Acceptance Speech for the Margaret Edwards Award (1998)
Context: I don't want to dump on TV, but there's no doubt that our language has been changed by television, especially by the media, which tries to manipulate us into being consumers. Most of the time nowadays we human beings are referred to as consumers. What does the consumer think? What does the consumer want? How ugly. Forest fires consume. Cancer consumes. I want us to be nourishers. To be a librarian, particularly a librarian for young adults, is to be a nourisher, to share stories, offer books full of new ideas. We live in a world which has changed radically in the last half century, and story helps us to understand and live creatively with change.
The changes are not going to stop. They are going to continue and accelerate. Like it or not.
“As Galileo said, the movement always accelerates when it is going to stop.”
Mariano Rajoy (1955) Spanish politician
16 June, 2017 <br class="br">As President, 2017 <br class="br">Source: Público http://www.publico.es/tremending/2017/06/13/mocion-de-censura-ha-roto-rajoy-las-leyes-de-la-fisica-en-su-discurso-hablando-de-galileo-o-tiene-la-maldita-razon/
“Something changed. Somewhere along the line you stopped accelerating.”
Jay McInerney book Bright Lights, Big City
Source: Bright Lights, Big City
“But it's not going to stop.
It's not going to stop.
It's not going to stop
'Til you wise up.”
Aimee Mann (1960) American indie rock singer-songwriter (born 1960)
"Wise Up" Clip from Magnolia of performances by Mann and cast members https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNmKghTvj0E · Live at St. Ann's Warehouse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3D7xplBYNY <br class="br">Song lyrics, Magnolia: Music from the Motion Picture (1999) <br class="br">Context: You're sure<br>There's a cure.<br>And you have finally found it.<br>You think<br>One drink<br>Will shrink you 'til you're underground<br>And living down.<br>But it's not going to stop.<br>It's not going to stop.<br>It's not going to stop<br>'Til you wise up.
“It's going to be like this. I'm not changing.”
Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America
Answer to the question whether the American public could expect a similar dynamic if he would win the presidential elections, quoted in Donald Trump: Questions on money for war veterans http://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/americas/2016/05/donald-trump-fumes-veterans-money-questions-160531203455389.html aljazeera.com, 1 June 2016 <br class="br">2010s, 2016, June
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
NPR's Exit Interview With President Obama http://www.npr.org/2016/12/19/504998487/transcript-and-video-nprs-exit-interview-with-president-obama (19 December 2016) <br class="br">2016
“It doesn't work to build half an accelerator. The particles need to go all the way around.”
Steven Weinberg (1933) American theoretical physicist
On The Shoulders of Giants - "The Future of Science" by Steven Weinberg, World Science Festival, YouTube, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GrjjCVk6cA
