Density, complexity, and historical-semantic value that is so strong as to make politics possible... Gramsci's insight is to have recognised that subordination, fracturing, diffusion, reproducing, as much as producing, creating, forcing, guiding, are necessary aspects of elaboration.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the intricate nature of politics, emphasizing that both creation and subordination are essential to political dynamics.
Edward Said highlights the complexity of political processes by discussing how various factors such as subordination and creativity are intertwined. He underscores the idea that effective political action is not solely about creating new structures but also involves understanding and managing the existing frameworks and power dynamics that shape society. This dual recognition sheds light on the multifaceted nature of political engagement.
In practice
In a lecture on political theory, this quote could illustrate the interplay of power and creativity.
All knowledge that is about human society, and not about the natural world, is historical knowledge, and therefore rests upon judgment and interpretation. This is not to say that facts or data are nonexistent, but that facts get their importance from what is made of them in interpretation… for interpretations depend very much on who the interpreter is, who he or she is addressing, what his or her purpose is, at what historical moment the interpretation takes place.
Uninformed and yet open to appeals for justice as they are, Americans are capable of reacting as they did to the ANC campaign against apartheid, which finally changed the balance of forces inside South Africa.
Refuse to allow yourself to become a vegetable that simply absorbs information, pre-packaged, pre-ideologized , because no message.. is anything but an ideological package that has gone through a kind of processing.
Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric.
Much as I have no wish to hurt anyone's feelings, my first obligation has not been to be nice but to be true to my perhaps peculiar memories, experiences and feelings.
It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in a jar.
I suddenly became strangely inebriated. The external world became changed as in a dream. Objects appeared to gain in relief; they assumed unusual dimensions; and colors became more glowing. Even self-perception and the sense of time were changed. When the eyes were closed, colored pictures flashed past in a quickly changing kaleidoscope. After a few hours, the not unpleasant inebriation, which had been experienced whilst I was fully conscious, disappeared. What had caused this condition?
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
I bold it impossible, that the great monarchies of Europe can subsist much longer; they all affect magnificence and splendor.
I think that when in doubt about the truth of an issue, it's safer and in better taste to select the least numerous of the adversaries.
One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death.
You lack a foot to travel? Then journey into yourself - that leads to transformation of dust into pure gold.
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