"For many young women Goldman came to be viewed as the symbol of liberation. That Goldman herself was not insulted by some of the views of her admirers demonstrated the extent of her misunderstanding of her own appeal. One woman compared a Goldman speech to "a glass of fine, old wine," under the influence of which the listener grew "more and more excited and stimulated... until finally I feel I can sit quietly no longer, but just must give expression somehow to the surge of thought and feeling she awakens." Louise Bryant likened Goldman to "the other good things that come to us, like the spring and the rain and the sunshine," and referred to her lectures as "inspirational messages" of "healing and life-giving qualities."...Goldman provided entertainment; perhaps her young admirers expected little more. Nevertheless, the relationship between Goldman and these women had a more serious and more disturbing aspect. Goldman was a remarkable figure who may have given these women a sense of being included in "the Cosmic secrets of nature," but they misinterpreted emotional experience as revolutionary commitment. In return for their admiration, the young bohemians expected Goldman to shoulder for them the burden of the consequences of political activism. Nearly the whole of anarchist philosophy was reduced to hero-worship of those few individuals who were willing to do the things that others were prepared only to imagine-to endure the unwelcome attention of the authorities, to accept prison, to act as surrogates for those who wished to have something in which to believe but not necessarily to emulate."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Atheists from the United StatesAnti-war activistsAnti-Stalinist leftWomen activists from the United StatesAnarcho-communists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Emma Goldman
1869 – 1940
US-amerikanische Friedensaktivistin, Feministin und Anarchistin
205 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Emma Goldman →
Related Quotes
"No real social change has ever come about without a revolution."
"The majority cares little for ideals or integrity. What it craves is display. [...] The more hideous the mental conto…"
"Is the child to be considered as an individuality, or as an object to be moulded according to the whims and fancies o…"
"Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the h…"
"Ladies and gentlemen, I came here to avoid as much as possible treading on your corns. I had intended to deal only wi…"
"The statements published in American newspapers which have been attributed to me are absolute falsifications full of …"
"I feel sure that the police are helping us more than I could do in ten years. They are making more anarchists than th…"
"I hope I shall never live to see Anarchism become thoroughly respectable, for then I shall have to look for a new ideal."
"The supreme effort of the avant-guard is onward, ever onward."
"The custom of procuring abortions has reached such appalling proportions in America as to be beyond belief... So grea…"