Education, the great mumbo jumbo and fraud of the age purports to equip us to live and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that in the absence of a higher moral authority, individuals will seek to fill the void with either a desire for power or pleasure.
Malcolm Muggeridge's quote reflects on the consequences of a society that is devoid of belief in God. He argues that when divine guidance is removed, humanity is left to choose between two extreme forces: megalomania, which is the obsession with power and control, or erotomania, which is the pursuit of pleasure and indulgence. The stark contrast between figures like Hitler and Hugh Hefner illustrates how different manifestations of this void can shape human behavior and societal values, ultimately questioning what replaces spiritual and ethical frameworks in a secular world.
Themes
GodAbsencePowerPleasureMoralitySocietyBelief
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about secularism and its effects on today's society.
More from Malcolm Muggeridge
All quotes →This life in us; however low it flickers or fiercely burns, is still a divine flame which no man dare presume to put out, be his motives never so humane and enlightened; To suppose otherwise is to countenance a death-wish; Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some cases the one, and in some the other.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
I never met a rich man who was happy, but I have only very occasionally met a poor man who did not want to become a rich man.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
It was a somber place, haunted by old jokes and lost laughter. Life, as I discovered, holds no more wretched occupation than trying to make the English laugh.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
The only ultimate disaster that can befall us is to feel ourselves at home on this earth.
Malcolm MuggeridgeRead
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