Everyone finds justification for his or her views in logic and analysis, but a personal philosophy often emerges from some archaic part of the mind, an early idea of how the world should be.
George PackerRead
By the fall of 2007, my last remaining Iraqi friend in Baghdad had left. Once he was gone, my connection to the country and the war began to thin, even as the terror diminished. I missed the improvement that came with the surge, and so, in my nervous system, I never quite registered it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the deep emotional ties to a friend and how their absence can diminish one's connection to a place and its events.
In this quote, George Packer expresses a feeling of loss and disconnection following the departure of a close friend from Iraq. He conveys how the absence of this friendship not only severed his direct connection to the friend but also dulled his perception of the changes occurring in the country, highlighting the profound impact personal relationships have on our understanding of broader events and contexts.
Themes
FriendshipLossConnectionIraqWar
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of maintaining relationships during times of crisis, this quote can illustrate the emotional weight of losing a friend.
More from George Packer
All quotes →Ideology knows the answer before the question has been asked. Principles are something different: a set of values that have to be adapted to circumstances but not compromised away.
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As America has grown less economically equal, a citizen's ability to move upward has fallen behind that of citizens in other Western democracies. We are no longer the country where anyone can become anything.
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The invisibility of work and workers in the digital age is as consequential as the rise of the assembly line and, later, the service economy.
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Abstract sympathy with the working class as an economic entity is easy, but the feeling can vanish on contact with actual members of the group, who often arrive with disturbing beliefs and powerful resentments - who might not sound or look like people urban progressives want to know.
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