A man doesn't say I will starve myself to death to keep from starving, or that he'd spend all of his money to save money. Why should he be willing to die for the privilege of living?
Dalton TrumboRead
The blacklist was a time of evil...no one on either side who survived it came through untouched by evil...[Looking] back on this time...it will do no good to search for villains or heroes or saints or devils because there were none; there were only victims.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the complexities of morality during the blacklist, suggesting that all involved were tainted by their experiences.
Dalton Trumbo's quote captures the moral ambiguity of the blacklist era, asserting that rather than clear-cut heroes or villains, every individual was affected by their circumstances, ultimately becoming victims of a larger societal evil. It implies that the pursuit of categorizing people into moral dichotomies is futile in the face of shared suffering and complicity in systemic wrongdoing.
Themes
BlacklistVictimsMoralityEvilSocietyComplexity
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on freedom and censorship, one might quote this to emphasize the shared impact of oppressive systems.
More from Dalton Trumbo
All quotes →It will come with a rush and a roar and a shudder. It will come howling and laughing and shrieking and moaning. It will come so fast you can’t help yourself you will stretch out your arms to embrace it. You will feel it before it comes and you will tense yourself for acceptance and the earth which is your eternal bed will tremble at the moment of your union.
Dalton TrumboRead
The chief internal enemies of any state are not spies nor saboteurs nor the paid agents of foreign governments. They are, on the contrary, those myriads of public officials who betray the trust imposed upon them by the people.
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There are plenty of laws to protect guys' money even in war time but there's nothing on the books says a man's life's his own.
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Dishonesty in government is the business of every citizen. It is not enough to do your own job. There's no particular virtue in that. Democracy isn't a gift. It's a responsibility.
Dalton TrumboRead
Then there was this freedom the little guys were always getting killed for. Was it freedom from another country? Freedom from work or disease or death? Freedom from your mother-in-law? Please mister give us a bill of sale on this freedom before we go out and get killed. Give us a bill of sale drawn up plainly in advance what we're getting killed for... so we can be sure after we've won your war that we've got the same kind of freedom we bargained for.
Dalton TrumboRead
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