Delusional pain hurts just as much as pain from actual trauma. So what if it's all in your head?
Octavia E. ButlerRead
In countries where there are no racial differences or no religious differences, people find other reasons to set aside one certain group of people and generally spit in their direction.
Interpretation
People will create divisions based on differences, whether racial, religious, or otherwise, to justify exclusion or disdain.
Octavia E. Butler's quote explores the innate tendency of humans to categorize and alienate one another, even in the absence of obvious differences such as race or religion. It suggests that the inclination to find reasons for division is deeply rooted in human nature, highlighting a persistent flaw in societal interactions where people seek scapegoats or targets for their biases.
In practice
During a discussion about social justice, one might use this quote to illustrate the persistent nature of discrimination.
Delusional pain hurts just as much as pain from actual trauma. So what if it's all in your head?
I don't write about good and evil with this enormous dichotomy. I write about people. I write about people doing the kinds of things that people do.
My characters hope for better lives.
I pecked my stories out two-fingered on the Remington portable typewriter my mother had bought me. I had begged for it when I was ten.
When I was 7 and went to the zoo with my second-grade class, I saw chimpanzee eyes for the first time - the eyes of an unhappy animal, all alone, locked in a bare, concrete-floored, iron-barred cage in one of the nastier, old-fashioned zoos. I remember looking at the chimp, then looking away.
The lovely thing about writing is, well, two things. One, writing fiction allows us to bring an order to our lives that doesn't exist in real life. And two, it allows us to create human characters that we know better than we will ever know anyone in real life.
Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
Even if you play perfectly, a fault of your opponent's can destroy the entire beauty of the game.
Because he (the Sage) opposes no one, no one in the world can oppose him.
Wake up, you idiots! Whatever made you think that money was so valuable?
I am a part of all that I have met. Yet, experience is an arch wherethro gleams that untravl'd world whose margin fades forever and forever when I move.
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