When one lives in a society where people can no longer rely on the institutions to tell them the truth, the truth must come from culture and art.
We have power... Our power isn’t in a political system, or a religious system, or in an economic system, or in a military system; these are authoritarian systems... they have power... but it’s not reality. The power of our intelligence, individually or collectively IS the power; this is the power that any industrial ruling class truly fears: clear coherent human beings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True power lies in our individual and collective intelligence, not in established authoritarian systems.
This quote emphasizes that the actual power of humanity is derived from our intelligence and ability to think clearly, rather than from traditional structures of authority such as politics, religion, or military. John Trudell suggests that these systems may hold power in a conventional sense, but they do not represent true reality. The quote inspires a recognition of the strength that comes from clarity and unity among individuals, which is a fundamental threat to those in positions of industrial or authoritative control.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of critical thinking in education.
More from John Trudell
All quotes →When I go around in America and I see the bulk of the white people, they do not feel oppressed; they feel powerless... and we understand the psychological genocide that they have already inflicted upon their own people.
We’re not Indians and we’re not Native Americans. We’re older than both concepts. We’re the people, we’re the human beings.
The great lie is that it is civilization. It's not civilized. It has been literally the most blood thirsty brutalizing system ever imposed upon this planet. That is not civilization. That's the great lie, is that it represents civilization.
Similar quotes
Even if you tell yourself "Today I'm going to drink coffee the wrong way ... from a dirty boot." Even that would be right, because you chose to drink coffee from that boot. Because you can do nothing wrong. You are always right. Even when you say, "I'm such an idiot, I'm so wrong..." you're right. You're right about being wrong. You're right even when you're an idiot. No matter how stupid your idea, you're doomed to be right because it's yours.
As many arrows, loosed several ways, come to one mark...so many a thousand actions, once afoot, end in one purpose.
The heavy is the root of the light. The unmoved is the source of all movement. Thus the Master travels all day without leaving home. However splendid the views, she stays serenely in herself. Why should the lord of the country flit about like a fool? If you let yourself be blown to and fro, you lose touch with your root. If you let restlessness move you, you lose touch with who you are.
The resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating thet God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven." "The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it.
Paradox: how do we know what we have failed to see because we have no language to express it, thus we cannot know that we have failed to see it.
I'm interested in non-fiction, but a form of it which is very badly behaved, which doesn't define itself as straight-ahead journalism or memoir. It blurs boundaries, plays fast and loose with the truth - not to be silly, whimsical or lazy, but to get greater purchase on what it feels like to be alive.