Given exponential growth dynamics of infectious diseases, containing an epidemic is straightforward early on, but nearly impossible once a disease spreads among a population.
Zeynep TufekciRead
Political activism is not failing because people are too busy watching cat videos online, but because of a fundamental collapse of citizen leverage on institutions of power like governments and corporations.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Political activism suffers not from distractions but from a loss of influence over powerful institutions.
In this quote, Zeynep Tufekci highlights that the decline in political activism is not merely due to people's engagement with trivial online content like cat videos, but rather stems from a deeper issue where citizens feel powerless against influential entities such as governments and corporations. This suggests that the root cause of political apathy lies in a systemic failure to empower individuals to enact change and hold authorities accountable.
Themes
PoliticalActivismCitizenPowerGovernmentCorporations
In practice
Example use cases
During a political rally, when discussing the importance of citizen engagement in governance.
More from Zeynep Tufekci
All quotes →Remember, the Internet did not create freedom of speech; in theory, we always had freedom of speech - it's just that it often went along with the freedom to be ignored. People had no access to the infrastructure to be heard.
Zeynep TufekciRead
Attention, to a terrorist group, is often what the well-meaning, outraged response is to your two-bit Internet troll: it is the food that feeds them.
Zeynep TufekciRead
Much of what ails our modern life is exactly because we reduce the value of a human being to a number, say salary or consumer power.
Zeynep TufekciRead
You might be tempted to think that China has a Streisand-effect problem, in which trying to censor an event creates even more publicity. But that assumes the Chinese government doesn't understand the Streisand effect, and that can't be right, because if one government understands attention dynamics online, it's China's.
Zeynep TufekciRead
A 'fair' fight between non-equals is not fair, and being blind to power is an implicit endorsement of the powerful.
Zeynep TufekciRead
Similar quotes
Unity and secularism will be the motto of the government. We can't afford divisive polity in India.
Manmohan SinghRead
There is no hope even that woman, with her right to vote, will ever purify politics.
Emma GoldmanRead
Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.
Nelson MandelaRead
As international support for Obama's decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world.
Noam ChomskyRead
You can’t have meaningful political democracy without functioning economic democracy.
Noam ChomskyRead
We Filipinos have to exercise the necessary pressure on Marcos. But it would certainly help our cause if the Americans would stop supporting Mr. Marcos.
Corazon AquinoRead