#activism

What Friedan gave to the world was, "the problem that has no name." She not only named it but dissected it. The advances of science, the development of labor-saving appliances, the development of the suburbs: all had come together to offer women in the 1950s a life their mothers had scarcely dreamed of, free from rampant disease, onerous drudgery, noxious city streets. But the green lawns and big corner lots were isolating, the housework seemed to expand to fill the time available, and polio and smallpox were replaced by depression and alcoholism. All that was covered up in a kitchen conspiracy of denial... [i]nstead the problem was with the mystique of waxed floors and perfectly applied lipstick. ↗

— Betty Friedan

#feminism #dreams

The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you'll get action. ↗

— Malcolm X

#awareness #change #education #knowledge #revolution

Violence never really deals with the basic evil of the situation. Violence may murder the murderer, but it doesn’t murder murder. Violence may murder the liar, but it doesn’t murder lie; it doesn’t establish truth. Violence may even murder the dishonest man, but it doesn’t murder dishonesty. Violence may go to the point of murdering the hater, but it doesn’t murder hate. It may increase hate. It is always a descending spiral leading nowhere. This is the ultimate weakness of violence: It multiplies evil and violence in the universe. It doesn’t solve any problems. ↗

— Martin Luther King Jr.

#civil-rights-movement #equal-rights #martin-luther-king-jr #reform #violence

[A]lthough the principle of equality has always been self-evident, it has never been self-executing. ↗

— Barack Obama

#activism #civil-rights #equality #equality

Why do I always listen to your insane plans? Why aren't we at home watching TV like everyone else? What possible difference will any of this make? ↗

— Shaun Tan

#activism #antitv #environment #inspirational #inspirational

Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. ↗

— Bill Gates

#choices #life #society #life

If my activism, however well-motivated, drives out love, then I have misunderstood Jesus’ gospel. I am stuck with law, not the gospel of grace. ↗

— Philip Yancey

#love

Because it’s no longer enough to be a decent person. It’s no longer enough to shake our heads and make concerned grimaces at the news. True enlightened activism is the only thing that can save humanity from itself. ↗

— Joss Whedon

#enlightment #humanity #understanding #enlightenment

I feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents. Primarily because of the activism and the injection of working at the Carter Center, and in international affairs, and to some degree, domestic affairs, on energy conservation, on environment, and things of that kind. ↗

— Jimmy Carter

#affairs #because #carter #center #conservation

Maybe subconsciously I've kept activism separate from acting because it's important to me in a more profound way. ↗

— Blythe Danner

#activism #because #i #important #kept