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About this quote

What does it mean?
A violent worldview turns harmless objects into targets and the world into a battlefield.
In plain terms
Seeing the world as full of enemies makes you destroy innocent things.
What can you take from it?
Aggressive perception creates unnecessary conflict and destruction.

Where it applies

  • conflict zones
  • personal grudges
  • political rhetoric

Putting it to work

  • check bias
  • lower aggression
  • redefine enemies

Questions to consider

  • Who do you see as villains?
  • What turns harmless to hostile?

Another view

Some situations truly require vigilance against real threats.

More from Margaret Atwood

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  2. I am the horizon you ride towards, the thing you can never lasso I am also what surrounds you: my brain scattered with your tincans, bones, empty shells, the l…

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  3. Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. The bridge was being repaired: she went right through the Danger sign. The car fell a h…

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