John Berger Quotes
In the modern world, in which thousands of people are dying every hour as a consequence of politics, no writing anywhere can begin to be credible unless it is informed by political awareness and principles. Writers who have neither product utopian trash.
Berger, John. The Look of Things. Viking Press, 1972, p. 10.
She had been accused of being a follower of public opinion rather than a driver of it as many politicians see themselves. At the time, she refused to stake out specific positions in her contest for the presidential nomination of her party—the socialists. She won the primary, the first such French woman, but lost in the general election.
In the pre-computer era, “geek” referred to a circus sideshow person who usually had some remarkable skill or unusual deformity. In the computer era, a geek is a very skilled computer programmer who is very immersed in the technology and not terribly interested in politics or typical popular culture. However as any technology becomes ubiquitous and affects the lives of most citizens and the economy, politics is bound to intrude. Politicians are particularly ignorant of science and technology and if the geeks do not get involved in politics, their tools, systems, capabilities, freedoms and restrictions will be determined without their input, understanding, and pressure.
John Peter Berger was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to the BBC series of the same name, is often used as a university text. He lived in France for over fifty years.
