Politics hates a vacuum. If it isn't filled with hope, someone will fill it with fear.
Naomi KleinRead
If this really is true, then greed really isn't good, after all. It really isn't the way to maximize the best possible outcome. We really do need to come together and act collectively. Government isn't always the problem. It's sometimes the solution. And, so their whole intellectual scaffolding collapses. So, they'd rather deny the science.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques greed and advocates for collective action as a solution.
Naomi Klein highlights the flaws in the belief that greed leads to optimal outcomes, arguing instead that working together as a society can bring about better results. She suggests that dismissing the role of government ignores its potential as a force for good and that a reliance on individualism undermines the pursuit of effective solutions to societal issues.
Themes
GreedCollective ActionGovernmentSocietySolution
In practice
Example use cases
During a community meeting about resource management, this quote can be cited to highlight the need for cooperative solutions.
More from Naomi Klein
All quotes →Because it is such a huge crisis, because it puts us on a firm science-based deadline, it's a once-in-a-century opportunity to build a better society and address raging inequality, create huge numbers of jobs, rebuild our public infrastructure. But, we can't do it unless we break every single rule in the free-market playbook. Which is why the worst people in the world all deny climate change.
Naomi KleinRead
Terrorism doesn't just blow up buildings; it blasts every other issue off the political map. The spectre of terrorism - real and exaggerated - has become a shield of impunity, protecting governments around the world from scrutiny for their human rights abuses.
Naomi KleinRead
Everybody that's trying to get anything progressive done in this country knows that the biggest barrier is getting money out of politics.
Naomi KleinRead
I think I would say that there is absolutely no way to reconcile an austerity agenda with climate action. Our political class needs to understand that the fight against austerity and the fight for climate action are the same fight.
Naomi KleinRead
I think the fossil fuel industry is genuinely freaked out by the combination of the price collapse, the divestment movement, and that fact that renewable energy is getting so cheap so fast.
Naomi KleinRead
Similar quotes
There is no more great men; there is only great committees.
Marshall McluhanRead
It's useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.
Terry PratchettRead
The boundaries of democracy have to be widened so as to include economic equality also. This is the great revolution through which we are all passing.
Jawaharlal NehruRead
The mind, whatever else it is, is a constant of everyone's experience, and, in more ways than we know, the creator of the reality that we live within... Nothing is more essential to us.
Marilynne RobinsonRead
Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.
Walter BenjaminRead
So while I can't tell you if bringing a child into this world is the morally-responsible to do, I can say that the future, much like the present, is going to be a whole lot better than you think.
Peter DiamandisRead