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About this quote

What does it mean?
Galbraith observes that most people recognize we live in an era dominated by large organizations rather than individuals.
In plain terms
Most people admit the world is run by big groups, not small individuals.
What can you take from it?
Accept that modern society is shaped by large institutions.

Where it applies

  • social analysis
  • career planning
  • civic engagement

Putting it to work

  • adapt to institutional reality
  • work within large systems

Questions to consider

  • How do individuals survive in big systems?
  • Can small actors make a difference?

Another view

It downplays the continued agency of individuals within those systems.

More from John Kenneth Galbraith

  1. People are the common denominator of progress. So, paucis verbis, no improvement is possible with unimproved people, and advance is certain when people are lib…

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  2. There is an insistent tendency among serious social scientists to think of any institution which features rhymed and singing commercials, intense and lachrymos…

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  3. Clearly the most unfortunate people are those who must do the same thing over and over again, every minute, or perhaps twenty to the minute. They deserve the s…

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