#def

Traditional hedonism...was based on the direct experience of pleasure: wine, women and song; sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll; or whatever the local variant. The problem, from a capitalist perspective, is that there are inherent limits to all this. People become sated, bored...Modern self-illusory hedonism solves this dilemma because here, what one is really consuming are fantasies and day-dreams about what having a certain product would be like. ↗

— David Graeber

#capitalism #redefining-consumption #dreams

England is not the jewelled isle of Shakespeare's much-quoted message, nor is it the inferno depicted by Dr Goebbels. More than either it resembles a family, a rather stuffy Victorian family, with not many black sheep in it but with all its cupboards bursting with skeletons. It has rich relations who have to be kow-towed to and poor relations who are horribly sat upon, and there is a deep conspiracy of silence about the source of the family income. It is a family in which the young are generally thwarted and most of the power is in the hands of irresponsible uncles and bedridden aunts. Still, it is a family. It has its private language and its common memories, and at the approach of an enemy it closes its ranks. A family with the wrong members in control - that, perhaps is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase. ↗

— George Orwell

#conspiracy #control #defence #england #family

I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare. ↗

— Malcolm X

#dreams

Defensiveness is usually someone silently screaming that they need you to value and respect them in disguise. When you look for deeper meanings behind someone’s pain you can then begin to heal not only yourself but others. ↗

— Shannon L. Alder

#compassion #defensiveness #emotional-pain #forgiveness #anger

i think you will be tired of telling me & my dreams to go to hell ↗

— E.E. Cummings

#deflating #dreams #go-to-hell #dreams

It appeared clear to me - partly because of the lies that filled my history textbooks - that the intent of formal education was to inculcate obedience to a social order that did not deserve my loyalty. Defiance seemed the only dignified response to the adult world. ↗

— Timothy B. Tyson

#edcuation #history #inculcating #lies #loyalty

I don't have a master. I'm not sure if I have an equal. ↗

— Laurell K. Hamilton

#funny #equality

Assumptions equal a loss of pride and the sting of defeat. ↗

— Donna Lynn Hope

#assumptions #defeat #equality

My past has not defined me, destroyed me, deterred me, or defeated me; it has only strengthened me. ↗

— Steve Maraboli

#define #happiness #inspirational #life #motivational

You are not a victim. No matter what you have been through, you're still here. You may have been challenged, hurt, betrayed, beaten, and discouraged, but nothing has defeated you. You are still here! You have been delayed but not denied. You are not a victim, you are a victor. You have a history of victory. ↗

— Steve Maraboli

#betrayed #challenged #defeated #denied #destiny