Book: A Single Man
Quotes of Book: A Single Man
Now, for example, people with freckles aren't thought of as a minority by the nonfreckled. They aren't a minority in the sense we're talking about. And why aren't they? Because a minority is only thought of as a minority when it constitutes some kind of a threat to the majority, real or imaginary. And no threat is ever quite imaginary. Anyone here disagree with that? If you do, just ask yourself, What would this particular minority do if it suddenly became the majority overnight? You see what I mean? Well, if you don't – think it over!
"All right. Now along come the liberals – including everybody in this room, I trust – and they say, 'Minorities are just people, like us.' Sure, minorities are people – people, not angels. Sure, they're like us – but not exactly like us; that's the all-too- familiar state of liberal hysteria in which you begin to kid yourself you honestly cannot see any difference between a Negro and a Swede…." {Why, oh why daren't George say "between Estelle Oxford and Buddy Sorensen"? Maybe, if he did dare, there would be a great atomic blast of laughter, and everybody would embrace, and the kingdom of heaven would begin, right here in classroom. But then again, maybe it wouldn't.}
"So, let's face it, minorities are people who probably look and act and – think differently from us and hay faults we don't have. We may dislike the way they look and act, and we may hate their faults. And it's better if we admit to disliking and hating them than if we try to smear our feelings over with pseudo liberal sentimentality. If we're frank about our feelings, we have a safety valve; and if we have a safety valve, we're actually less likely to start persecuting. I know that theory is unfashionable nowadays. We all keep trying to believe that if we ignore something long enough it'll just vanish….
"Where was I? Oh yes. Well, now, suppose this minority does get persecuted, never mind why – political, economic, psychological reasons. There always is a reason, no matter how wrong it is – that's my point. And, of course, persecution itself is always wrong; I'm sure we all agree there. But the worst of it is, we now run into another liberal heresy. Because the persecuting majority is vile, says the liberal, therefore the persecuted minority must be stainlessly pure. Can't you see what nonsense that is? What's to prevent the bad from being persecuted by the worse? Did all the Christian victims in the arena have to be saints?
"And I'll tell you something else. A minority has its own kind of aggression. It absolutely dares the majority to attack it. It hates the majority–not without a cause, I grant you. It even hates the other minorities, because all minorities are in competition: each one proclaims that its sufferings are the worst and its wrongs are the blackest. And the more they all hate, and the more they're all persecuted, the nastier they become! Do you think it makes people nasty to be loved? You know it doesn't! Then why should it make them nice to be loathed? While you're being persecuted, you hate what's happening to You, you hate the people who are making it happen; you're in a world of hate. Why, you wouldn't recognize love if you met it! You'd suspect love! You'd think there was something behind it – some motive – some trick… book-quoteAzınlığın da kendine göre bir saldırganlığı vardır. Çoğunluğa kafa tutar, kendisine saldırılsın ister. Çoğunluktan nefret eder -nedensiz değil tabi, onu teslim ediyorum. Hatta öteki azınlıklardan bile nefret eder, çünkü bütün azınlıklar birbirlerine rakiptir; her biri kendi çektiklerinin en kötüsü, kendi uğradığı haksızlıkların en ağırı olduğunu öne sürer. Daha çok nefret ettikçe, daha çok baskı görürler, daha da aksileşirler! O halde, her an nefretle karşılanan insanlar neden iyi huylu olsunlar ki? Baskı görürken, size yapılanlardan, size bunları yapanlardan nefret edersiniz; nefret dolu bir dünyadasınızdır. Değil mi, sevgi görseniz bile sevgiyi tanımazsınız! Sevgiden kuşku duyarsınız! Ardında bir şeyler gizliyor sanırsınız; bir çıkar, bir numara... book-quoteAzınlıklar büyük olasılıkla bizlerden farklı görünen, davranan, düşünen ve bizde olmayan kusurları olan insanlardır. Onların görünüşlerinden, davranışlarından hoşlanmayabilir, kusurlarından nefret edebiliriz. Ayrıca, neler hissettiğimizi güya liberal bir duygusallıkla örtmeye çalışmaktansa, onlardan hoşlanmadığımızı, nefret ettiğimizi itiraf etmek daha iyidir. Duygularımızı açıkça dışarı vursak, bir emniyet sübabımız olursa da yargılamaya kalkışmakta daha az aceleci davranırız. Biliyorum, günümüzde pek tutulmayan bir görüş bu. Hepimiz, bir şeyleri yeterince uzun bir süre görmezden gelmeyi başarırsak, o şeylerin ortadan kalkıvereceğine inandırmaya çalışıyoruz kendimizi... book-quoteSo now George has arrived. He is not nervous inthe least. As he gets out of his car, he feels an upsurge of energy, of eagerness for the play to begin. And he walks eagerly, with a springy step, along the gravel path past the Music Building toward the Department office. He is all actor now-an actor on his way up from the dressing room, hastening through the backstage world of props and lamps and stagehands to make his entrance. A veteran, calm and assured, he pauses for a well-measured moment in the doorway of the office and then, boldly, clearly, with the subtly modulated British intonation which his public demands of him, speaks his opening line: "Good morning!" And the three secretaries-each one of them a charming and accomplished actress in her own chosen style-recognize him instantly, without even a flicker of doubt, and reply "Good morning!" to him. {There is something religious here, like responses in church-a reaffirmation of faith in the basic American dogma that it is, always, a good morning. Good, despite the Russians and their rockets, and all the ills and worries of the flesh. For of course we know, don't we, that the Russians and the worries are not really real? They can be un-thought and made to vanish. And therefore the morning can be made to be good. Very well then, it is good.}" book-quotereligiousreaffirmation-of-faith
