When one lives in a society where people can no longer rely on the institutions to tell them the truth, the truth must come from culture and art.
John TrudellRead
The great lie is that it is civilization. It's not civilized. It has been literally the most blood thirsty brutalizing system ever imposed upon this planet. That is not civilization. That's the great lie, is that it represents civilization.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the notion of civilization as inherently good, arguing that it is often associated with brutality and oppression.
John Trudell's quote challenges the conventional view of civilization, suggesting that it is a flawed construct marked by violence and exploitation rather than progress and order. He emphasizes that what is widely accepted as 'civilization' has historically been characterized by brutality, thereby questioning the legitimacy and morality of societal structures that claim to represent civilized values.
Themes
CivilizationBrutalityViolenceTruthSocietyOppression
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about social justice, one might use this quote to argue against the romanticized view of civilization.
More from John Trudell
All quotes →When I go around in America and I see the bulk of the white people, they do not feel oppressed; they feel powerless... and we understand the psychological genocide that they have already inflicted upon their own people.
John TrudellRead
We have power... Our power isn’t in a political system, or a religious system, or in an economic system, or in a military system; these are authoritarian systems... they have power... but it’s not reality. The power of our intelligence, individually or collectively IS the power; this is the power that any industrial ruling class truly fears: clear coherent human beings.
John TrudellRead
We’re not Indians and we’re not Native Americans. We’re older than both concepts. We’re the people, we’re the human beings.
John TrudellRead
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Anyone who can be proved to be a seditious person is an outlaw before God and the emperor; and whoever is the first to put him to death does right and well. Therefore let everyone who can, smite, slay and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel.
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You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a realist he is preparing to do something that he is secretly ashamed of doing.
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