QuoteProject
Publicity is the life of this culture - in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive - and at the same time publicity is its dream.
John Berger
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Publicity plays a crucial role in capitalism, shaping culture while also reflecting its ideals.

In this quote, John Berger emphasizes the intrinsic relationship between publicity and capitalism within the frameworks of culture and society. He suggests that publicity not only sustains capitalism by promoting consumption and ideas but also represents the aspirations and ideals of that very culture, creating a paradox where public perception influences economic survival and cultural identity simultaneously.

Themes

PublicityCapitalismCultureSocietyMedia

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the role of media in contemporary society.

More from John Berger

The strange power of art is sometimes it can show that what people have in common is more urgent than what differentiates them. It seems to me it's something that theatre can do, but it's rare; it's very rare.
John BergerRead
Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does.
John BergerRead
We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.
John BergerRead
The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget.
John BergerRead
Propaganda requires a permanent network of communication so that it can systematically stifle reflection with emotive or utopian slogans. Its pace is usually fast.
John BergerRead
Being a unique superpower undermines the military intelligence of strategy. To think strategically, one has to imagine oneself in the enemy's place. If one cannot do this, it is impossible to foresee, to take by surprise, to outflank. Misinterpreting an enemy can lead to defeat. This is how empires fall.
John BergerRead

Similar quotes

The man who kills a man kills a man. The man who kills himself kills all men. As far as he is concerned, he wipes out the world.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision.
Maya AngelouRead
If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime.
Jack KerouacRead
Society is held together by our need; we bind it together with legend, myth, coercion, fearing that without it we will be hurled into that void, within which, like the earth before the Word was spoken, the foundations of society are hidden.
James A. BaldwinRead
Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance.
Francis BaconRead
The sickness of the individual is ultimately caused by and sustained by the sickness of his civilization
Herbert MarcuseRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.