Social Change Quotes - Page 9

• Today masses of black women in the U.S. refuse to acknowledge that they have much to gain by feminist struggle. They fear feminism. They have stood in place so long that they are afraid to move. They fear change. They fear losing what little they have.

  Bell Hooks

  Struggle, Moving, Long

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• In the 21st century, you have to use technology as one of the tools in the toolkit to bring about social change.

  Beth Simone Noveck

  Technology, Use, Tools

  "Beth Simone Noveck, Former U.S Deputy Chief Technology Officer, On The Tech Trends That Worry Her Most". Interview with Bianca Bosker, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 19, 2011.

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• You can use principles of the free market to drive social change.

  Leila Janah

  Principles, Use, Social

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• ..."Fun?" you ask. "Weren't feminists these grim-faced, humorless, antifamily, karate-chopping ninjas who were bitter because they couldn't get a man?" Well, in fact the problem was that all too many of them HAD gotten a man, married him, had his kids, and then discovered that, as mothers, they were never supposed to have their own money, their own identity, their own aspirations, time to pee, or a brain. And yes, some women indeed became bad-tempered as a result. After all, no anger, no social change.

  Susan J. Douglas

  Mother, Fun, Kids

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• The secret message communicated to most young people today by the society around them is that they are not needed, that the society will run itself quite nicely until they - at some distant point in the future - will take over the reigns. Yet the fact is that the society is not running itself nicely... because the rest of us need all the energy, brains, imagination and talent that young people can bring to bear down on our difficulties. For society to attempt to solve its desperate problems without the full participation of even very young people is imbecile.

  Alvin Toffler

  Running, People, Imagination

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• True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self; but the point is not only to get out - you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.

  Henry James

  Happiness, Self, Inner Peace

  Henry James (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry James (Illustrated)”, p.159, Delphi Classics

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• Intimacy, says the phenomenologist Gaston Bachelard, is the highest value. I resist this statement at first. What about artistic achievement, or moral courage, or heroism, or altruistic acts, or work in the cause of social change? What about wealth or accomplishment? And yet something about it rings true, finally—that what we want is to be brought into relationship, to be inside, within. Perhaps it’s true that nothing matters more to us than that.

  Mark Doty

  Accomplishment, Achievement, Heroism

  Mark Doty (2002). “Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy”, p.6, Beacon Press

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• But it is much later in the game now, and ignorance of the score is inexcusable. To be unaware that a technology comes equipped with a program for social change, to maintain that technology is neutral, to make the assumption that technology is always a friend to culture is, at this late hour, stupidity plain and simple.

  Neil Postman

  Ignorance, Technology, Simple

  Neil Postman (2005). “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”, p.130, Penguin

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• We need to make fun of and ridicule the media images that seek to keep us down, divide us against each other by age, class, and race, and insist that we spend so much psychic energy on our faces, clothes and bodies that nothing is left for ideas, social change, or politics.

  Susan J. Douglas

  Fun, Race, Media

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• Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.

  Dalai Lama

  Karma, Wisdom, Buddhist

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• Graphomania (a mania for writing books) inevitably takes on epidemic proportions when a society develops to the point of creating three basic conditions: - (1) an elevated level of general well being which allows people to devote themselves to useless activities (2) a high degree of social atomization and , as a consequence, a general isolation of individuals; (3) the absence of dramatic social changes in the nation's internal life.

  Milan Kundera

  Book, Writing, Epidemics

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• We're the end of the baby boomers, and we participated in many social changes. Who would of thought, for example, when the AIDS epidemic came along that so many would die, because it was gay people dying. And what emerged was a grassroots movement that developed, and succeeded in getting things done. The pinpointing of that movement evolved into the changes that we have today.

  Todd Haynes

  Baby, Gay, Aids Epidemic

  Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

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• If a little less time was devoted to the translation of letters by Julius Caesar describing Britain 2000 years ago and a little more time was spent on teaching children how to describe (in simple modern English) the method whereby ethylene was converted into polythene in 1933 in the ICI laboratories at Northwich, and to discussing the enormous social changes which have resulted from this discovery, then I believe that we should be training future leaders in this country to face the world of tomorrow far more effectively than we are at the present time.

  Ronald Sydney Nyholm

  Country, Children, Teaching

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• There never was a social change in America without angry people at the heart

  Keith Miller

  Heart, America, People

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• In Europe, it appears that in the name of democracy, elites are pursuing an autocratic, centralized power, seeking economic control and social regimentation.

  Maggie Gallagher

  Europe, Names, Democracy

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• The spirituality that we need to develop for social change is one that mobilizes us for social change.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Communication, Needs, Spirituality

  Marshall B. Rosenberg (2004). “The Heart of Social Change: How You Can Make a Difference in Your World”, p.10, PuddleDancer Press

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• Social change involves helping people see new options for making life wonderful that are less costly to get needs met.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Communication, People, Needs

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• Unless we as social change agents come from a certain spirituality, we're likely to create more harm than good.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Communication, Agents, Spirituality

  "The Heart of Social Change: How to Make a Difference in Your World".

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• Law cannot stand aside from the social changes around it.

  William J. Brennan

  Law, Social

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• It is always the young that make the change. You don't get these ideas when you're middle-aged. Young people have daring, creativity, imagination and personal computers. Above all, what you have as young people that's vitally needed to make social change, is impatience. You want it to happen now. There have to be enough people that say, ‘We want it now, in our lifetime.’ This is your moment. This is your opportunity. Be adventurists in the sense of being bold and daring. Be opportunists and seize this opportunity, this moment in history, to go out and save our country. It's your turn now.

  Abbie Hoffman

  Country, Creativity, Opportunity

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• Community connectedness is not just about warm fuzzy tales of civic triumph. In measurable and well-documented ways, social capital makes an enormous difference in our lives...Social capital makes us smarter, healthier, safer, richer, and better able to govern a just and stable democracy.

  Robert D. Putnam

  Life, Change, Differences

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• The role model approach to social change is no substitute for challenging unjust employment practices, educational policies and housing.

  Patricia Hill Collins

  Educational, Practice, Role Models

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• The future is our responsibility, but change will not take place until the majority loose confidence in their dictator’s and elected officials’ ability to solve problems.  It will likely take an economic catastrophe resulting in enormous human suffering to bring about true social change.

  Jacque Fresco

  Responsibility, Suffering, Majority

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• Social change cannot come above the intellect, it comes about by people suffering. And the more people are related to that, the more they lose respect for an existing government. They will seek another direction. If there are too many people who seek a new direction, then the existing government calls upon the army and police to manage society – that is called fascism.

  Jacque Fresco

  Army, Government, People

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• When we generate utopian visions and hope to make them happen soon – when we elect Barack Obama and expect all our problems to be solved, and solved quickly, by his presidency – the outcome is both predictable and tragic. That is not the way to engage social change in a democracy. And it is not the way to help democracy itself survive and thrive. Democracy is a non-stop experiment. Each generation must help sustain it, which means being in it day-by-day for the long haul.

  Parker J. Palmer

  Mean, Long, Vision

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