We live in a society of an imposed forgetfulness, a society that depends on public amnesia.
Because it would be too agonizing to cope with the possibility that anyone, including our selves, could become a prisoner, we tend to think of the prison as disconnected from our own lives. This is even true for some of us, women as well as men, who have already experienced imprisonment.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects how we often distance ourselves from the reality of imprisonment, failing to acknowledge its potential impact on our own lives.
Angela Davis's quote explores the psychological barrier individuals create around the concept of imprisonment, suggesting that it is too painful to accept that anyone, including ourselves, might face such a fate. This perspective can lead to a disconnect in understanding the societal issues surrounding incarceration, especially among those who have experienced it. It highlights the need for empathy and acknowledgment of the systemic nature of imprisonment, which can affect all individuals regardless of their personal experiences.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a discussion about criminal justice reform to highlight societal attitudes towards imprisonment.
More from Angela Davis
All quotes →Well, we see an increasingly weaker labor movement as a result of the overall assault on the labor movement and as a result of the globalization of capital.
Racism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it's perhaps far more terrible than it's ever been.
Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of our social problems.
It's true that it's within the realm of cultural politics that young people tend to work through political issues, which I think is good, although it's not going to solve the problems
Radical simply means 'grasping things at the root.'
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For it is often the way we look at other people that imprisons them within their own narrowest allegiances. And it is also the way we look at them that may set them free.
Dangerous consequences will follow when politicians and rulers forget moral principles. Whether we believe in God or karma, ethics is the foundation of every religion.
It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail. The religion and public liberty of a people are intimately connected; their interests are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; and therefore they rise and fall together. For this reason, it is always observable, that those who are combin'd to destroy the people's liberties, practice every art to poison their morals.
You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.
Man was created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord and in this way to save his soul. The other things on Earth were created for man's use, to help him reach the end for which he was created.
I'm fascinated by the capacity to be able to do harm. I struggle every day with the ability of people to do evil. Not just the big things - the petty things that people do in order to make someone feel small, when it's so easy to do, and it hurts so much.