I know that I am leaving the winning side for the losing side, but it is better to die on the losing side than to live under Communism.
Whittaker ChambersRead
Men who sincerely abhorred the word Communism in the pursuit of common ends found that they were unable to distinguish Communists from themselves…. For men who could not see that what they firmly believed was liberalism added up to socialism could scarcely be expected to see what added up to Communism. Any charge of Communism enraged them precisely because they could not grasp the differences between themselves and those against whom it was made.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote discusses the difficulty some people have in distinguishing their own ideologies from those they oppose.
Whittaker Chambers illustrates how individuals who vehemently reject Communism may fail to recognize that their own beliefs can align closely with socialist ideas. This blindness to the ideological spectrum can lead to emotional reactions rather than a reasoned understanding of political beliefs, making it challenging to engage in constructive discourse about differing viewpoints.
Themes
CommunismLiberalismSocialismIdeologyPoliticsBeliefs
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate about political ideologies, one might use this quote to illustrate the complexities of political labels.
More from Whittaker Chambers
All quotes →On that road of the informer, it is always night. I cannot ever inform against anyone without feeling something die within me. I inform without pleasure, because it is necessary.
Whittaker ChambersRead
At issue was the question whether this man's faith could prevail against a man whose equal faith it was that this society is sick beyond saving, and that mercy itself pleads for its swift extinction and replacement by another.
Whittaker ChambersRead
Life is not worth living for which a man is not prepared to die at any moment.
Whittaker ChambersRead
Experience had taught me that innocence seldom utters outraged shrikes. Guilt does. Innocence is a mighty shield, and the man or woman covered by it, is much more likely to answer calmly: 'My life is blameless. Look into it, if you like, for you will find nothing.' That is the tone of innocence.
Whittaker ChambersRead
The rub is that the pursuit of happiness, as an end in itself, tends automatically, and widely, to be replaced by the pursuit of pleasure with a consequent general softening of the fibers of will, intelligence, spirit.
Whittaker ChambersRead
Similar quotes
I wonder whether those of our political masters who have been put in charge of the defence of the country can distinguish a mortar from a motor; a gun from a howitzer; a guerrilla from a gorilla, although a great many resemble the latter.
Sam ManekshawRead
The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements.
J. William FulbrightRead
There is almost no country in Africa where it is not essential to know to which tribe, or which subgroup of which tribe, the president belongs. From this single piece of information you can trace the lines of patronage and allegiance that define the state.
Christopher HitchensRead
Some people are surprised that the Republicans are waging a war on women, or that they voted against equal pay for women. I'm not surprised at all. In some ways, it may be a good thing. They're defending the patriarchy, which is a wounded beast! And wounded beasts are always dangerous.
Jane FondaRead
No foreign policy - no matter how ingenious - has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.
Henry A. KissingerRead
In the year 2025, the best men don't run for president, they run for their lives. . . .
Stephen KingRead