Money isn't automatically freedom. You need to look carefully at what you're doing to earn the money before you can conclude that you are, in practice, free. This is a cost-benefit analysis we should all perform on our own lives.
John LanchesterRead
Nobody in the developing world is going to take, as an answer to their aspirations, the developed world's reply: 'Sorry, you can't; we've already used it all up.' To earn the right to look the developing world in the eye and start this conversation, we need a reassessment of how we live and what we want.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We must reconsider our lifestyles and aspirations to engage meaningfully with the developing world.
This quote emphasizes the moral and ethical responsibility of the developed world towards the developing nations. John Lanchester suggests that it is unjust for those who have already consumed resources to deny aspiring individuals from developing countries the same opportunities, underscoring the need for a critical reassessment of our values and actions to have a genuine conversation about equity and aspirations.
Themes
Developing WorldResourcesResponsibilityAspirationsSustainability
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing climate change, one might quote this to highlight the need for equitable resource distribution.
More from John Lanchester
All quotes →One of the things I have noticed about my novels is that they all concern people who can't quite bring themselves to tell the truth about their own lives... I've come to realise that this interest in damaged, untellable stories comes from my parents.
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Rising inequality is not a law of nature - it's not even a law of economics. It is a consequence of political and economic arrangements, and those arrangements can be changed.
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The financial system in its current condition poses an existential threat to Western democracy far exceeding any terrorist threat.
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The person doing the worrying experiences it as a form of love; the person being worried about experiences it as a form of control.
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