We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness-embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television. This would seem to lead to a simple conclusion: that we all have an enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, which has the potential of causing them to rethink long-held ideas.
Howard Zinn (via joemccarthyblues)
I need to remember this. A lot of times, I don’t bother to say things that have become blatantly obvious to me because I assume they are just as obvious to others, when of course they aren’t. Or I’ll just make a statement that makes perfect sense within my thought process, ignoring the fact that others have completely different ways of viewing the world, therefore sounding erroneous or extreme. I guess I’ve become pretty detached from the way that the majority thinks, so I don’t know what is “acceptable” to say, so I just sit there, analyzing the situation with my mouth shut.
