No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Small, everyday rules and bureaucracy feel more annoying than large-scale tyranny.
- In plain terms
- It's more annoying to deal with small rules than big ones.
- What can you take from it?
- Everyday bureaucracy can be more frustrating than grand oppression.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What feels most controlling?
- How do small rules add up?
Another view
It minimizes the serious harms caused by actual political tyranny.
More from Edward Abbey
The distrust of wit is the beginning of tyranny.
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Permalink to quote #38 Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.
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