Competitions Quotes
The largest kingdom the world had known was divided up among his generals.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
Jinnah was a modern Islamist who saw the role of females in a modern context. He, like the Indian Hindu leaders were in a sense products of the West and Western government and education. He would be very surprised that in his Pakistan men can murder their female relatives who they believe have dishonored the family, or that women would not be educated in the Madrassas, or that authorities could sentence a female relative of a man deemed guilty of seduction to be gang raped, but that is what happens in modern Pakistan. Jinnah and many of the early leaders believed that their new government could modernize Islam but the control and influence went the other way. Pakistan became a religiously dominated autocracy rather than the democracy that Jinnah foresaw.
3rd Earl Russell of Kingston
What makes this quote significant is the data—the end of the 19th century and here was an author, in a prestigious journal, warning about the potential economic competition from China which at the time was seen by most as a backward, primitive civilization which could never compete with the West. Also, Hearn was the first writer who communicated information about Asia to Americans on a large scale.
The only previous source of light in America had been whale oil or candles—both very expensive. Oil was discovered in Pennsylvania and refinery techniques developed to produce Kerosene. (Gasoline was too explosive and dangerous for home use.) Everyone’s standard of living depended on Kerosene at the time and John D. Rockefeller controlled the price everywhere except New York. There were no monopoly or antitrust laws when he gobbled up his competitors and he rapidly became the richest man in America and one of the most hated. His abuse of the system at the time led to the government regulation of monopolies and the antitrust laws. It was very courageous for the Atlantic Monthly to publish this article, as Rockefeller’s power extended all over the nation—but less in New York where the magazine was published.
The irony of this quotation is that he is the architect and controller of the Russian system that he is criticizing.
There are some who argue that freedom of expression always has been a positive factor which helps to enable economic development.
