We live in a society of an imposed forgetfulness, a society that depends on public amnesia.
Angela DavisRead
The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that position be taken on current issues as they arise and the desire that one's contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Activism requires a balance between urgent action and the hope for lasting impact.
Angela Davis highlights the inherent tension that political activists face: the need to respond to immediate issues while also striving for a legacy that withstands the test of time. This duality requires not only passion and urgency but also foresight and reflection on how one's actions will resonate in the future.
Themes
ActivismPoliticsLegacyTimeTension
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of civic engagement and the need for activists to think beyond immediate issues.
More from Angela Davis
All quotes →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.
Angela DavisRead
Racism 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.
Angela DavisRead
Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of our social problems.
Angela DavisRead
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
Angela DavisRead
Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root.'
Angela DavisRead
Similar quotes
When a politician uses the word 'folks,' we should brace ourselves for the deceit, or worse, that is coming.
Noam ChomskyRead
Nobody should have any illusions. The United States has essentially a one-party system and the ruling party is the business party.
Noam ChomskyRead
Until politics are a branch of science, we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.
John B. S. HaldaneRead
In inner-party politics, these methods lead, as we shall yet see, to this: the party organization substitutes itself for the party, the central committee substitutes itself for the organization, and, finally, a dictator substitutes himself for the central committee.
Leon TrotskyRead
There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America.
Barack ObamaRead
People are finding it harder and harder to relate to foreign policy.
Madeleine AlbrightRead