Healing Politics: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Our Political Epidemic
Abdul El-Sayed
Top 10 Best Quotes
“[I]nsecurity’s sentinel symptoms are anxiety and fear. Anger and confrontation tend to be exactly the wrong tools to change the behavior or win the hearts of people who are afraid and anxious. Rage and recrimination only make them more afraid. It forces them deeper into a defensive posture.”
“Fearmongering works because we allow it to: we play our part in the cycle of fear, blame, and hatred. We allow ourselves to respond in kind to hatred and to hit back, even though we know our actions will only escalate the hatred. We learn to hate, too. We become the equivalent opposite of those who hate us. Yet we think that our hate is righteous, excused by the hatred we have so long endured. But hatred is still hatred. It is still cold. It is still dead. And it is still dehumanizing.”
“[T]he system that has created and sustained the epidemic of insecurity in this country relies on a network of tokens to placate the communities that suffer most.”
“[T]he paradoxical insecurity of the wealthy[: t]he fear of some future material insecurity compels [the wealthy] to put more space between themselves and the materially insecure, and in hoarding resources and creating and sustaining systems that accelerate inequality, they perpetuate the insecurity under which so many suffer.”
“[T]he insecurity of the affluent in an unequal society, driven to acquire to protect their affluence, to guard their position lest they drop in class and join the marginalized.”
“[I]nsecurity’s sentinel symptoms are anxiety and fear.”
“[I]nsecurity makes inclusion seem like a radical proposition. That’s because insecurity thinks in zero-sum terms, it warns us that our resources are scarce—that we cannot invite others because provisions are already short. Insecurity makes necessary enemies out of potential allies.”
“Segregation changes the character of a neighborhood. As wealth leaves, poverty concentrates in a community, reshaping its businesses, lowering the quality of its schools, and devaluing its homes—the most criticial wealth assets of low-income homeowners.”
“Many … live in poverty, but because the nature of poverty is to disempower and distract, the burdens of their daily lives limit their capacity to act.”
“If we mistakenly assume that identity stands in for the system of power that elevates certain kinds of people, our analysis risks vilifying and demonizing the wrong people.”
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Book Keywords:
hate, segregation-in-america, identity-politics, token, epidemic-of-insecurity, segregation, poverty, fearmongering, anxiety, exploitation, fear, cycle-of-fear, zero-sum, fascim, rage, anger, paradox, insecurity-of-the-wealthy, insecurity
