“On Earth one of the things that a large proportion of the locals is most proud of is this wonderful economic system, which, with a sureness and certainty so comprehensive one could almost imagine the process bears some relation to their limited and limiting notions of either thermodynamics or God, all food, comfort, energy, shelter, space, fuel, and sustenance gravitates naturally and easily away from those who need it most and towards those who need it least. Indeed, those on the receiving end of such largesse are often harmed unto death by its arrival, though the effects may take years and generations to manifest themselves.”
“State of the Art” (p. 136)
Short fiction, The State of the Art (1991)
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Iain Banks 139
Scottish writer 1954–2013Related quotes
Five Essays on Liberty (2002), Historical Inevitability (1954)
Part I: Man and Nature, Ch. 1: Current Perplexities, pp. 4–5
1950s, New Hopes for a Changing World (1951)
Context: Consider MacArthur and his Republican supporters. So limited is his intelligence and his imagination that he is never puzzled for one moment. All we have to do is to go back to the days of the Opium War. After we have killed a sufficient number of millions of Chinese, the survivors among them will perceive our moral superiority and hail MacArthur as a saviour. But let us not be one-sided. Stalin, I should say, is equally simple- minded and equally out of date. He, too, believes that if his armies could occupy Britain and reduce us all to the economic level of Soviet peasants and the political level of convicts, we should hail him as a great deliverer and bless the day when we were freed from the shackles of democracy. One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.
“No one, least of all those who have worn the maple leaf, should be without the care they need.”
Remarks announcing the launch of the Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence for Canadian Veterans https://healthsci.mcmaster.ca/news-events/news/news-article/2020/05/14/justin-trudeau-announces-research-centre-for-chronic-pain-among-veterans-at-mcmaster at the McMaster University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMaster_University Faculty of Health Sciences, May 14, 2020
Source: Shades of Milk and Honey (2010), Chapter 4 (p. 54)
“Therapist’s dilemma: those who need help the most, run the farthest from it.”
Source: Time Bomb
“You don't need a large corporation to process local food or local timber and market it locally.”
"Compromise, Hell!"
Context: We need to confront honestly the issue of scale. Bigness has a charm and a drama that are seductive, especially to politicians and financiers; but bigness promotes greed, indifference, and damage, and often bigness is not necessary. You may need a large corporation to run an airline or to manufacture cars, but you don't need a large corporation to raise a chicken or a hog. You don't need a large corporation to process local food or local timber and market it locally.
Source: What On Earth Is About To Happen… For Heaven’s Sake? (2013), pp. 6-7
