We're always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy.
I am often asked the question How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is By being persuaded to identify with them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The masses may often support oppressive systems due to a misguided sense of identification with those in power.
E. L. Doctorow highlights a critical social observation about how the majority of people can fall victim to exploitation by a powerful minority. This exploitation occurs when individuals within the masses begin to identify with the values, desires, or perspectives of the elite, often at the expense of their own welfare. By aligning themselves psychologically with the interests of the few, the masses may willingly consent to their own subjugation without recognizing the manipulation at play.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about democracy, you could quote this to discuss the relationship between leadership and the public.
More from E. L. Doctorow
All quotes βOne of the things I had to learn as a writer was to trust the act of writing. To put myself in the position of writing to find out what I was writing.
In fiction, you know, there are no borders. You can go anywhere.
Books are acts of composition: you compose them. You make music: the music is called fiction.
We are all good friends. Friendship is what endures. Shared ideals, respect for the whole character of a human being.
I've known several cases of writers who decide to write about something and they research the hell out of it and when they're ready to write, they can't move because they are so burdened. I start writing. Whatever I need somehow comes to hand.
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We ought not to schismatize on either men or measures. Principles alone can justify that.
Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead
Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that.
Dawn: When men of reason go to bed.
You think that I am impoverishing myself withdrawing from men, but in my solitude I have woven for myself a silken web or chrysalis, and, nymph-like, shall ere long burst forth a more perfect creature, fitted for a higher society.
The trouble with conspiracies, even those that are to everybody's advantage in the long run, is that they are open to abuse. If manipulators really had the powers claimed, they could win the lottery every week. I prefer to point out that they could also win a Nobel Prize for discovering fundamental physical forces hitherto unknown to science.