Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
Wole SoyinkaRead
Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Power often distorts truth, turning it into a selective and deceptive narrative.
Wole Soyinka emphasizes that power can manipulate truth to serve its own interests, resulting in a distorted representation of reality. This perspective highlights how those in authority may control information and perception, leading to truths that are actually lies, selectively crafted to maintain domination and control.
Themes
PowerTruthDominationControlManipulation
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about political authority and media, this quote can underline how power influences public perception.
More from Wole Soyinka
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A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment more than buildings: It must shatter the foundations of thought and re-create. Only in this way does every individual share in the cataclysm and understand the purpose of sacrifice.
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Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how great human trauma can be transformed to commence true reconstruction of people. Human trauma can lead to stunted growth and mass withdrawal.
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I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence.
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Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.
Wole SoyinkaRead
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