Social Criticism Quotes

“Much of what is today called "social criticism" consists of members of the upper classes denouncing the tastes of the lower classes (bawdy entertainment, fast food, plentiful consumer goods) while considering themselves egalitarians.”
― Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

“Ah, Sir, a novel is a mirror carried along a high road. At one moment it reflects to your vision the azure skies, at another the mire of the puddles at your feet. And the man who carries this mirror in his pack will be accused by you of being immoral! His mirror shews the mire, and you blame the mirror! Rather blame that high road upon which the puddle lies, still more the inspector of roads who allows the water to gather and the puddle to form.”
― Stendhal, The Red and the Black

“The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, yet its inhabitants are strikingly unhappy. Accordingly, we present to the rest of mankind, on a planet rife with suffering and tragedy, the spectacle of a clown civilization. Sustained on a clown diet rich in sugar and fat, we have developed a clown physiognomy. We dress like clowns. We move about a landscape filled with cartoon buildings in clownmobiles, absorbed in clownish activities. We fill our idle hours enjoying the canned antics of professional clowns... Death, when we acknowledge it, is just another pratfall on the boob tube. Bang! You're dead!”
― James Howard Kunstler

“Indeed, bribery, favoritism, and corruption in a great variety of forms were rampant not only in politics, but in all levels of society.”
― David McCullough, 1776

“Behold the complacent salesman retailing the Good and True.
One can even buy a so-called Religion, which is really but common
morality sanctified with flowers and music. Rob the Church of her
accessories and what remains behind? Yet the trusts thrive marvelously,
for the prices are absurdly cheap,--a prayer for a ticket to heaven,
a diploma for an honorable citizenship.Hide yourself under a bushel
quickly, for if your real usefulness were known to the world you would
soon be knocked down to the highest bidder by the public auctioneer.”
― Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea

“The real function of some solutions is to create or perpetuate a problem.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“A book can be read to you, not for you.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“I woke last night from a nightmare in which I saw a malignant society of pathological liars racked with insecurities, consumed by guilt, screaming for violence and I noticed I was sweating most profusely as I thanked the heavens above that it was only a dream before turning on the light to get a cigarette.”
― Scott C. Holstad

“anyway i saw it coming from the rooftops. they said the second coming was heading our way tomorrow’s world today force fed to us in a tobacco-colored spoon keep us entertained – content - oppressed. we prayed, friend, and they brought it down.”
― Scott C. Holstad, Big Head Press Broadside Poem Collection

“El problema de nuestra sociedad, es que aún cuando estamos abajo, necesitamos de alguien que esté peor para que nos recuerde que no estamos tan mal. Pero eso no cambia el lugar en donde estamos, solo hace más llevadera nuestra miseria.”
― Juan Viale Rigo, Último Año

“[...] For instance, a gay man who played with dolls in his childhood, dresses pink and engages in anal sex with another man triggers a gender prejudice, by proxy rather than based on a characteristic of their own, like racism and classism do: dolls and pink are traditionally associated with the feminine sphere, anal sexuality has a higher stigma mainly because a more visible power level play comes into effect (with a dominant and a submissive role) than other sex positions. Consequently, when a man crosses his "designated" gender role boundary of masculinity, strength, dominance into femininity, weakness, submission, then he is no longer valued as a human being, for the man has become [or is] a woman. Therefore, homophobia and transphobia are actually by-products of misogyny, which is is turn gynophobic whitewashing, deeply rooted in the dominant ideology of patriarchy and historical sexism.”
― Vincent Bozzino, Philosophy Trips: A Naive's Guide

“Getting something or someone we want is often a guaranteed way to eventually stop us from wanting it, him, or her.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Our cars are turning into smartphones with wheels.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Because of poverty, many a man who is not into men sometimes finds, or once found, himself inside a man.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“violence is so american
violence is pretty girls
guns ‘n danger
rape, murder, ‘n mayhem
tv
above all
eats us up
‘n
spits
us out
tells us lies
we willingly believe”
― Scott C. Holstad, Places

