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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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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
Thinking
Defined
Mormons
Handle
Bogged
Rules
Firmly
Responsible
Status
Wealth
Relative
System
Confident
Strong
Equality
Think
Command

More quotes by Mary Douglas

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Since 1970, relationships can be more volatile, jobs more ephemeral, geographical mobility more intensified, stability of marriage weaker.
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The human body is always treated as an image of society.
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Islam is in principle egalitarian, and has always had problems with power.
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When we are reflecting on terrorism we can grieve for many things we do and have done.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Hierarchy is is much reviled in the present day.
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Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive.
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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.
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Where there is dirt there is system. Dirt is the byproduct of a systematic ordering and classification of matter.
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Hierarchy works well in a stable environment.
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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.
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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!
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Institutions have the pathetic megalomania of the computer whose whole vision of the world is its own program.
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It's unlikely that the organized religions will get more sectarian... or is it? I am not at all sure.
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I am sure it must be true that people opt out of the mainstream society because they feel that there are going to be no rewards for them, if they stay.
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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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Inequality can have a bad downside, but equality, for its part, sure does get in the way of coordination.
Mary Douglas