Interesting Quotes

"I have argued in this book that the premise common to both traditions is mistaken. The real source of social order in capitalism -of its stable reproduction over time- is not culture or ideology, it is the class structure itself. The structure ensures that individuals within the working class choose individualized forms of resistance over collective ones. They do so not because they fail to recognize their interests, as theories of false consciousness or cultural hegemony would have it, but because they accurately perceive the risk / cost matrix associated with collective action. Hence, they typically opt for individualized forms of advancement over collective ones. But to opt for an individualized strategy is nothing other than to accept the dominant position of the employer's -and of capitalist as a class. It leaves unchallenged the employer's structural power over the worker and seeks simply to maximize the worker's welfare within the latter's parameters. It is a tacit acceptance of the rules of the game, rather than an effror to transform or even challenge them."

“I bring all of this up about memory laws and historical memory because it is important to realize that our collective memory, just like our individual memory, can be subtly altered by enforced agendas. Whatever version of history you are exposed to in school and media, if accepted, will become your memory. To this extent, memory is hostage to whatever we’re willing to accept as true. This es especially perilous if someone is exerting subtle pressures on us to favour one interpretation of history rather than another. Our acceptance of their interpretation will form the basis of our future memory. That’s whey we have to remain all the more astute at evaluating and asking ourselves how we will remember and what we wish to remember about collective past, especially given current political and social forces aimed at altering our views and, by implication, our memories”

"The pandemic has further consolidated the dominance of Big Tech companies, such as Amazon, Netflix and YouTube, which have seen their net worth increase manifold as a result of their stock market rebound, given their increased use and role during the pandemic. A similar boost has been witnessed by the world's most popular videoconferencing apps, none of which is European. Amazon and Netflix have both increased in value by roughly 30 % this year, while Zoom's value has doubled. For instance, Amazon's market valuation is now about US$ 1.17 trillion, about the size of the entire Spanish economy. The five Big Tech companies – Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook – account for a fifth of the market capitalisation of the entire Standard and Poor's 500 index".

"What become clear was that, today and in history, the migrant is not the exception, but rather the constitutive political figure of existing societies so far"

"Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however long it takes, that life isn't all it's cracked up to be"

“He had been a living example of what they proposed in theory: the advancement, through education from poverty to affluence, from powerlessness and dependency to valuable contributor to society”

"How does one man assert his power over another, Winston? / Winston thought. "By making him suffer," he said / "Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own?".
 

"Keeping on keeping on is perhaps the single quality teachers most need, he thinks. Perhaps it's true for every profession: that virtue of doggedness which, long after the initial flash and dazzle of brilliance inspired you to turn up to do the job, means that you won't give up".

"John Andros knew at length what it was he fought for so savagely that evening. He had it now, he possessed it forever and for some time he sat there rocking very slowly to and fro in the darkness"

"Between pigs and human beings there was not, and there need not be, any clash of interests whatever. Their struggles and their difficulties were one. Was not the labour problem the same everywhere?"