Prologue
Anarchism : A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (1962)
Context: Anarchism, nihilism, and terrorism are often mistakenly equated, and in most dictionaries will be found at least two definitions of the anarchist. One presents him as a man who believes that government must die before freedom can live. The other dismisses him as a mere promoter of disorder who offers nothing in place of the order he destroys. In popular thought the latter conception is far more widely spread. The stereotype of the anarchist is that of the cold-blooded assassin who attacks with dagger or bomb the symbolic pillars of established society. Anarchy, in popular parlance, is malign chaos.
Yet malign chaos is clearly very far from the intent of men like Tolstoy and Godwin, Thoreau and Kropotkin, whose social theories have all been described as anarchist. There is an obvious discrepancy between the stereotype anarchist and the anarchist as we most often see him in reality; that division is due partly to semantic confusions and partly to historical misunderstandings.
“… the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.”
Source: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life
Last update June 3, 2021.
History
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "… the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about." by David Foster Wallace?
David Foster Wallace 185
American fiction writer and essayist 1962–2008Related quotes
George Woodcock
(1912–1995) Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, an essayist and literary critic

“Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities.”
H.L. Mencken
(1880–1956) American journalist and writer
Elisabeth Elliot
(1926–2015) American missionary
Source: Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control