Skip to content

For those who dare to defy the given models of defiance.

— Ashis Nandy Traditions, Tyranny and Utopias: Essays in the Politics of Awareness (1987)

Another quote →

More quotes by Ashis Nandy

Childhood has become a major dystopia for the modern world. The fear of being childish dogs the steps of every psychologically insecure adult and of every culture which uses the metaphor of childhood to define mental illness, primitivism, abnormality, underdevelopment, non-creativity and traditionalism.

Traditions, Tyranny and Utopias: Essays in the Politics of Awareness (1987)

It has been said in recent times that alternative visions of the human future must derive their ideas of spontaneity and play from the child. Implied in this very proposal is the tragedy of Western adulthood which has banished spontaneity and play to a small reservation called childhood, to protect the adult world from contamination.

Traditions, Tyranny and Utopias: Essays in the Politics of Awareness (1987)

Perfect adulthood, like hyper-masculinity and ultra-normality, has become the goal of most over-socialized human beings, and modern societies have begun to produce a large number of individuals whose ego-ideal includes the concept of adult maturity as defined by the dominant norms of the society.

Traditions, Tyranny and Utopias: Essays in the Politics of Awareness (1987)

All Ashis Nandy quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ashis Nandy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.