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.
Skepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things. A sad case for him when all that he can manage to believe is something he can button in his pocket, and with one or the other organ eat and digest! Lower than that he will not get.
One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life.
Hateful to me as are the gates of hell, Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart, Utters another.
LeRoy says there's something you should know, not everybody has a place to go. And home is just a place to hang your head, and dream of things to do in Denver when you're dead.
Whether man is disposed to yield to nature or to oppose her, he cannot do without a correct understanding of her language
It is worth while dying, to find out what life is.
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