Only the fairy tale equates changelessness with happiness...Permanence means paralysis and death. Only, in movement, with all its pain, is life.
The seventeenth century is everywhere a time in which the state's power over everything individual increases, whether that power be in absolutist hands or may be considered the result of a contract, etc. People begin to dispute the sacred right of the individual ruler or authority without being aware that at the same time they are playing into the hands of a colossal state power.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the increasing power of the state over individuals and the paradox of challenging authority while inadvertently strengthening the state.
Jacob Burckhardt's quote analyzes the dynamics of state power during the seventeenth century, highlighting a critical awareness of how people's disputes against individual rulers or authorities often led to a greater consolidation of state power. It suggests that while individuals might seek to challenge oppressive authorities, they may not realize that this very act could empower the state as a whole, leading to a nuanced understanding of freedom and authority.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
A political science lecture discussing the evolution of state power.
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Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls.
There must be another life, she thought, sinking back into her chair, exasperated. Not in dreams; but here and now, in this room, with living people. She felt as if she were standing on the edge of a precipice with her hair blown back; she was about to grasp something that just evaded her. There must be another life, here and now, she repeated. This is too short, too broken. We know nothing, even about ourselves.
I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.
I have no desire to crow over anybody or to see anybody eating crow, figuratively or otherwise. We should all get together and make a country in which everybody can eat turkey whenever he pleases.
What if we never 'get over' certain deaths, or our childhoods? What if the idea that we should have by now, or will, is a great palace lie? What if we're not supposed to? What if it takes a life time...?
Perhaps loneliness had nothing to do with place or circumstance; perhaps it was in you; yourself. Perhaps, wherever you were, you took your little circle of loneliness with you.