When we revolt itβs not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.
A government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the quality of a government reflects the character of its people, and vice versa.
Frantz Fanon's quote emphasizes the interdependence between a government and its citizens. It implies that a society's flaws or strengths are mirrored in its governance, meaning that if the people are irresponsible or complacent, they will end up with a government that reflects those same attributes. This relationship highlights the notion of collective responsibility and the idea that change in governance starts with the individuals shaping their society.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a civic education class to illustrate the relationship between citizens and their government.
More from Frantz Fanon
All quotes βCertain things need to be said if one is to avoid falsifying the problem.
I want the world to recognize with me the open door of every consciousness
The gaze that the colonized subject casts at the colonist's sector is a look of lust, a look of envy. Dreams of possession. Every type of possession; of sitting at the colonist's table and sleeping in his bed, preferably with his wife. The colonized man is an envious man.
Hate demands existence, and he who hates has to show his hate in appropriate actions and behaviors; in a sense, he has to become hate. That is why the Americans have substituted discrimination for lynching.
Violence is man re-creating himself.
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For neither good nor evil can last for ever; and so it follows that as evil has lasted a long time, good must now be close at hand.
A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes anothers.
A hidden Bliss is at the root of things._x000D_ _x000D_ A mute Delight regards Time's countless works:_x000D_ _x000D_ To house God's joy in things Space gave wide room,_x000D_ _x000D_ To house God's joy in self our souls were born.
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
I'm for democracy, but imposing democracy is an oxymoron. People have to choose democracy, and it has to come up from below.
Night's candles have burned out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountaintops." Hope tinged with melancholy - like life.