Raoul Vaneigem Quotes - Page 2

Never before has a civilization reached such a degree of a contempt for life; never before has a generation, drowned in mortification, felt such a rage to live.

In the twentieth century, death terrifies men less than the absence of real life. All these dead, mechanized, specialized actions, stealing a little bit of life a thousand times a day until the mind and body are exhausted, until that death which is not the

As poverty has been reduced in terms of mere survival, it has become more profound in terms of our way of life.

In the twentieth century, death terrifies men less than the absence of real life.

Production and consumption are the nipples of modern society. Thus suckled, humanity grows in strength and beauty; rising standard of living, all modern conveniences, distractions of all kinds, culture for all, the comfort of your dreams.

Where constraint breaks people, and mediation makes fools of them, the seduction of power is what makes them love their oppression. Because of it, people give up their real riches for a cause that mutilates them; for an appearance that reifies them; for roles that wrest them from authentic life; for a time whose passage defines and confines them.

Purchasing power is a license to purchase power.

Each component of the organism, like the individual in the social body, possesses the capacity for enjoyment of the self through sharing with others.

To work for delight and authentic festivity is barely distinguishable from preparing for a general insurrection

We can escape the commonplace only by manipulating it, controlling it, thrusting it into our dreams or surrendering it to the free play of our subjectivity.

What could I wish for the present but to take the greatest pleasure in being what I am?

People are bewitched into believing that time slips away, and this belief is the basis of time actually slipping away.

Daily life is governed by an economic system in which the production and consumption of insults tends to balance out.

In the kingdom of consumption the citizen is king. A democratic monarchy: equality before consumption, fraternity in consumption, and freedom through consumption.