Going to Oxford didn't necessarily make a person clever. Arundhati Roy More Quotes by Arundhati Roy More Quotes From Arundhati Roy Literature is the opposite of a nuclear bomb. Arundhati Roy nuclearbombsopposites People rarely win wars, governments rarely lose them. People get killed. Governments moult and regroup, hydra-headed. They use flags first to shrink-wrap people's minds and smother thought, and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury their willing dead. Arundhati Roy governmentwinningwar See, ma'am, frankly speaking this problem can't be solved by us police or military. The problem with these tribals is they don't understand greed. Unless they become greedy there's no hope for us. I have told my boss, remove the force and instead put a TV in every home. Everything will be automatically sorted out. Arundhati Roy greedmilitaryhome Terrorism is the symptom, not the disease. Arundhati Roy symptomsterrorismdisease Excitement always leads to tears. Arundhati Roy excitementtears Change is one thing. Acceptance is another. Arundhati Roy teensacceptancehealing It is such a supreme folly to believe that nuclear weapons are deadly only if they're used. The fact that they exist at all, their presence in our lives, will wreak more havoc than we can begin to fathom. Nuclear weapons pervade our thinking. Control our behavior. Administer our societies. Inform our dreams. They bury themselves like meat hooks deep in the base of our brains. They are purveyors of madness. They are the ultimate colonizer. Whiter than any white man that ever lived. The very heart of whiteness. Arundhati Roy dreamheartbelieve India lives in several centuries at the same time. Every night outside my house I pass a road gang of emaciated laborers digging a trench to lay fiber optic cables to speed up digital revolution. They work by the light of a few candles. Arundhati Roy digital-revolutionlightnight Capitalism’s real “grave-diggers” may end up being its own delusional Cardinals, who have turned ideology into faith. Despite their strategic brilliance, they seem to have trouble grasping a simple fact: Capitalism is destroying the planet. The two old tricks that dug it out of past crises-War and Shopping-simply will not work. Arundhati Roy realsimplewar Is globalization about 'the eradication of world poverty,' or is it a mutant variety of colonialism, remote controlled and digitally operated? Arundhati Roy colonialismmutantsworld Privatisation is presented as being the only alternative to an inefficient, corrupt state. In fact, it is not a choice at all... it is a mutually profitable business contract between the private company (preferably foreign) and the ruling elite of the Third World Arundhati Roy alternativeschoicesbusiness It was a time when the unthinkable became the thinkable and the impossible really happened Arundhati Roy unthinkablehappenedimpossible The American way of life is not sustainable. It doesn’t acknowledge that there is a world beyond America. Arundhati Roy americawayworld You have come to a stage where you almost have to work on yourself. You know, on finding some tranquility with which to respond to these things, because I realize that the biggest risk that many of us run is beginning to get inured to the horrors. Arundhati Roy riskrunningquiet Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe. Arundhati Roy powerfulfightingwar Peace, Inc. is sometimes as worrying as War, Inc. It's a way of managing public anger. We're all being managed, and we don't even know it. Arundhati Roy worrywarway The time has come for everybody -capitalists, communists, socialists- to ask themselves what 'civilization' really means. If not, whether a country calls itself capitalist or communists, in the pursuit of 'progress' , it will visit genocide either on its own people or on another people whose country must be plundered for resources to feed the Progress industry. Arundhati Roy civilizationmeancountry Even capitalists must surely admit, that intellectually at least, socialism is a worthy opponent. It imparts intelligence even to its adversaries. Arundhati Roy socialismopponentsworthy Some things come with their own punishments. Arundhati Roy cupboardspunishment But remember that if the struggle were to resort to violence, it will lose vision, beauty and imagination. Most dangerous of all, it will marginalize and eventually victimize women. And a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it, and within it is no struggle at all. Arundhati Roy womenstruggleheart
