John Berger Quotes
The past is the one thing we are not prisoners of. We can do with the past exactly what we wish. What we can't do is to change its consequences.
Berger, John. Keeping a Rendezvous. Vintage Books, 1991.
The presidents had announced that they would resume diplomatic relations and allow trade, tourism, and other exchange after 40 years of U. S. policy boycotting Cuba to produce more democratic reform and regime change. Fidel Castro, however, became the longest serving ruler or leader of any country in the world, and despite (some argue because of) the boycott was also one of the most popular leaders. The boycott was based on faulty intelligence and after 40 years of no results, President Obama's administration reversed the historical policy that had not been working though there were some American Castro haters who objected to the change arguing that with more time and the death of Fidel Castro who was ill at the time, the boycott would be effective and then we could negotiate for something in exchange for lifting the boycott.
This old proverb, commonly uttered in Russia and Slavic countries, in part, explains why Russians, Serbs, and others of the area seem so mired in the past.
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.
