On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.
Emma GoldmanRead
The powers know that the people at large are like children whose despair, sorrow, and tears can be turned into joy with a little toy. ... An army and navy represents the people's toys.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Emma Goldman suggests that those in power manipulate people's emotions and distract them from their struggles with superficial pleasures or nationalistic symbols.
In this quote, Emma Goldman illustrates how those in authority understand that the general populace can be easily swayed and controlled. She likens people to children, who can be made to forget their worries through simple pleasures—here represented metaphorically by 'toys' which symbolize military power and possessions. The underlying message critiques the way governments utilize military might and national pride to distract citizens from their real issues and suffering, demonstrating how joy can be manufactured to mask despair.
Themes
PowerManipulationEmotionsDistractionJoySorrow
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech highlighting the need for political awareness, this quote could serve as a stark reminder of how easily people can be lulled into complacency.
More from Emma Goldman
All quotes →No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.
Emma GoldmanRead
To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character.
Emma GoldmanRead
John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities?
Emma GoldmanRead
Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination.
Emma GoldmanRead
If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.
Emma GoldmanRead
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