" Those who do not move, do not notice their chains. " ~ misattributed to Rosa Luxemburg

submitted by JasonCarswell from (self.quotes)

" Those who do not move, do not notice their chains. " ~ misattributed to Rosa Luxemburg

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rosa_Luxemburg

Discovered via:
@17m45s+ Economic Update: Comedy and Tragedy of Capitalism (with Lee Camp, 2nd half) (29:25) ~ Democracy At Work, 2020-03-23

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[–]hennaojichan 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

But who actually said it? When you try to track down the original it is not so easy. Great pic btw.

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That is an excellent question that applies to more "famous" quotes that we can imagine.

 

" As is often the case, this quote appears to be something Luxemburg could have said or written, but searches for a source have been unsuccessful[1]. While Luxemburg often used metaphors of breaking or shattering chains, this, apparently, is not one of them. "
~ https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rosa_Luxemburg#Misattributed

[1] https://librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/2013/07/06/reference-desk-unanswered-questions/

Among them:

I asked the Marxist Internet Archive as suggested, and quickly received the following reply, which seems to find the quote to be apocryphal:

“The German version of this (alleged) quote is “Wer sich nicht bewegt, spürt seine Fesseln nicht.” It has been attributed to Rosa Luxemburg by many people and she did say some things that have a similar meaning but none of the discussions I’ve read have been able to quote where it came from. While it may appear in one of her letters (most of them aren’t online yet), the earliest definite reference to this statement seems to be a banner on an opposition demonstration in the GDR on 17 January 1989 (i.e. on the 70th anniversary of her murder)!

The confusion may have arisen because the other banner carried by the demonstrators definitely was an abbreviated Luxemburg quote, i.e. “Freiheit ist the Freiheit des Andersdenkenden” (Freedom is the freedom of those who think differently). So I tend to think that the “quotation” is apochryphal – but I’m not going to search through the 6 volumes of her correspondence looking for it – particularly as many others have done so already without success: a recent discussion can be found (in German) in item 3 of this Wikipedia discussion archive: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProjekt_Marxismus/Caf%C3%A9/Archiv/2012

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

What a bunch of intelligent sounding bullshit. It's a shame how easily people believe bullshit when it is a claim about how they are getting screwed or mistreated. No one wants to challenge someone they perceive as having sympathy for them.

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

LOL.

Might be a good point, except it too is a bunch of intelligent sounding bullshit.

Why should you want to challenge sympathy (unless it's a programmed response due to social conditioning, cultural engineering, and propaganda)?

How should it be corrected?

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It is not the sympathy you should challenge but the argument behind the sympathy. When someone tells you that you are being screwed and it is not something you already knew then you should be dubious about that claim because everyone is inherently tuned to noticing that kind of thing. It is a common tactic for example to pit two of your enemies against each other by convincing one that the other is mistreating them. For example you could "innocently" ask why the other is always giving orders in order to create a power struggle.

When someone you don't know tells you that you are being mistreated it is far more likely that they are trying to use you for their own purposes. In the case of communists they are trying to turn people against their government. It doesn't actually matter if anyone is being mistreated, simply that they believe it to be the case.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[deleted]

    [–]JasonCarswell[S] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    Ah, so you're on an anti-Marxist crusade? First Parenti, now this. Good luck with your spree.

    Guilt by association? I wonder who you associate with?