“i'm still waiting for someone to kick in the groove wake us up get the juices flowing and you know the shit gets more stale a little more square every day and we're diggin our own grave jumpin in head first and still we cry out for leaders to take us away start the groove over but the tunes are the same doesn't really matter where you start.”
― Scott C. Holstad

“feeling the fear
hysteria
in mass murder
town

83-year-old woman
shot thru eye

convenience clerk
nothing taken
says
it’s pointless
junked out killer on
lam
killing for
art’s sake

THIS is my art
judge me
now.”
― Scott C. Holstad, Big Head Press Broadside Poem Collection

“[...]; soon the day would come, if not already arrived, in which the privilege of being in any way disconnected from the rest of Humanity would be reserved only for the wealthy, who can purchase with their riches the isolation and quiet denied to us mere rabble.”
― K.W. Jeter, Grim Expectations

“El problema de nuestra sociedad, es que necesitamos siempre de alguien que esté peor para que nos recuerde que no estamos tan mal. Pero eso no cambia que estamos aún peor.”
― Juan Viale Rigo, Último Año

“El problema de nuestra sociedad es que necesitamos siempre de alguien que esté peor para que nos recuerde que no estamos tan mal. Pero eso no cambia que estamos aún peor.”
― Juan Viale Rigo, Último Año

“El problema de nuestra sociedad es que necesitamos siempre de alguien que esté peor, para que nos recuerde que no estamos tan mal. Pero eso no cambia el lugar en donde estamos, solo hace más llevadera nuestra miseria.”
― Juan Viale Rigo, Último Año

“El problema de nuestra sociedad, es que aún cuando estamos a abajo, necesitamos de alguien que esté peor para que nos recuerde que no estamos tan mal. Pero eso no cambia el lugar en donde estamos, solo hace más llevadera nuestra miseria.”
― Juan Viale Rigo, Último Año

“Tom Durrie (b. 1931) is a school critic, a nonagenarian giant, and a poster boy for longevity and vitality of a happy brain. His biography is rich beyond description, and reflects Durrie's infinite passion for life. His CV would suffice to fill in a few lifetimes, and is the best testimony that a rich and productive life is a self-sustaining process. Inspired by A.S. Neill (Summerhill 1960), Durrie found his own formula for free learning. Durrie has tried teaching in traditional and in alternative schools (for a sum total of over a decade). He was also a headmaster of a free school for a while. In 1966, the analysis of his teaching experience provides a unique insight into the impact of freedom on behavior and mental health of students. His text, published 54 years late (2020), can be found here: "Free learning in a public school". Durrie's three successful children received minimal schooling. None attended high school. Over decades of his analysis and interests, Durrie noticed cyclical processes, in which the school system tightens its grip on children and then enters a period of rebellion, and seeking new solutions only to fall back again into its hungry propensity for limiting child freedoms.”
― Piotr Wosniak,

“Las guerras no se borran, sus muertos siempre se sientan a la mesa.”
― Ana Tijoux, Sacar la voz

“Social Criticism:
«Del sepulcro umbrío de la corrupción es la prole de Sión, si entre edictos favorables heredasteis más tierras que el sedicioso Sileo, arduos fines son de desempeñar las discrepancias más empíreas, las que atañen a esa conspicua excepción de lo honorable y distinguido, y que es por obra y gracia el Elegido»

Answer:
La cita se dirige a los poderosos de la sociedad. Les dice que, aunque hayan heredado sus riquezas y tierras gracias a edictos favorables, sus acciones son injustas. También sugiere que los poderosos son como el sedicioso Sileo, que se aprovechó de su poder para enriquecerse. La cita es una crítica a la corrupción y a la injusticia en la sociedad. La sociedad necesita un cambio, y ese cambio solo puede venir por obra y gracia de una figura mesiánica o "el Elegido".”
― David Silvestre, Herodías

