It is highly improbable that the bureaucrat will put his life on the line. It is absolutely impossible that he'll put his job on the line.
Interpretation
Bureaucrats often prioritize their job security over taking risks for important causes.
In this quote, Eduardo Galeano highlights the tendency of bureaucrats to avoid risk, particularly in matters of personal sacrifice or jeopardizing their employment. This reflection on the nature of bureaucracy suggests that those in positions of administrative power often hesitate to act boldly, valuing their job more than the greater good, which can lead to stagnation and a lack of meaningful progress in society.
In practice
During a discussion on leadership qualities, this quote could serve as a reminder of the importance of prioritizing values over personal safety.
Utopia is on the horizon. I move two steps closer; it moves two steps further away. I walk another ten steps and the horizon runs ten steps further away. As much as I may walk, I'll never reach it. So what's the point of utopia? The point is this: to keep walking.
We live in a world that treats the dead better than the living. We, the living are askers of questions and givers of answers, and we have other grave defects unpardonable by a system that believes death, like money, improves people.
History never really says goodbye. History says, 'See you later.'
The more freedom is extended to business, the more prisons have to be built for those who suffer from that business.
Utopia lies at the horizon. When I draw nearer by two steps, it retreats two steps. If I proceed ten steps forward, it swiftly slips ten steps ahead. No matter how far I go, I can never reach it. What, then, is the purpose of utopia? It is to cause us to advance.
In this world of ours, a world of powerful centers and subjugated outposts, there is no wealth that must not be held in some suspicion.
Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something (All The King's Men)
To be desired is perhaps the closest anybody in this life can reach to feeling immortal.
The society exists for the benefit of its members; not its members for the benefit of the society.
The truth often sounds paradoxical.
We might remind ourselves that criticism is as inevitable as breathing, and that we should be none the worse for articulating what passes in our minds when we read a book and feel an emotion about it, for criticizing our own minds in their work of criticism.
There is no contradiction between effective law enforcement and respect for civil and human rights.
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