Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker criticizes the Senate for relying on outdated traditions and hierarchy.
In plain terms
He compares the Senate to a primitive tribe that respects age and territory.
What can you take from it?
Institutions can become stuck in old ways.

Where it applies

  • institutional critique
  • reform debate
  • speech

Putting it to work

  • push for modernization
  • challenge seniority

Questions to consider

  • Should old institutions change their rules?
  • Is seniority a virtue or a barrier?

Another view

Calling it primitive may overlook its intended design for stability.

More from Eugene McCarthy

  1. One thing about a pig, he thinks he's warm if his nose is warm. I saw a bunch of pigs one time that had frozen together in a rosette, each one's nose tucked un…

    Permalink to quote #20
  2. This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country.

    Permalink to quote #22
  3. No man could be equipped for the presidency if he has never been tempted by one of the seven cardinal sins.

    Permalink to quote #19

Related quotes

  1. It's not the career politicians that I care about. I want to get them out just like Arnold did in California, and, after that, we'll get the Californians out o…

    Kinky FriedmanKinky Friedman quote #11
  2. Throughout the world, change is the order of the day. In every Nation economic problems, long in the making, have brought crises of many kinds for which the ma…

    Franklin Delano RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt quote #29
  3. The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Co…

    Gilbert Keith ChestertonGilbert Keith Chesterton quote #37