The Fall of Public Man Quotes

“Electronic communication is one means by which the very idea of public life has been put to an end.”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man

“The second trait of narcissism in which asceticism plays a role is blankness. “If only I could feel”—in this formula the self-denial and self-absorption reach a perverse fulfillment. Nothing is real if I cannot feel it, but I can feel nothing. The defense against there being something real outside the self is perfected, because, since I am blank, nothing outside me is alive. In therapy the patient reproaches himself for an inability to care, and yet this reproach, seemingly so laden with self-disgust, is really an accusation against the outside. For the real formula is, nothing suffices to make me feel. Under cover of blankness, there is the more childish plaint that nothing can make me feel if I don’t want to, and hidden in the characters of those who truly suffer because they go blank faced with a person or activity they always thought they had desired, there is the secret, unrecognized conviction that other people, or other things as they are, will never be good enough.”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man

“The reigning belief today is that closeness between persons is a moral good. The reigning aspiration today is to develop individual personality through experiences of closeness and warmth with others. The reigning myth today is that the evils of society can all be understood as evils of impersonality, alienation, and coldness. The sum of these three is an ideology of intimacy: social relationships of all kinds are real, believable, and authentic the closer they approach the inner psychological concerns of each person. This ideology transmutes political categories into psychological categories. This ideology of intimacy defines the humanitarian spirit of a society without gods: warmth is our god. The history of the rise and fall of public culture at the very least calls this humanitarian spirit into question. The belief in closeness between persons as a moral good is in fact the product of a profound dislocation which capitalism and secular belief produced in the last century. Because of this dislocation, people sought to find personal meanings in impersonal situations, in objects, and in the objective conditions of society itself. They could not find these meanings; as the world became psychomorphic, it became mystifying. They therefore sought to flee, and find in the private realms of life, especially in the family, some principle of order in the perception of personality. Thus the past built a hidden desire for stability in the overt desire for closeness between human beings. Even as we have revolted against the stern sexual rigidities of the Victorian family, we continue to burden close relations with others with these hidden desires for security, rest, and permanence. When the relations cannot bear these burdens, we conclude there is something wrong with the relationship, rather than with the unspoken expectations. Arriving at a feeling of closeness to others is thus often after a process of testing them; the relationship is both close and closed. If it changes, if it must change, there is a feeling of trust betrayed. Closeness burdened with the expectation of stability makes emotional communication—hard enough as it is—one step more difficult. Can intimacy on these terms really be a virtue?”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man

“هەر تاکێک پاشەکشە دەکاتەوە بۆ هەناوی خۆی، بە شێوازێک هەڵسووکەوت دەکات کە بە چارەنووسی هەمووان بێگانەیە. لای ئەو هەموو مڕۆڤ دەبنە هاوڕێکانی و مناڵەکانی. لە نێوان هاو وڵاتانی بە چەشنێک هات و چوو دەکات ڕەنگە لەگەڵیان تێکەڵ ببێت، بەڵام نایانبینێت، لێیان نزییک دەبێتەوە بەڵام هەست بە بوونیان ناکات. تەنیا لە ناو خۆی و بۆ خۆی بوونی هەیە و ئەگەر لەم دۆخەدا تەنانەت شتێک بە ناوی بنەماڵە لە زەینی‌دا مابێتەوە شتێک بە ناوی کۆمەڵگا قەت نەماوە”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man

“The reigning belief today is that closeness between persons is a moral good. The reigning aspiration today is to develop individual personality through experiences of closeness and warmth with others. The reigning myth today is that the evils of society can all be understood as the evils of impersonality, alienation, and coldness. The sum of these three is an ideology of intimacy: social relationships of all kinds are real, believable, and authentic the closer they approach the inner psychological concerns of each person. This ideology transmutes political categories into psychological categories. This ideology of intimacy defines the humanitarian spirit of a society without gods; warmth is our god.”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man

“Todas las revoluciones tienen momentos en los que algún acontecimiento trivial adquiere un valor simbólico momentáneo.”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“The rise of the bourgeoisie” is a hackneyed phrase, so much so that one historian has been moved to comment that the only historical constant is that the middle classes are always everywhere rising.”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man

“Thus narcissism is an obsession with “what this person, that event means to me.” This question about the personal relevance of other people and outside acts is posed so repetitively that a clear perception of those persons and events in themselves is obscured. This absorption in self, oddly enough, prevents gratification of self needs; it makes the person at the moment of attaining an end or connecting with another person feel that “this isn’t what I wanted.”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man

“I came tumbling out into the World, a pure Cadet, a true Cosmopolite, not born to Land, Lease, House, or Office.”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man

“La sociedad que habitamos actualmente se encuentra agobiada por las consecuencias de esa historia, la destrucción de la res publica por la creencia de que los significados sociales son generados por los sentimientos de los seres humanos individuales.”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“Las masas son perezosas y carecen de inteligencia, no tienen ningún amor por la renuncia instintiva, no pueden ser convencidas de su fatalidad por medio de la argumentación, y los individuos se apoyan mutuamente dando vía libre a su desenfreno.”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“Un hombre que se enorgullece de llevar una línea recta en la vida es un idiota que cree en la infalibilidad. Los principios no existen: sólo existen los hechos; no hay más leyes que las de la conveniencia.”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“La búsqueda de la reputación reemplaza a la búsqueda de la virtud.”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“Los actos sociales susceptibles de repetición son aquellos en los que el actor ha establecido una distancia entre su propia personalidad y el lenguaje o el atavío corporal que muestra a los demás.”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“Lo público era una creación humana; lo privado era la condición humana.”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“La noción de que los seres humanos tienen derecho a ser felices es una idea particularmente moderna, occidental.”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“Si los sentimientos de un hombre son heridos, si hacen que se sienta abyecto o humillado, esto constituye una violación de sus derechos naturales del mismo modo en que lo es que le lleven preso arbitrariamente o que le arrebaten su propiedad.”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“Lo público es parte de un equilibrio mayor en la sociedad.”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“El café es un establecimiento romántico e idealizado: alegría, conversación civilizada, afabilidad y estrecha amistad, todo alrededor de una taza de café;”
― Richard Sennett, El declive del hombre público

“Each person’s self has become his principal burden; to know oneself has become an end, instead of a means through which one knows the world.”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man

“Güçlü bir kamu yaşamının aşınması, içtenlikle ilgi duyulan mahrem ilişkileri deforme etmektedir.”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man

“Res publica genel olarak, aralarında aile bağı ya da yakın bağlar olmayan insanlar arasındaki birliktelik ve karşılıklı taahhüt bağlarını temsil eder; arkadaşlık ya da aile bağlarından çok bir kitleye, bir "halk"a, bir politik uygulamaya ilişkin bağdır.”
― Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man