Posts Tagged ‘octavia butler’
Octavia E. Butler: Privilege of the Rich
on Friday, June 22, 2018Octavia Butler Money Quote saying Our leaders have made education too costly and made policy we allow to degrade us without objection. Octavia Butler said:
“I have watched education become more a privilege of the rich than the basic necessity that it must be if civilized society is to survive. I have watched as convenience, profit, and inertia excused greater and more dangerous environmental degradation. I have watched poverty, hunger, and disease become inevitable for more and more people.” ― Octavia E. Butler
Octavia E. Butler is expressing concern about the direction of society in this quote. She argues that access to education is becoming more of a privilege for the wealthy rather than a basic right and necessity for all citizens.
Butler also criticizes how convenience, profit motives and complacency have been used to justify increasing environmental harm. Additionally, she notes her distress that more people seem resigned to poverty, hunger and illness as unavoidable.
Overall, Butler’s quote suggests she believes these trends threaten civilized society’s survival if left unaddressed. She appears to be advocating for universal access to learning and healthcare as well as more sustainable stewardship of the environment, which she views as fundamental to social justice and stability according to her perspective.
Octavia E. Butler: Sell Yourself Into Slavery
on Friday, June 22, 2018Octavia Butler Money Quote saying Our leaders can be understood by their own behavior and they will treat us just as they have always demonstrated with those actions. Octavia Butler said:
“To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery” — Octavia E. Butler
In this quote, acclaimed author Octavia E. Butler seems to be warning about the dangers of following or submitting to dishonest and oppressive leaders.
She suggests that to be governed by a “liar” who cannot be trusted will inevitably lead to being “told lies” and misled. Butler also asserts that allowing a “tyrant” to wield power over a people or nation amounts to “selling yourself and those you love into slavery”, implying tyrannical rule crushes freedom and autonomy.
The overall interpretation is that Butler believed putting faith in leaders lacking integrity or who abuse their power for selfish ends will only result in harm, deception and loss of self-determination. She appears to be advocating the importance of discernment in leadership and guarding against ceding authority to those who wield it irresponsibly, unethically or for nefarious purposes according to her perspective expressed in this thought-provoking quote.