QuoteProject
It is dangerous when you start calling people from one part of the world terrorists or fanatic, and you reduce them to some abstract notion. If evil has a geographical place, and if the evil has a name, that is the beginning of fascism. Real life is not this way. You have fanatics and narrow-minded people everywhere.
Marjane Satrapi
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Labeling people as terrorists or fanatics can lead to oversimplification and dehumanization, fostering prejudice and extremism.

The quote by Marjane Satrapi warns against the simplification of complex human behaviors by labeling individuals or groups as terrorists or fanatics based solely on their geographical or ideological identities. By doing so, we risk reducing them to abstract concepts and ignoring the nuanced realities of their lives, which can breed intolerance and lead to extremist ideologies such as fascism. Satrapi emphasizes that fanaticism and narrow-mindedness exist universally, highlighting the danger of viewing people through a limited lens.

Themes

TerrorismLabelingFascismIntoleranceHumanity

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion on the effects of terrorism on global politics, this quote can highlight the dangers of labeling.

More from Marjane Satrapi

If it's a good work of adaptation, the book should remain a book and the film should remain a film, and you should not necessarily read the book to see the film. If you do need that, then that means that it's a failure. That is what I think.
Marjane SatrapiRead
I'm not a politician. I don't know how to solve the problems of the world. But as an artist, I have one duty: to ask questions.
Marjane SatrapiRead
I'm not a politician because I'm an artist. Politicians have a very easy answer for a very complicated question. I have a very complicated question for what you consider very easy situations.
Marjane SatrapiRead
For me, drawing is a question of death and life. Every day I draw, I write, I do something.
Marjane SatrapiRead
My mother always told me I had to do 100 times better than a man. I had to work hard at maths, and learn four languages.
Marjane SatrapiRead
The best thing I ever did in my life was to ask, 'Do I like everybody?' And the answer was, 'No.' So why should everybody like me? If people are against me, so what? I'm against them too.
Marjane SatrapiRead

Similar quotes

But actually time isn't a straight line. It doesn't ave a shape. In all senses of the term, it doesn't have any form. But since we can't picture something without form in our minds, for the sake of convenience we understand it as a straight line. At this point, humans are the only ones who can make that sort of conceptual substitution.
Haruki MurakamiRead
(W)e do not count heads before enforcing the First Amendment.
Sandra Day O'ConnorRead
Reality is a prison, where one vegetates and always will. All the rest - thought, action - is just a pastime, mental or physical. What counts then, is to come to grips with reality. The rest can go.
Cesare PaveseRead
Sincerity may be humble but she cannot be servile.
Lord ByronRead
Well, I believe life is a Zen koan, that is, an unsolvable riddle. But the contemplation of that riddle - even though it cannot be solved - is, in itself, transformative. And if the contemplation is of high enough quality, you can merge with the divine.
Tom RobbinsRead
All spirits are enslaved which serve things evil
Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Marjane Satrapi | QuoteProject