This breakdown of social order - rules of dress, sexual controls, speech patterns, family structures - has been seen as a great victory for the individual ... These acts of personal freedom are irrelevant to the exercise of power. So in lieu of taking a real part in the evolution of society, the individual struggles to appear as if no one has power over his personal evolution. Thus victories won for these individual liberties may actually be an acceptance of defeat by the individual.
John Ralston Saul
Newfoundlanders have got my fucking RESPECT
5 years ago
I am not sure I understand this quote. What is it trying to say? I don't get how he connected the defeat by the individual, and his previous suggestion that no one has power over him. There was a leap my brain couldn't make.
ReplyDeleteI THINK he's trying to say that all of these "freedoms" and "rights" that tend to be fought over lately, are only culminating into a defeat for ourselves by allowing us to destroy ourselves. Am I totally off?
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ReplyDeleteI would say he's talking about the worth of these personal freedoms to which we are so attached. All those tiny freedoms that allow us to "express ourselves" are relatively meaningless. They don't change anything outside of ourselves; society, government, public education, foreign policy, animal bylaws, minimum wage and what happens to the immigrant family down the street are all unaffected. The average person doesn't have much influence over the systems that shape his world, and so we insist on these personal freedoms. We need some illusion of choice and influence and this is the best we can do. I think Saul is saying personal freedoms do little more than help us feel better about our practical powerlessness.
ReplyDeleteWhoa... Hey I like that. That makes sense. We / I definitely do that. In fact just recently I was asking myself if I did that. I tend to think that I'm making a difference if I do all these little meaningless things, that are big to me, but have really no affect on the direction I want it to. It's not life changing in any way.
ReplyDeleteThank you for explaining. :) It's good food for thought.