior, e.g., automobile and gun accidents.” PeopleWellsLawViolenceCrimeBehaviorOrdinaryGunAbuseExtremesAccidentsSubstanceExceptionIrrationalGun ControlMurdererLifelongAutomobileAbidingBansPsychopathologySubstance AbuseGun BanMental Retardation Author:Don Kates