Dictators fall when they're overconfident; they stay in power when they're paranoid.
Masha GessenRead
In war you're either a collaborator or you're a resistor. I mean you don't get to be neutral.
Interpretation
What this quote means
In times of conflict, individuals must choose a side; neutrality is not an option.
Masha Gessen's quote emphasizes the idea that during periods of significant moral or ethical conflict, such as war, individuals cannot afford to remain neutral. One must actively participate, whether by collaborating with the prevailing system or resisting it, highlighting the importance of personal responsibility in times of crisis.
Themes
WarCollaborationResistanceNeutralityConflict
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a discussion about civic responsibility during political upheaval.
More from Masha Gessen
All quotes βWhen you lose your freedom, you lose, first and foremost, the opportunity to choose the company you keep.
Masha GessenRead
There's the hypothesis that things just keep happening to Russians, things that keep turning them into the same kind of subjects, as opposed to citizens. The more credible hypothesis, I think, is that there is a kind of trauma, a social trauma that is passed on from generation to generation.
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We learn to think of history as something that has already happened, to other people. Our own moment, filled as it is with minutiae destined to be forgotten, always looks smaller in comparison.
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Russia, at the start of the 21st century, at least in its larger cities, very much resembled the United States of the early 1990s: being gay was no longer criminal or shameful, but it was still not a topic for polite conversation or public discussion.
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... fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we are going to do with marriage when we get there-because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change, and it should change. And again, I don't think it should exist.
Masha GessenRead
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