#plural

The construction of civilizational difference is not exclusive in any simple sense. The de-essentialization of Islam is paradigmatic for all thinking about the assimilation of non-European poeples to European civilization. The idea that people's historical experience is inessential to them, that it can be shed at will, makes it possible to argue more strongly for the Enlightenment's claim to universality: Muslims, as members of the abstract category "humans," can be assimilated or (as some recent theorist have put it) "translated" into a global ("European") civilization once they have divested themselves of what many of them regard (mistakenly) as essential to themselves. The belief that human beings can be separated from their histories and traditions makes it possible to urge a Europeanization of the Islamic world. And by the same logic, it underlies the belief that the assimilation to Europe's civilization of Muslim immigrants who are--for good or for ill--already in European states is necessary and desirable. ↗

— Talal Asad

#europe #european-civilization #islam #multiculturalism #pluralism

Make a plural hey while the singular sun is up there. Not just the hey, but the best hey. Excellence should be your priority! ↗

— Israelmore Ayivor

#best #do-the-best #excel #excellence #excellent

The possible redemption from the predicament of irreversibility──of being unable to undo what one has done──is the faculty of forgiving. The remedy for unpredictability, for the chaotic uncertainty of the future, is contained in the faculty to make and keep promises. Both faculties depend upon plurality, on the presence and acting of others, for no man can forgive himself and no one can be bound by a promise made only to himself. ↗

— Hannah Arendt

#plurality #promise #forgiveness

The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey. ↗

— William Blake

#pluralism #marriage

Media, the plural of mediocrity. ↗

— Jimmy Breslin

#mediocrity #plural

It's a curious thing in American life that the most abject nonsense will be excused if the utterer can claim the sanction of religion. A country which forbids an established church by law is prey to any denomination. The best that can be said is that this is pluralism of a kind. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#christianity #jerry-falwell #jesse-jackson #pluralism #religion

There are Tea Parties, and I would say plural, in California. ↗

— Carly Fiorina

#i #parties #plural #say #tea

I am happy that Poland is returning to the road of pluralism and democracy. ↗

— Lech Walesa

#democracy #happy #i #i am #i am happy

Thus, the forces and value systems that are most threatened by this shift are becoming the most coherent and are rising to the top as minority or plurality powers. But they do not represent either the shift, the change, or the future. ↗

— Paul Hawken

#change #coherent #either #forces #future

I keep referring to them in the plural but all I'm dealing with is Bob. I don't know where Harvey fits in the equation. He was very present at the beginning, winding his brother up. I don't know where he is now. ↗

— Terry Gilliam

#bob #brother #dealing #equation #fits