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There are five things that societies do: they reproduce; they produce food; they organize themselves in terms of law; they organize themselves in terms of belief; and they make art. four of them are about conformity, and in these, everything would go more smoothly if people just would shut up and do what they're told. but in art it doesn't work that way.

-Jane Smiley

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There Are Five Things That Societies Do:

Jane Smiley

There are five things that societies do: they reproduce; they produce food; they organize themselves in terms of law; they organize themselves in terms of belief; and they make art. four of them are about conformity, and in these, everything would go more smoothly if people just would shut up and do what they're told. but in art it doesn't work that way.

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    <p style="font-size: 1.2rem; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 10px;">"there are five things that societies do: they reproduce; they produce food; they organize themselves in terms of law; they organize themselves in terms of belief; and they make art. four of them are about conformity, and in these, everything would go more smoothly if people just would shut up and do what they&#039;re told. but in art it doesn&#039;t work that way."</p>
    <footer style="font-size: 1rem; font-weight: bold;">— Jane Smiley</footer>
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More From Jane Smiley

We see that there are two different kinds of...societies: (a) parasitic societies and (b) producing societies. the former are those which live from hunting, fishing, or merely gleaning. by their economic activities they do not increase, but rather decrease, the amount of wealth in the world. the second kind of societies, producing societies, live by agricultural and pastoral activities. by these activities they seek to increase the amount of wealth in the world.

[i]t's an honor to be a food stamp president. food stamps feed the hungry. food stamps save the children. food stamps help the farmer. food stamps help the truck driver. food stamps help the warehouse. food stamps help the store. food stamps hire people and feed people. food stamps save people from starvation and malnutrition. ... give president barack obama a big hand. show your love. show your appreciation.

Now, everybody knows the basic erogenous zones. you got one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven. ... ok, now most guys will hit one, two, three and then go to seven and set up camp. ... you want to hit 'em all and you wanna mix 'em up. you gotta keep 'em on their toes. ... you could start out with a little one. a two. a one, two, three. a three. a five. a four. a three, two. two. a two, four, six. two, four, six. four. two. two. four, seven! five, seven! six, seven! seven! seven! seven! seven! seven! seven! seven! seven! seven! [holds up seven fingers]

Four. that's what i want you to remember. if you don't get your idea across in the first four minutes, you won't do it. four sentences to a paragraph. four letters to a word. the most important words in the english language all have four letters. home. love. food. land. peace. . .i know peace has five letters, but any damn fool knows it should have four.

Civilization after civilization, it is the same. the world falls to tyranny with a whisper. the frightened are ever keen to bow to a perceived necessity, in the belief that necessity forces conformity, and conformity a certain stability. in a world shaped into conformity, dissidents stand out, are easily branded and dealt with. there is no multitude of perspectives, no dialogue. the victim assumes the face of the tyrant, self-righteous and intransigent, and wars breed like vermin. and people die.

The law is equal before all of us; but we are not all equal before the law. virtually there is one law for the rich and another for the poor, one law for the cunning and another for the simple, one law for the forceful and another for the feeble, one law for the ignorant and another for the learned, one law for the brave and another for the timid, and within family limits one law for the parent and no law at all for the child.

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