The individual's desire to dominate his environment is not a desirable trait in a society which every day grows more and more confining.
Interpretation
The desire for control can be harmful in a society that becomes increasingly restrictive.
Gore Vidal suggests that the ambition to exert dominance over one's surroundings may not be a positive attribute, especially in a society that is continuously becoming more restrictive and confined. This reflection implies that as societal structures evolve, a more cooperative and harmonious approach may be necessary rather than a push for individual dominance.
In practice
Using this quote as a discussion point in a philosophy class about individuality vs. society.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
Any hack can safely rail away at foreign powers beyond the sea; but a good writer is a critic of the society he lives in.
The black radical agenda, which pushes us closer to freedom and the agenda to which I subscribe, calls for an eradication of white supremacy and an adoption of values and traditions endowed from the black experience.
Los Angeles gives one the feeling of the future more strongly than any city I know of. A bad future, too, like something out of Fritz Lang's feeble imagination.
The United States have adventured upon a great and noble experiment, which is believed to have been hazarded in the absence of all previous precedent - that of total separation of Church and State. No religious establishment by law exists among us. The conscience is left free from all restraint and each is permitted to worship his Maker after his own judgement.
There are those, I know, who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American dream.
Oh despise not election! therein lies all your hope, that there is a remnant who shall infallibly be saved.
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