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About this quote

What does it mean?
If everyone is constrained by society, it matters little who specifically holds power.
In plain terms
As long as society imprisons us all, it does not matter who is in charge.
What can you take from it?
Systemic oppression affects everyone regardless of leadership.

Where it applies

  • political critique
  • social reform

Putting it to work

  • address systemic issues
  • challenge collective constraints

Questions to consider

  • Who truly holds power in a constrained system?
  • Is freedom possible within a prison society?

Another view

Leadership changes can sometimes improve conditions for the oppressed.

More from George Bernard Shaw

  1. Beware of the man whose god is in the skies.

    Permalink to quote #130
  2. Every man over forty is a scoundrel.

    Permalink to quote #132
  3. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the un…

    Permalink to quote #129

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