The whole underside of our society has always been violence and still is. Churches, laws - everybody seems to think that man is a noble savage. But he's only an animal. A meat-eating, talking animal. Recognize it. He also has grace and love and beauty. But don't say to me we're not violent.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the inherent violence in human nature and society while also acknowledging beauty and grace.
Sam Peckinpah's quote presents a stark view of humanity, asserting that beneath the surface of civilization, we are driven by primal instincts, primarily violence. He critiques the romanticized notion of humans as noble beings, suggesting instead that we are complex creatures capable of both brutality and beauty, and encourages an honest recognition of our darker traits alongside our capacity for kindness and artistry.
In practice
In a philosophy class discussing the duality of human nature.
We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways.
Your mind is the knife that cuts the continuum of space and time into neat slices of linear experience.
The guest will judge better of a feast than the cook
The Buddha never intended to make desire itself the problem. When he said craving causes suffering, he was referring not to our natural inclination as living beings to have wants and needs, but to our habit of clinging to experience that must, by nature, pass away.
And what is liberty, whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world? Is it not the union of all liberties - liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press, of travel, or labor, or trade?
The only conception of freedom I can have is that of the prisoner or the individual in the midst of the State. The only one I know is freedom of thought and action.
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