A review by nikshelby
Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran
5.0
I don't remember how I found this essay anthology from Caitlin Moran. However, I am glad I did. She felt like someone I'd like to buy a pint for at the pub (she's from the UK), and chat about everything in the world - silly and serious. This book felt like it was her side of the conversation, and my questions and thoughts were between the lines.
Some random quotes:
>>> "I started to think, 'Maybe there's something to learn here. Maybe you don't need to be the 'right' kind of person to write about big things. Maybe anyone thoughtful, and making an effort, can contribute to the debate. Maybe there are thousands of us who are not thinking, and not writing, and not talking - just because we think we are the wrong kind of person. So - I am going to write about politics now. Firstly, because I think I should; and secondly, because I'm old enough now not to care if people think I can't. I love getting older. You might lose skin elasticity, but you also lose the amount of fucks you give. It's awesome."
>>> Milton Friedman "Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable."
>>> "There is one huge, untapped resource which would allow a light-speed jump in progress - and it's us. We are the big, obvious resource of our age...This, then, is the ultimate argument for the urgency and necessity of equality. For equality isn't some fabulous luxury we treat ourselves to when we're rich enough - the legislation and infrastructure we get round to after we secure our economies, or wrangle foreign policy. Equality isn't humanity's cashmere bed socks. It's not a present we treat ourselves to, like champagne. It's a fundamental necessity, like water."
>>> "The systems borked. The good news is, we have a billion ways to improve it. US. For we are the point of democracy. We are democracy. We are the conversation. We are the climate. We set the tone - we make the spaces where conversations turn into ideas, which then turn into action. We are the drivers - not just at the polling booth, every few years, but in the choices we make every day in what we buy, what we eat, the language we use, the ideas we share, the comments we make, and the connections we make across the world."
>>> "So much of the groundwork for change is done simply through human creativity, joy, and a willingness to consider future and parallel worlds. The BBC made the show {Doctor Who}, and we watched it, and in a small way - while we were at play, while we were happy - the world was changed."
Some random quotes:
>>> "I started to think, 'Maybe there's something to learn here. Maybe you don't need to be the 'right' kind of person to write about big things. Maybe anyone thoughtful, and making an effort, can contribute to the debate. Maybe there are thousands of us who are not thinking, and not writing, and not talking - just because we think we are the wrong kind of person. So - I am going to write about politics now. Firstly, because I think I should; and secondly, because I'm old enough now not to care if people think I can't. I love getting older. You might lose skin elasticity, but you also lose the amount of fucks you give. It's awesome."
>>> Milton Friedman "Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable."
>>> "There is one huge, untapped resource which would allow a light-speed jump in progress - and it's us. We are the big, obvious resource of our age...This, then, is the ultimate argument for the urgency and necessity of equality. For equality isn't some fabulous luxury we treat ourselves to when we're rich enough - the legislation and infrastructure we get round to after we secure our economies, or wrangle foreign policy. Equality isn't humanity's cashmere bed socks. It's not a present we treat ourselves to, like champagne. It's a fundamental necessity, like water."
>>> "The systems borked. The good news is, we have a billion ways to improve it. US. For we are the point of democracy. We are democracy. We are the conversation. We are the climate. We set the tone - we make the spaces where conversations turn into ideas, which then turn into action. We are the drivers - not just at the polling booth, every few years, but in the choices we make every day in what we buy, what we eat, the language we use, the ideas we share, the comments we make, and the connections we make across the world."
>>> "So much of the groundwork for change is done simply through human creativity, joy, and a willingness to consider future and parallel worlds. The BBC made the show {Doctor Who}, and we watched it, and in a small way - while we were at play, while we were happy - the world was changed."