I'm not a prophet, but I always thought it was natural for dictatorships to fall. I remember in 1989, two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, had you said it was going to happen no one would have believed you. The system seemed powerful and unbreakable. Suddenly overnight it blew away like dust.
Interpretation
Dictatorships may appear strong, but they can collapse unexpectedly.
Salman Rushdie reflects on the unpredictable nature of political systems, particularly dictatorships. He points out that while these regimes may seem powerful and stable, they can suddenly disintegrate, as witnessed during significant historical moments like the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This quote highlights the fragility of political power and the possibility of sudden change in the face of long-standing oppression.
In practice
During a lecture on political change, one might quote this to illustrate the unpredictability of regimes.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
It's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be.
My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon.
It is not for us to forecast the future, but to shape it.
To make the revolution in the United States is a slow day by day job that requires patience and discipline. It is the only way to make it. . . . All I know is that despite the fact that I am one of the people who benefit from a capitalist society, I find that any system which exploits other people cannot and should not exist.
Times change; Hollywood is not the same as it was when I first entered the business. It felt to me like it was starting to narrow down and centralize itself around what would... make money.
I’m not a prophet. I’m a destiny-changer. It’s all right to prophesy, but the best thing to do is change things, if you’ve got the power.
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