Challenging and highlighting abusive power dynamics in our culture is my goal; replicating them is not.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In my case, I got hit a lot by bullies when I was a child, and so I naturally bristle against anybody who abuses power. And that seems to make me rather persistent when it comes to exposing the abuse of power.
We have the power to turn against our creators.
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people's lives.
Many people on the political left found my work psychologically liberating. They began to say: once you realize that standards emerge historically, then you can see through and discard all the norms to which we have been falsely enslaved.
Well, one hopes that if you're really related to the core of your particular culture, you have profound commitments to it, and that you are aware of how much you can strain it before you do violence to its essential nature.
But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.
Power is not just political. It can be cultural; it can be spiritual.
People in power need to control others in order to maintain power. One of the ways to do that is to take that which is threatening and demonize it.
Culture follows power.