Americans have a severe disease - worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes an obsession with winning that can have negative consequences.
Mikhail Gorbachev's statement highlights a societal issue in America where the relentless pursuit of winning—often termed the 'winner's complex'—can lead to detrimental effects on individuals and society as a whole. This mindset prioritizes success above all else, potentially fostering selfishness, arrogance, and a lack of empathy, which can be more harmful than physical diseases like AIDS.
In practice
In a speech addressing corporate culture, one could use this quote to discuss the dangers of cutthroat competition.
Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep.
The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.
To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.
New approaches are needed, new orientations in both thought and action. We must make the transition to a new civilization...We are talking of a transition toward a new civilization. No one knows what it will be like. What is important is to orient in that direction... I am convinced that a new civilization will inevitably take on certain features that are characteristic of, or inherent in, the socialist ideal.
According to Lenin, socialism and democracy are indivisible.... The essence of perestroika lies in the fact that it unites socialism with democracy and revives the Leninist concept of socialist construction both in theory and in practice. We want more socialism and, therefore, more democracy.
Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.
In that moment Ged understood the singing of the bird, and the language of the water falling in the basin of the fountain, and the shape of the clouds, and the beginning and end of the wind that stirred the leaves; it seemed to him that he himself was a word spoken by the sunlight.
(on A History of Western Philosophy) I was sometimes accused by reviewers of writing not a true history but a biased account of the events that I arbitrarily chose to write of. But to my mind, a man without a bias cannot write interesting history - if, indeed, such man exists.
Humanism is the philosophy that you should be a good guest at the dinner table of life.
Death when unmasked shows us a friendly face and is a terror only at a distance.
This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.
The cost of a loaf is a simple thing, and so a loaf is often sought, but some things are past valuing: laughter, land, and love are never bought.
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