All of us are made up of the stories that we listen to, the ones we disagree with and the ones that we agree with.
Stanley CrouchRead
Our job as writers and thinkers in the time is how to bring about the occasions that let people have that first-person experience - or the metaphoric experience that allows them to see human continuity as opposed to total threat, total willingness to do violence.
Interpretation
Writers and thinkers should create opportunities for people to connect with their shared humanity rather than focus on conflict.
In this quote, Stanley Crouch emphasizes the responsibility of writers and thinkers to cultivate moments that foster deep, personal understanding among people. Instead of highlighting division and violence, it is crucial to frame experiences in a way that underscores our common humanity, allowing individuals to appreciate the continuity and connection that exists within the human experience.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the role of art in promoting peace.
All of us are made up of the stories that we listen to, the ones we disagree with and the ones that we agree with.
The high point of civilization is that you can hate me and I can hate you but we develop an etiquette that allows us to deal with each other because if we acted solely upon our impulse we'd probably go to war.
When a violent minority that crosses color lines comes to believe that killing those you know or do not know is a reasonable solution to problems, we are in need of another vision.
For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. "Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!
In chess, as a purely intellectual game, where randomness is excluded, - for someone to play against himself is absurd ... It is as paradoxical, as attempting to jump over his own shadow.
What cannot be talked about cannot be put to rest. And if it is not, the wounds will fester from generation to generation.
The deceit, the lie of the devil consists of this, that he wishes to make man believe that he can live without God's Word. Thus he dangles before man's fantasy a kingdom of faith, of power, and of peace, into which only he can enter who consents to the temptations; and conceals from men that he, as the devil, is the most unfortunate and unhappy of beings, since he is finally and eternally rejected by God.
In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon, always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning. Anything else gives them too much credit.
The land on which the cattle grazed was communal property. It was owned by no one. It was nobody's private farm. It was the common property of the people, shared by the people. So the practice of sharing was central to the concept of ownership of property.
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