Peter Farb Quotes
People who speak the same language can hate one another as easily as can people who speak unrelated languages.
Farb, Peter. Word Play: What Happens When People Talk. Knopf, 1974.
This quotation is classic as it was the first of a series of attacks that have been made on presidents and other politicians by the economic ultra-rightists when the conservatives had disliked the politician’s economic policies. To criticize the ultra-rich and their corporations was promoting class warfare. And that criticism being made public certainly upset the confidence of the rich in the President. When the president pointed out how the average person feels about the rich, to them it was he who was responsible for the mistrust and hatred by talking about them—not them by what they were doing. This same attack has been made against every Democratic President that came thereafter, but it was first used against Republican Theodore Roosevelt. For many Liberals, the way they know that they are starting to succeed with economic reform is when they get attacked for fomenting class warfare.
At the time he was referring to Protestants & Catholics. Today we have Muslims vs. Jews & Christians.
to make international treaties or resolve international problems
Peter Farb (1929–1980) was an American author, anthropologist, linguist and naturalist.