“Joshua took another small sip from his wine glass as his gaze and his thoughts drifted away from the flat-screen television mounted above the marbled fireplace to ponder a roomful of sports jackets and pantsuits and in some cases cocktail dresses but only of neutral tones and minimal detailing if for no other reason than to avoid becoming the subject of the next petty scandal that would nevertheless send shockwaves through their haughty and insular world. The way they stood in their intimate clusters. Their drink glasses held in various poses of sophistication. And whenever they did bring glass to mouth in accordance with judiciously preset intervals it was also for show, as he believed was true of their subdued conversations, which, from where he was sitting, appeared to be nothing more than the unintelligible murmurings of barely moving lips. A whole list of observations came to mind. Not one of them flattering in any way. The atmosphere thick with that certain stuffiness and elitist redolence of an ivy league alumni fundraising gala. Of course, he readily admitted to himself that out of everyone in the room he was very likely the most materially bereft and least credentialed and that this stinging truth undoubtedly inflamed his plebeian impulse. But that’s not what was bugging him.”
― Casey Fisher, The Subtle Cause

“But the people of Harappa lived in peace and prosperity for a period about as long as Christianity has been on the earth. And yet, not a single war. Quite the contrast, wouldn’t you say?”
― Casey Fisher, The Subtle Cause

“Oh, I don’t know,” Karen groaned, feeling suddenly very feisty. “I just don’t think anyone with a loose appendage swinging between their legs—which we know corresponds to a loose screw in the brain—could ever be trusted with something as delicate as the well-being of someone not similarly encumbered.”
― Casey Fisher, The Subtle Cause

“I've encountered no greater mystery in life than myself. In a just society I'd be warehoused somewhere. But of course what really threatens the scofflaw is not the just society but the decaying one. It is here that he finds himself becoming slowly indistinguishable from the citizenry. He finds himself co-opted. Difficult these days to be a rake or a bounder. A roué. A deviant? A pervert? Surely you're joking. The new dispensations have all but erased these categories from the language. You can no longer be a loose woman . For instance. A trollop. The whole concept is meaningless. You cant even be a drug addict. At best you're just a user. A user? What the fuck is that? We've gone from dope friends to drug users in just a few short years. It doesn't take Nostradamus to see where this is headed. The most heinous of criminals clamoring for standing. Serialkillers and cannibals claiming a right to their lifestyle. Like anyone else I try to sort out where I fit into this menagerie. Without malefactors the world of the righteous is robbed of all meaning. As for myself again if I cant be decorum's sworn enemy while savoring its fruits I simply see no place for me at all. What would you recommend, Squire? Go home and draw a warm bath and climb in and open a vein? Never mind. I see you weighing the merits of it. Anyway, Hoffer has it right. Real trouble doesn't begin in a society until boredom has become its most general feature. Boredom will drive even quietminded people down paths they'd never imagined.
Boredom.
Squire, I'm a scoundrel very nearly without peer. But in our time decent people actually attract comment. We dont know what to make of them. They have few friends, while I have more friends than I know what to do with. Why is that?
I dont know.
I think it's because people are bored out of their fucking minds. I cant come up with anything else.”
― Cormac McCarthy, The Passenger

“[...] For instance, a gay man who played with dolls in his childhood, dresses pink and engages in anal sex with another man triggers a gender prejudice, by proxy rather than based on a characteristic of their own, like racism and classism do: dolls and pink are traditionally associated with the feminine sphere, anal sexuality has a higher stigma than vaginal, mainly because a more visible power level play comes into effect (with a dominant and a submissive role). Consequently, when a man crosses his "designated" gender role boundary of masculinity, strength, dominance into femininity, weakness, submission, then he is no longer valued as a human being, for the man has become [or is] a woman. Therefore, homophobia and transphobia are actually by-products of misogyny, which is is turn gynophobic whitewashing, deeply rooted in the dominant ideology of patriarchy and historical sexism. [...]”
― Vincent Bozzino, Philosophy Trips: A Naive's Guide