Kent Greenfield > Quotes

“...we may be too distracted by the options at our grocery stores and on our television sets to recognize the dearth of choices in our politics and culture, or our inability to choose differently.”
― Kent Greenfield, The Myth of Choice: Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits

“A respect for choice, if taken seriously, does not translate into the simplistic libertarian prescriptions often trotted out on the heels of the personal responsibility rhetoric. It is impossible to have accountability for choices with no legal or regulatory mechanism to enforce it.”
― Kent Greenfield, The Myth of Choice: Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits

“In a way, the view that we are chained to our natures and the belief that we are products of external forces are diametrically opposed. One sees each human as a product of his or her own static character and disposition. The other sees each individual as an object on which circumstances act. Both see human behavior as constrained rather than free. One can be agnostic about whether internal or external forces are more influential in any given case and still acknowledge that the end result is limit rather than choice.”
― Kent Greenfield, The Myth of Choice: Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits

“The rhetoric of personal responsibility is often a cover for the avoidance of shared responsibility. A fixation on the choices of the last person in the causal chain allows us to feel comfortable with a lack of charity springing from our hearts or wallets.”
― Kent Greenfield, The Myth of Choice: Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits