Mary Douglas Quotes

• Inside a religious body you get sects and hierarchies, inside an information network you get bazaars and cathedrals, it is the same, call them what you like. They survive by pointing the finger of blame at each other.

  Mary Douglas

• Inequality can have a bad downside, but equality, for its part, sure does get in the way of coordination.

  Mary Douglas

• If people want to compete for leadership of a religious group, they can compete in piety. A chilling thought. Or funny.

  Mary Douglas

• I have increasingly, over the years, felt that religion today does our civilization more harm than good.

  Mary Douglas

• I am sure it must be true that people opt out of the mainstream society because they feel that there are going to be no rewards for them, if they stay.

  Mary Douglas

• I am convinced that living in an enclave shapes the personality, and living alone shapes the personality too.

  Mary Douglas

• Hierarchy works well in a stable environment.

  Mary Douglas

• Hierarchy is is much reviled in the present day.

  Mary Douglas

• Every year the progress of advanced capitalist society makes our population consist of more and more isolates. This is because of the infrastructure of the economy, especially electronic communications.

  Mary Douglas

• Enclave life becomes very tense, Even when they do elect a leader, the factions remain, with the threat of splitting off.

  Mary Douglas

• Behind a leader there must be followers, but they should always be on the lookout for the main chance and ready to change sides if the current leader doesn’t deliver.

  Mary Douglas

• Any great organization can go through sectarian phases.

  Mary Douglas

• An escalating, violent tit-for-tat may lead to terrorism.

  Mary Douglas

• Real equality is immensely difficult to achieve, it needs continual revision and monitoring of distributions. And it does not provide buffers between members, so they are continually colliding or frustrating each other.

  Mary Douglas

  Tags in Equality

Mary Douglas (34)

Birth:	25th March, 1921
Death:	16th May, 2007
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Anthropologist

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