Pankaj Mishra Quote: "No one is obliged to take a position on the ..."

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No one is obliged to take a position on the urgent issues of the day, but there are times when our impoverished public sphere could do with some occasional assertions of literary and moral authority.
Pankaj Mishra / Essayist
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No one is obliged to take a position on the urgent issues of the day, but there are times when our impoverished public sphere could do with some occasional assertions of literary and moral authority.
⇛ Pankaj Mishra (Essayist)

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Freedom of speech doesn't guarantee great literature.

Pankaj Mishra Essayist

My dominant feeling every day is one of great ignorance.

Pankaj Mishra Essayist

Buddhism resonated very powerfully with a lot of my preoccupations.

Pankaj Mishra Essayist

Certainly, imperial power is never peaceably acquired or maintained.

Pankaj Mishra Essayist

We know there are states, like Alaska, where there are not a lot of providers. How do we work on issues like that? How do we work on making sure that the small-business part of this works better?... And if people have [alternate] plans, let's compare them and see. Access, affordability, and quality - that's what this is about. [But] "repeal" is a symbol of something that I don't think is connected to the substance of what's happening. Do you want to take away care from people who have preexisting conditions? [Repeal] takes you backward.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell United States Secretary Of Health And Human Services

That's unfortunately common - to blame immigrants, to blame the African-Americans who are being helped by federal programs, to blame anyone available, to direct attention away from the roots of the distress which you're suffering. This combines with xenophobia, white supremacy, racism, misogyny, and other quite unpleasant phenomena which are far from being eradicated. All of this makes for a pretty dangerous brew. But economic issues are right in the center of it. And you can see this in the fact that so many former Obama voters now voted for Trump, or just didn't bother voting.