It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the pervasive nature of capitalism and draws a parallel to historical systems of power that seemed unchallengeable.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote prompts us to consider the inherent structures of power that define our society, particularly capitalism, which can feel all-consuming and unchangeable. By comparing it to the concept of the divine right of kings, she highlights that just as past forms of governance were once thought to be ordained and absolute, so too can capitalism be viewed as a system that may eventually be challenged or transformed by collective human action.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on social systems, one could use this quote to spark discussion on the nature of power in societal structures.
More from Ursula K. Le Guin
All quotes βIn reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find - if it's a good novel - that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little... But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.
Reason is a faculty far larger than mere objective force. When either the political or the scientific discourse announces itself as the voice of reason, it is playing God, and should be spanked and stood in the corner.
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. βDo they expect students not to be anarchists?β he said. βWhat else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
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Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk.
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It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.
We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence. But they hesitate, waiting for the other fellow to make the first move-and he, in turn, waits for you.
There could conceivably be circumstances in which an experiment on an animal stands to reduce suffering so much that it would be permissible to carry it out even if it involved harm to the animal... [even if] the animal were a human being.