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Reactionary: a man walking backwards with his face to the future.
Aneurin Bevan
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Interpretation

What this quote means

A reactionary is someone who resists change or progress while being fixated on the past.

Aneurin Bevan's quote highlights the paradox of a reactionary mindset, where an individual is oriented towards the past and yet must confront an ever-evolving future. This suggests that attempting to retreat into outdated beliefs or systems may ultimately be futile, as progress continues to advance regardless of one's personal stance.

Themes

ReactionaryChangeFutureProgressMindset

In practice

Example use cases

In a debate about social policies, one might use this quote to illustrate the danger of clinging to outdated ideas.

More from Aneurin Bevan

I know that the right kind of leader for the Labour Party is a desiccated calculating machine who must not in any way permit himself to be swayed by indignation. If he sees suffering, privation or injustice he must not allow it to move him, for that would be evidence of the lack of proper education or of absence of self-control. He must speak in calm and objective accents and talk about a dying child in the same way as he would about the pieces inside an internal combustion engine.
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It is an axiom, enforced by all the experience of the ages, that they who rule industrially will rule politically.
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How can wealth persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? Here lies the whole art of Conservative politics in the twentieth century.
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He brings to the fierce struggle of politics the tepid enthusiasm of a lazy summer afternoon at a cricket match.
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I have never regarded politics as the arena of morals. It is the arena of interest.
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Stand not too near the rich man lest he destroy thee - and not too far away lest he forget thee.
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Quote by Aneurin Bevan | QuoteProject