We live in a frightened time, and people self-censor all the time and are afraid of going into some subjects because they are worried about violent reactions.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the fear people feel in discussing certain topics due to potential backlash.
Salman Rushdie's quote emphasizes the current societal climate where fear of violent reactions leads to self-censorship. It suggests that individuals often avoid discussing controversial or sensitive subjects, thus stifling open dialogue and critical discourse, which are essential for healthy discourse in a democratic society. This fear can be detrimental, as it prevents the exploration of important issues that need to be addressed.
In practice
In a speech on freedom of expression, I would quote Rushdie to highlight the dangers of self-censorship in today's society.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
The worst thing is for a fighter to be in the ring with no hope - where he's missing and getting caught. You need to have hope.
You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.
It's time Pakistani women are able to stand up and hold their oppressors accountable, no matter how strong or influential they are. Don't be scared. They are strong because we are weak - lets change that.
With the inevitability of a tongue returning to probe a painful tooth, we come back and back and back again to our fears, sitting to talk them over with the eagerness of a hungry man before a full and steaming plate.
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
Don't ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts.
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