I work on the assumption, or let it be the fear, that the reader will stop reading if I stop being interesting.
Clive JamesRead
Anyone afraid of what he thinks television does to the world is probably just afraid of the world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fear of television's impact reflects a deeper fear of the world itself.
In this quote, Clive James suggests that those who criticize television for its perceived negative influence on society are often projecting their own anxieties about the complexities and challenges of the world. It implies that the medium is a mirror reflecting societal issues, rather than the root cause of fear or concern.
Themes
TelevisionFearWorldSocietyAnxiety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about media influence, this quote can highlight perspectives on societal fears.
More from Clive James
All quotes βTelevision is simultaneously blamed, often by the same people, for worsening the world and for being powerless to change it.
Clive JamesRead
Murray sounds like a blindfolded man riding a unicycle on the rim of the pit of doom, the men actually facing the danger are all so taciturn that you might as well try interviewing the cars themselves.
Clive JamesRead
Prejudices are useless. Call Los Angeles any dirty name you like - Six Suburbs in Search of a City, Paradise with a Lobotomy, anything - but the fact remains that you are already living in it before you get there
Clive JamesRead
I was wrong, however, to suppose that Sellers thought the world revolved around him. He thought the cosmos did too, and history, and the fates... Like every egomaniac, he behaved as if everybody else spent their day being as interested in him as he was.
Clive JamesRead
The essence of a class system is not that the privileged are conscious of their privileges, but that the deprived are conscious of their deprivations.
Clive JamesRead
Similar quotes
FREEBOOTER, n. A conqueror in a small way of business, whose annexations lack of the sanctifying merit of magnitude.
Ambrose BierceRead
There is no mysterious essence we can call a 'place'. Place is change. It is motion killed by the mind, and preserved in the amber of memory.
J. A. BakerRead
What if we discover that our present way of life is irreconcilable with our vocation to become fully human?
Paulo FreireRead
Everything's got space between it, the planets, trees, your eyes. Your eyes get too close together, it's a whole different world. You can lose perspective.
Mos DefRead
As I grow older and older, _x000D_ _x000D_ And totter toward the tomb, _x000D_ _x000D_ I find that I care less and less _x000D_ _x000D_ Who goes to bed with whom.
Dorothy L. SayersRead
To grumble about the world and its unhappiness is always easier than to beat one's breast and groan over oneself.
Soren KierkegaardRead