--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Hey - Duggie! Duggie! Duggie!\" He came…" description: "\"“Hey - Duggie! Duggie! Duggie!\" He came running up to me, sparkler in hand. I felt like sticking one on him, the cheeky bastard. Nobody called me Duggi..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/027/jonathan-coe-10154_equality-of-opportun_hey-duggie-duggie-duggie-he-came-running_2433814.jpg" --- # Hey - Duggie! Duggie! Duggie!" He came running up to me… ![“Hey - Duggie! Duggie! Duggie!" He came running up to me, sparkler in hand. I felt like sticking one on him, the cheeky bastard. Nobody called me Duggie. He held the sparkler up in front of my face and said, "Wait. Wait." I was already waiting. What else was there to do? "Here you are," he said…” quote by Jonathan Coe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/027/jonathan-coe-10154_equality-of-opportun_hey-duggie-duggie-duggie-he-came-running_2433814.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/027/jonathan-coe-10154_equality-of-opportun_hey-duggie-duggie-duggie-he-came-running_2433814.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/027/jonathan-coe-10154_equality-of-opportun_hey-duggie-duggie-duggie-he-came-running_2433814.jpg) > ““Hey - Duggie! Duggie! Duggie!" He came running up to me, sparkler in hand. I felt like sticking one on him, the cheeky bastard. Nobody called me Duggie. He held the sparkler up in front of my face and said, "Wait. Wait." I was already waiting. What else was there to do? "Here you are," he said. "Look! What's this?" At that precise moment, his sparkler fizzled out. I didn't say anything, so he supplied the answer himself. "The death of the socialist dream," he said. He giggled like a little maniac, and stared at me for a second or two before running off, and in that time I saw exactly the same thing I'd seen in Stubbs's eyes the day before. The same triumphalism, the same excitement, not because something new was being created, but because something was being destroyed. I thought about Phillip and his stupid rock symphony and I swear that my eyes pricked with tears. This ludicrous attempt to squeeze the history of the countless millennia into half an hour's worth of crappy riffs and chord changes suddenly seemed no more Quixotic than all the things my dad and his colleagues had been working towards for so long. A national health service, free to everyone who needed it. Redistribution of wealth through taxation. Equality of opportunity. Beautiful ideas, Dad, noble aspirations, just as there was the kernel of something beautiful in Philip's musical hodge-podge. But it was never going to happen. If there had ever been a time when it might have happened, that time was slipping away. The moment had passed. Goodbye to all that. Easy to be clever with hindsight, I know, but I was right, wasn't I? Look back on that night from the perspective of now, the closing weeks of the closing century of our second millennium - if the calendar of some esoteric and fast-disappearing religious sect counts for anything any more - and you have to admit that I was right. And so was Benjamin's brother, the little bastard, with his sparkler and his horrible grin and that nasty gleam of incipient victory in his twelve-year-old eyes. Goodbye to all that, he was saying. He'd worked it out already. He knew what the future held in store.”” [Jonathan Coe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonathan-coe/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The narrator reflects on the collapse of idealistic dreams, seeing destruction as both tragic and oddly triumphant, questioning progress and nostalgia. **In simple terms:** Dreams die, leaving mixed feelings of loss and strange triumph. Key Takeaway Accept that some aspirations fade, but learn from their remnants. Themes idealism disillusionment nostalgia Mood bitancholy contemplative Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - personal reflection - political activism - art criticism Key Concepts political theory culture history Questions to Reflect On - What can we retain from failed dreams? - How do we balance hope with realism? 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Their right to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malala-yousafzai/i-speak-not-for-myself-but-so-those-without-a-voice-can-be-heard/) [Malala Yousafzai](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malala-yousafzai/) > [“Equality of condition and equality of opportunity must provide the foundation of an interdependent nation with building blocks found in dignity and respect given…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julie-banks-lewis/equality-of-condition-and-equality-of-opportunity-must-provide-the/) [Julie Banks Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julie-banks-lewis/) > [Abraham Lincoln and others recoiled from the idea of government as a prop for the rich. 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Ingalls](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-k-ingalls/) > [Equality of opportunity is meaningless for those who do not have the capabilities to take advantage of it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ha-joon-chang/equality-of-opportunity-is-meaningless-for-those-who-do-not-have-the/) [Ha-Joon Chang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ha-joon-chang/) > [Conservatives often say that we should care not about equality of outcomes but about equality of opportunity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-noah/conservatives-often-say-that-we-should-care-not-about-equality-of/) [Timothy Noah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-noah/) [Browse all 96 Equality of opportunity quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/equality-of-opportunity/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Hey - Duggie! Duggie! Duggie!\" He came running up to me, sparkler in hand. I felt like sticking one on him, the cheeky bastard. Nobody called me Duggie. He held the sparkler up in front of my face and said, \"Wait. Wait.\" I was already waiting. What else was there to do? \"Here you are,\" he said. \"Look! What's this?\" At that precise moment, his sparkler fizzled out. I didn't say anything, so he supplied the answer himself. \"The death of the socialist dream,\" he said. He giggled like a little maniac, and stared at me for a second or two before running off, and in that time I saw exactly the same thing I'd seen in Stubbs's eyes the day before. The same triumphalism, the same excitement, not because something new was being created, but because something was being destroyed. I thought about Phillip and his stupid rock symphony and I swear that my eyes pricked with tears. This ludicrous attempt to squeeze the history of the countless millennia into half an hour's worth of crappy riffs and chord changes suddenly seemed no more Quixotic than all the things my dad and his colleagues had been working towards for so long. A national health service, free to everyone who needed it. Redistribution of wealth through taxation. Equality of opportunity. Beautiful ideas, Dad, noble aspirations, just as there was the kernel of something beautiful in Philip's musical hodge-podge. But it was never going to happen. If there had ever been a time when it might have happened, that time was slipping away. The moment had passed. Goodbye to all that. Easy to be clever with hindsight, I know, but I was right, wasn't I? Look back on that night from the perspective of now, the closing weeks of the closing century of our second millennium - if the calendar of some esoteric and fast-disappearing religious sect counts for anything any more - and you have to admit that I was right. And so was Benjamin's brother, the little bastard, with his sparkler and his horrible grin and that nasty gleam of incipient victory in his twelve-year-old eyes. Goodbye to all that, he was saying. He'd worked it out already. 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