History suggests that the disillusioned and the disaffected do not readily take to the streets nor man the barricades to defend a system that failed to defend them.
David OlusogaRead
The primitive fight-or-flight regions of our mammalian brains react to immediate danger. We instinctively run from an avalanche but the gradual retreat of a glacier, the portent of the far greater danger of rising temperatures and rising oceans, just doesn't get through to us in the same way.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our brains respond quickly to immediate threats but struggle with gradual dangers like climate change.
David Olusoga's quote highlights the human instinct to react to immediate physical threats, such as an avalanche, while failing to adequately respond to slow-building crises like climate change. It illustrates the challenge of perceiving and addressing gradual dangers, which can often feel less urgent and therefore less impactful on our emotions and actions, despite their potential for catastrophic consequences.
Themes
Climate ChangeDangerInstinctEnvironmentAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about climate awareness, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of recognizing slow-moving threats.
More from David Olusoga
All quotes βNo matter that you're a British citizen, no matter that you were born here - your skin colour means you do not have the same rights as others to express critical opinions about your own country.
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Public buildings, built from the rates and taxes paid by past generations, are being auctioned off by impoverished councils who need the money to pay the redundancies of workers they can no longer afford to employ. Many of these grand Victorian buildings will be turned into flats that most people will never be able to afford.
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Black history is a series of missing chapters from British history. I'm trying to put those bits back in.
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We nonchalantly expect that next year's smartphone will be faster and better than this year's, yet we struggle to imagine that society and our lives could progress at anything like the pace at which technology advances and we meekly accept it when things go backwards.
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Our national history cannot be national if, in the near future, one in three young adults feels their stories remain untold, if this country's long global history of empire and interconnections is marginalised and if the historical reality of race is rendered almost invisible.
David OlusogaRead
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