Well, we see an increasingly weaker labor movement as a result of the overall assault on the labor movement and as a result of the globalization of capital.
We live in a society of an imposed forgetfulness, a society that depends on public amnesia.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights how society often tends to forget important issues and events, relying on a collective amnesia to function.
Angela Davis's quote emphasizes the troubling reality of a society that selectively forgets past injustices and struggles. It suggests that this 'imposed forgetfulness' allows the status quo to persist, as people become disengaged from critical historical contexts that inform contemporary issues. The implication is that public discourse and collective memory are essential for social justice and awareness, urging individuals to resist this trend of amnesia and keep vital histories alive.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about social justice, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of remembering historical injustices.
More from Angela Davis
All quotes βRacism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it's perhaps far more terrible than it's ever been.
Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of our social problems.
It's true that it's within the realm of cultural politics that young people tend to work through political issues, which I think is good, although it's not going to solve the problems
Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root.'
When children attend schools that place a greater value on discipline and security than on knowledge and intellectual development, they are attending prep schools for prison.
Similar quotes
If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the universe, and so winning peace of heart whatever obstacles we meet.
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The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?
Helping convene global stakeholders to establish a set of measurable, actionable and consensus-built goals focused on extreme poverty is invaluable.
And as the years have passed, the time has grown longer. The sad truth is that what I could recall in five seconds all too needed ten, then thirty, then a full minute - like shadows lengthening at dusk. Someday, I suppose, the shadows will be swallowed up in darkness.
People have so much pain inside them that they're not even aware of.