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About this quote

What does it mean?
Stone observes that instead of studying new revolutions, people retreat into their own biased narratives and propaganda.
In plain terms
When a new revolution happens, people ignore it and listen to their own propaganda instead.
What can you take from it?
Propaganda prevents people from understanding real-world change.

Where it applies

  • political analysis
  • social change
  • international relations

Putting it to work

  • seek external perspectives on change
  • identify personal propaganda

Questions to consider

  • How do biases block understanding of events?
  • Why do people prefer propaganda over facts?

Another view

Some people may genuinely study revolutions rather than retreating into propaganda.

More from I. F. Stone

  1. There must be renewed recognition that societies are kept stable and healthy by reform, not by thought police; this means there must be free play for so-called…

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  2. I sought in political reporting what Galsworthy in another context had called 'the significant trifle'- the bit of dialogue, the overlooked fact, the buried ob…

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  3. The fault I find with most American newspapers is not the absence of dissent. it is the absence of news. With a dozen or so honorable exceptions, most American…

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