Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language... It is to say, 'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.'
Desmond TutuRead
The prison industrial complex is perhaps, at least domestically, the most striking example of us putting profit before people. It all stems from one basic misunderstanding: that the public good can be shepherded by private interests.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the prioritization of profits over the well-being of individuals within the prison system.
Eugene Jarecki's quote highlights the problematic relationship between privatization and the public good, particularly in the context of the prison industrial complex. He suggests that the focus on profit leads to a fundamental misunderstanding of how societal welfare can be effectively managed, implying that relying on private interests to oversee such critical public institutions erodes the fundamental values of humanity and justice.
Themes
PrisonProfitPublic GoodPrivate InterestsJustice
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the ethics of the prison system at a community meeting.
Similar quotes
…So when the last and dreadful hour This crumbling pageant shall devour, The trumpet shall be heard on high, The dead shall live, the living die, And Music shall untune the sky
John DrydenRead
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
Carl JungRead
If a man be endowed with a generous mind, this is the best kind of nobility.
PlatoRead
As long as my record stands in federal court, any American citizen can be held in prison or concentration camps without a trial or a hearing.
Fred KorematsuRead
Whether there is such a thing as Reality, of which the various levels are only partial aspects, or whether there are only levels, is something that literature cannot decide. Literature recognizes rather the *reality of the levels.*
Italo CalvinoRead