How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.
Interpretation
To combat terrorism, one must reject fear and refuse to be intimidated.
Salman Rushdie's quote emphasizes the importance of resilience and courage in the face of threats like terrorism. By suggesting that the key to defeating such fear is not to be terrorized, he highlights how allowing fear to control one's actions only empowers those who perpetrate violence and creates a cycle of intimidation and oppression.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about resilience in times of societal fear.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
Relapse is very dangerous. However, relapse can be a symptom of the disease. Sometimes there are multiple relapses before you get sober and stay sober.
It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.
While we often huddle in groups of like-minded people, those with faith blaze a trail that threatens all of our comfort zones. Faith offends the stationary.
We speak here of the challenge of the dichotomies of war and peace, violence and non-violence, racism and human dignity, oppression and repression and liberty and human rights, poverty and freedom from want.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.
It is my birthright, it is my political right, it is my democratic right, it is my constitutional right... that I must open my mouth... my voice... I can raise my voice.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.