Today every invention is received with a cry of triumph which soon turns into a cry of fear.
Interpretation
New inventions are often celebrated initially but may later cause anxiety and concern.
Bertolt Brecht's quote reflects the dual nature of technological advancements, where the initial excitement over innovation quickly shifts to apprehension about its consequences. This highlights the complex relationship society has with progress, depicting how inventions can simultaneously inspire hope and invoke fear regarding their impact on life and thought.
In practice
During a technology conference, a speaker might quote this to discuss the societal impacts of artificial intelligence.
The shrill voices of those who give orders Are full of fear like the squeakings of Piglets awaiting the butcher's knife, as their fat arses Sweat with anxiety in their office chairs.... Fear rules not only those who are ruled, but The rulers too.
We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself.
We attacked a foreign people and treated them like rebels. As you know, it's all right to treat barbarians barbarically. It's the desire to be barbaric that makes governments call their enemies barbarians.
War is like love, it always finds a way.
Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.
Recently my fingers have developed a prejudice against comparatives. They all follow this pattern: a squirrel is smaller than a tree; a bird is more musical than a tree. Each of us is the strongest one in his or her own skin. Characteristics should take off their hats to one another, instead of spitting in each other's faces.
When it comes to social media, there are just times I turn off the world, you know. There are just some times you have to give yourself space to be quiet, which means you've got to set those phones down.
The Model T blazed the way for the motor industry & started the movement for good roads everywhere. It is still the pioneer car in many parts of the world which are just beginning to be motorized.
We're losing track of the vastness of the potential for computer science. We really have to revive the beautiful intellectual joy of it, as opposed to the business potential.
You know, one of these things that happened in the '60s and '70s was this confluence of, sort of, a counter-culture with computer culture.
The Internet amplifies power in all respects. It can grossly exaggerate the power of the individual.
The combination of human skills with technology will always be at the root of any solution to the future of making clothes.
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