Skip to content
quotesby

The fear of freedom is strong in us. We call it chaos or anarchy, and the words are threatening. We live in a true chaos of contradicting authorities, an age of conformism without community, of proximity without communication. We could only fear chaos if we imagined that it was unknown to us, but in fact we know it very well. It is unlikely that the techniques of liberation spontaneously adopted by women will be in such fierce conflict as exists between warring self-interests and conflicting dogmas, for they will not seek to eliminate all systems but their own. However diverse they may be, they need not be utterly irreconcilable, because they will not be conquistatorial.

Germaine Greer#5

PoliticsFreedomFeminismChaosDiversitySocial change

WhatsApp (opens in a new tab)X (opens in a new tab)

About this quote

What does it mean?
Greer argues that fear of freedom stems from familiarity with chaos, and that diverse liberation movements need not be irreconcilable.
In plain terms
We fear freedom because we know chaos, yet differing movements can coexist.
What can you take from it?
Embrace diverse freedoms without assuming inevitable conflict.

Where it applies

  • activism
  • policy debates

Putting it to work

  • promote dialogue
  • avoid dogmatic battles

Questions to consider

  • How can competing freedoms be harmonized?

Another view

Broad claims may overlook deep structural conflicts.

More from Germaine Greer

  1. Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it.

    Permalink to quote #4

  2. Freud is the father of psychoanalysis. It had no mother.

    Permalink to quote #6

  3. Human beings have an inalienable right to invent themselves; when that right is pre-empted it is called brain-washing.

    Permalink to quote #3

Related quotes

  1. If 'freedom' means, first of all, the responsibility of every individual for the rational determination of his own personal, professional and social existence,…

    Wilhelm ReichWilhelm Reich quote #29

  2. You're free. And freedom is beautiful. And, you know, it will take time to restore chaos from order- order out of chaos. But we will.

    George W. BushGeorge W. Bush quote #105

  3. Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

    George WashingtonGeorge Washington quote #1