How much evil throughout history could have been avoided had people exercised their moral acuity with convictional courage and said to the powers that be, 'No, I will not. This is wrong, and I don't care if you fire me, shoot me, pass me over for promotion, or call my mother, I will not participate in this unsavory activity.' Wouldn't world history be rewritten if just a few people had actually acted like individual free agents rather than mindless lemmings? .Joel Salatin
About This Quote
The above quote speaks about the general idea of individual free agency. There is no doubt that individuals can be morally inclined to act against the grain of society. Most people live in societies that tell them to adhere to certain behaviors. If an individual does not like these behaviors then they can act against them.
However, there are few instances where an individual must act like a mindless lemming if the individual is to succeed in society. For example, if an individual wants to become a successful athlete they may have to behave like mindless lemmings in order to get ahead. By following the rules an individual may reach their goals but come at a price.
Lying, cheating, stealing, and other unsavory actions are all part of becoming successful at any activity. As long as an individual is not hurting anyone else they can get what they want but this will mean that the goals will be less than ideal.
Source: Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From The Local Food Front
Some Similar Quotes
- The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
- Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We...
- The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.
- He suddenly recalled from Plato's Symposium: People were hermaphrodites until God split then in two, and now all the halves wander the world over seeking one another. Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.
- It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters,
More Quotes By Joel Salatin
- The stronger a culture, the less it fears the radical fringe. The more paranoid and precarious a culture, the less tolerance it offers.
- When faith in our freedom gives way to fear of our freedom, silencing the minority view becomes the operative protocol.
- How much evil throughout history could have been avoided had people exercised their moral acuity with convictional courage and said to the powers that be, 'No, I will not. This is wrong, and I don't care if you fire me, shoot me, pass me over...
- A farm includes the passion of the farmer's heart, the interest of the farm's customers, the biological activity in the soil, the pleasantness of the air about the farm -- it's everything touching, emanating from, and supplying that piece of landscape. A farm is virtually...
- On a grander scale, when a society segregates itself, the consequences affect the economy, the emotions, and the ecology. That's one reason why it's easy for pro-lifers to eat factory-raised animals that disrespect everything sacred about creation. And that is why it's easy for rabid...