I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Anyone who has had the experience of going through American security checks knows the purpose of these checks is not to make you safer; it's just to annoy you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote humorously critiques the ineffectiveness and annoyance of security checks in America.
In this quote, Salman Rushdie expresses the frustration many people feel regarding American security checks, suggesting that rather than genuinely increasing safety, these measures are more about creating inconvenience for travelers. Through humor, he highlights the absurdity of the situation, prompting a reflection on the balance between security and personal comfort in public spaces.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In conversation when discussing travel frustrations, you might say, 'As Salman Rushdie wisely noted, anyone who has gone through American security checks knows they are just meant to annoy us.'
More from Salman Rushdie
All quotes βKilling people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
Similar quotes
There are a hell of a lot of jobs that are scarier than live comedy. Like standing in the operating room when a guy's heart stops, and you're the one who has to fix it!
Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.
My sense of humor has saved me more than a couple of times in my life.
I don't perceive my role as a newsman at all. I'm a comedian from stem to stern. You can cut me open and count the rings of jokes.
I never said half the things I said.
Satire that the censor understands is rightly censored.