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Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive.

Mary Douglas

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Mary Douglas
Age: 86 †
Born: 1921
Born: March 25
Died: 2007
Died: May 16
Anthropologist
University Teacher
Writer
San Remo
Dame Mary Douglas
Margaret Mary Tew
Superiority
Destructive
Moral
Devastatingly
Pretensions
Pretension

More quotes by Mary Douglas

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Mormons... are so strong, they can handle wealth, they are confident. I think it is because they are not bogged down by rules for equality, but have a firmly defined system of relative status and responsible command.
Mary Douglas
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Any great organization can go through sectarian phases.
Mary Douglas
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Since 1970, relationships can be more volatile, jobs more ephemeral, geographical mobility more intensified, stability of marriage weaker.
Mary Douglas
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If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.
Mary Douglas
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If people want to compete for leadership of a religious group, they can compete in piety. A chilling thought. Or funny.
Mary Douglas
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Hierarchy works well in a stable environment.
Mary Douglas
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It is very reasonable to worry about the harm done by organized religion, and to prefer looser and more private arrangements.
Mary Douglas
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The history of the Church of Rome is a constant leakage of members into such breakaway cults, which go on splitting.
Mary Douglas
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I am convinced that living in an enclave shapes the personality, and living alone shapes the personality too.
Mary Douglas
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It's unlikely that the organized religions will get more sectarian... or is it? I am not at all sure.
Mary Douglas
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The human body is always treated as an image of society.
Mary Douglas
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Inequality can have a bad downside, but equality, for its part, sure does get in the way of coordination.
Mary Douglas
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Yes, disappointment over perceived unfairness, injustice, promises not kept, tends to go hand in hand with increasing prosperity. Expectations are dashed. What can I say!
Mary Douglas
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Hierarchy is is much reviled in the present day.
Mary Douglas
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Behind a leader there must be followers, but they should always be on the lookout for the main chance and ready to change sides if the current leader doesn't deliver.
Mary Douglas
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Religion can make it worse. Are you supposing that if people were encouraged to believe in a transcendent reality, and to be encouraged by grand rituals and music and preaching, to love their neighbors, then they would put jealousy and frustration aside?
Mary Douglas
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Just in our lifetime our society has become looser and more private, it becomes extremely difficult to hold to any permanent commitment whatever, least of all to organized religion.
Mary Douglas
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Our technological infrastructure alienates us from each other. No need to form a workplace community, everybody there will be out in a year or two, and so will you, looking for a better place.
Mary Douglas
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Islam is in principle egalitarian, and has always had problems with power.
Mary Douglas
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I have increasingly, over the years, felt that religion today does our civilization more harm than good.
Mary Douglas