Even as the whole world tries to hang on to its job, there is also this weird parallel sense - almost a covert longing - that the old corrupt structures on which that job depends needs to be, ought to be, swept away.
Interpretation
This quote expresses a desire for change, highlighting the conflict between job security and the need to dismantle outdated systems.
Tina Brown's quote captures the tension in society where individuals are focused on preserving their current jobs, yet simultaneously harbor a covert desire for transformation. It suggests that while people cling to stability, there is an underlying awareness that the existing corrupt systems, which provide that stability, are in need of reform or removal. This duality reflects the struggle between fear of change and the aspiration for a better, more equitable future.
In practice
In a discussion about workplace reform, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for change despite the fear of losing jobs.
It's one of the biggest fibs going that American newspapers are now being forced to give up their commitment to investigative reporting. Most of them gave up long ago as their greedy managements squeezed every cent out of the bottom line and turned their newsrooms into eunuchs.
The rights of women are to the 21st century what civil rights were to the 20th.
I think British journalists do well in America because the newspaper culture there is so strong - telling stories and presenting them readably is in their DNA. British newspapers get a terrible rap, but they are brilliant in their presentation, most of them, so full of vitality and literary wit.
One of the the great things about having had something that didn't work out is: So what? I am fine.
Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house---the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture---must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstitutred. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.
Thankfully, dreams can change. If we'd all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses.
I'm not a prophet, but I always thought it was natural for dictatorships to fall. I remember in 1989, two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, had you said it was going to happen no one would have believed you. The system seemed powerful and unbreakable. Suddenly overnight it blew away like dust.
You cannot be the person they know and the great, glorious person you want to become. Not at the same time.
I have heard it said that winter, too, will pass, that spring is a sign that summer is due at last. See, all we have to do is hang on.
Never have the nations of the world had so much to lose, or so much to gain. Together we shall save our planet, or together we shall perish in its flames.
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