We owe our children β the most vulnerable citizens in any society β a life free from violence and fear.
Nelson MandelaRead
When we dehumanise and demonise our opponents, we abandon the possibility of peacefully resolving our differences, and seek to justify violence against them.
Interpretation
Dehumanizing our opponents makes peaceful resolution impossible and justifies violence.
Nelson Mandela's quote emphasizes that when we strip our opponents of their humanity and view them as demons, we effectively destroy any chance of resolving our conflicts peacefully. This mindset not only escalates tensions but also provides a rationale for violent actions against those we see as less than human, highlighting the moral responsibility we carry in how we perceive others in conflict scenarios.
In practice
In a debate on social justice, this quote could illustrate the dangers of extremist views.
We owe our children β the most vulnerable citizens in any society β a life free from violence and fear.
What freedom am I being offered while the organization of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.
The past is a rich resource on which we can draw in order to make decisions for the future, but it does not dictate our choices. We should look back at the past and select what is good, and leave behind what is bad.
We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people.
After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one's person.
I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.
For tyme ylost may nought recovered be.
This appetite to choose death by pleasure if it is available to choose - this appetite of your people unable to choose appetites, this is the death.
It is not that the Englishman can't feel-it is that he is afraid to feel. He has been taught at his public school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow, or even open his mouth too wide when he talks-his pipe might fall out if he did.
The real fight is about what should be in the marketplace and what should not. Should education be a marketable commodity? Should healthcare?
They don't want equal time - they want all the time there is.
Any medical man who predicts exactly when a patient will die, or exactly how long he will live, is bound to make a fool of himself. The human factor is always incalculable. The weak have often unexpected powers of resistance, the strong sometimes succumb.
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