Societies either roll on blindly to disaster or they find the inner strength to stop themselves long enough to find ways for reform from within.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Societies must recognize danger and internally reform to avoid collapse.
- In plain terms
- Groups need self-awareness and change to prevent disaster.
- What can you take from it?
- Proactive internal reform prevents societal collapse.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What internal strengths does your society have?
- How can reform be initiated without external pressure?
Another view
Reform requires consensus which is often hard to achieve.
More from John Ralston Saul
There is little to envy in the woman's position either. For perhaps the first time in history, she has a general sense of herself as an individual apart from m…
Permalink to quote #20 The conclusion drawn by ... most of our elites ... is that the population constitutes a deep and dangerous well of ignorance and irrationality; if our civiliza…
Permalink to quote #22 The idea underlying such endless discussion and dreaming about the physical act is that sexual expertise confers worldliness and is therefore part of becoming …
Permalink to quote #19
Related quotes
The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.
Antonio GramsciAntonio Gramsci quote #3 We must start human society from scratch; as Francis Bacon said, we must recreate human understanding.
Nicolas ChamfortNicolas Chamfort quote #3 Public opinion's always in advance of the law.
John GalsworthyJohn Galsworthy quote #14