One of the little-celebrated powers of Presidents (and other high government officials) is to listen to their critics with just enough sympathy to ensure their silence.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Privilege often leads individuals to prioritize their advantages over the well-being of others, even to their own detriment.
This quote by John Kenneth Galbraith highlights the tendency of those in privileged positions to cling to their advantages at all costs. It suggests that people will go to great lengths, even risking their own downfall, to maintain their status and material benefits, reflecting a fundamental flaw in human nature concerning power and inequality.
Themes
PrivilegeMaterialismAdvantageInequalityPower
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social justice, this quote can illustrate the challenges of addressing privilege.
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.
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Money differs from an automobile or mistress in being equally important to those who have it and those who do not.
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Were it part of our everyday education and comment that the corporation is an instrument for the exercise of power, that it belongs to the process by which we are governed, there would then be debate on how that power is used and how it might be made subordinate to the public will and need. This debate is avoided by propagating the myth that the power does not exist.
John Kenneth GalbraithRead
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