“As a writer of fiction who deals with technology, I necessarily deal with the history of technology and the history of technologically induced social change. I roam up and down it in a kind of special way because I roam down it into history, which is invariably itself a speculative affair.” WayKindSocialDealsFictionTechnologySpecialAffairSocial ChangeUp And Down Author:William Gibson
“Movies both reflect and create social conditions, but their special charm is to offer fantasy clothes as virtual reality, a world where people consume without the tedium of labor. Characters float in a world where the bill never comes due ... and we wonder why we're a debtor nation!” PeopleWorldCharacterRealityNationsSocialWonderFantasySpecialConditionsOffersClothesLaborBillsDuesMovieCharmFloatsVirtual RealityTediumDebtorsSocial Conditions Author:Molly Haskell
“But on the other hand, in discussion and debate concerning social issues or American foreign policy, Vietnam or the Middle East, for example, the issue is constantly raised, often with considerable venom. I've repeatedly been challenged on grounds of credentials, or asked, what special training do you have that entitles you to speak of these matters. The assumption is that people like me, who are outsiders from a professional viewpoint, are not entitled to speak on such things.” PeopleMatterHandsSpeakSocialIssuesMiddleSpecialPolicyExampleTrainingMathematicsRaisedEastDebateLike MeDiscussionAssumptionVietnamForeign PolicyMiddle EastOutsidersEntitledSocial IssuesViewpointsVenomCredentialsAmerican Foreign Policy Author:Noam Chomsky
“Anarchism is a definite intellectual current in the life of our times, whose adherents advocate the abolition of economic monopolies and of all political and social coercive institutions within society. In place of the present capitalistic economic order Anarchists would have a free association of all productive forces based upon co-operative labour, which would have as its sole purpose the satisfying of the necessary requirements of every member of society, and would no longer have in view the special interest of privileged minorities within the social union.” PoliticalPurposeOrderForceSocialInterestViewsEconomicSpecialMembersIntellectualInstitutionsUnionsCurrentsOur TimeProductiveMinoritiesLabourSatisfyingAssociationSoleDefiniteRequirementsPrivilegedMonopolyAnarchismAnarchistSpecial InterestsAbolitionEconomic Order Book:Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice Source: Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice
“I believe-and human psychologists, particularly psychoanalysts should test this-that present-day civilized man suffers from insufficient discharge of his aggressive drive. It is more than probable that the evil effects of the human aggressive drives, explained by Sigmund Freud as the results of a special death wish, simply derive from the fact that in prehistoric times intra-specific selection bred into man a measure of aggression drive for which in the social order today he finds no adequate outlet.” MenShouldBelieveHumansFactsTodaySufferingOrderEvilI BelieveWishSocialResultsSpecialEffectsTestsCivilizedAggressiveAggressionSelectionAdequateOutletsPsychologistPresent DayInsufficientSocial OrderDischargePrehistoricDeath WishPrehistoric Times Book:ON AGRESSION Source: ON AGRESSION
“The universal social pressure upon women to be all alike, and do all the same things, and to be content with identical restrictions, has resulted not only in terrible suffering in the lives of exceptional women, but also in the loss of unmeasured feminine values in special gifts. The Drama of the Woman of Genius has too often been a tragedy of misshapen and perverted power.” SufferingValuesSocialLossSpecialGeniusTerribleDramaUniversalTragedyPressureFeminineExceptionalRestrictionIdenticalSocial PressureSpecial Gifts Book:Woman's Share in Social Culture Source: Woman's Share in Social Culture
“Each era invents its own child. Over the past 500 years, conceptions of the child changed gradually from an ill-formed adult who must be subjugated to society's goals to a precious being who must be protected from unreasonable social demands. Childhood has come to be seen as a special period of life, rather than as a temporary state of no lasting importance for adulthood.” YearsChildrenStatesPastSocialGoalChangeChildhoodSpecialChangedPeriodsDemandAdultsImportanceIllErasLastingTemporaryConceptionProtectedAdulthoodOver The PastUnreasonable Author:Sandra Scarr
“The thing that distinguishes social systems from physical or even biological systems is their incomparable (and embarrassing) richness in special cases. Generalizations in the social sciences are mere pathways which lead through a riotous forest of individual trees, each a species unto itself. The social scientist who loses this sense of the essential individuality and uniqueness of each case is all too likely to make a solemn scientific ass of himself, especially if he thinks that his faceless generalizations are the equivalents of the rich vareity of the world.” IfsThinkingWorldIndividualSocialLosesCasesRichTreeSpecialEssentialsScientistMereSpeciesIndividualityForestsAssUniquenessEmbarrassingRichnessSolemnPathwaysSocial ScienceGeneralizationSocial SystemsIncomparableFaceless Author:Kenneth E. Boulding