--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Today, practically every country outside…" description: "\"Today, practically every country outside the West is undergoing an intellectual, political, and cultural churning, from China to Bolivia, Egypt to Indo..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bbd/pankaj-mishra-2875_1960s_today-practically-every-country-outside_2236125.jpg" --- # Today, practically every country outside the West is… ![“Today, practically every country outside the West is undergoing an intellectual, political, and cultural churning, from China to Bolivia, Egypt to Indonesia, but we haven't really had, after the 1960s, a major oppositional culture in Western Europe and America. The Occupy movement was so startling…” quote by Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bbd/pankaj-mishra-2875_1960s_today-practically-every-country-outside_2236125.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bbd/pankaj-mishra-2875_1960s_today-practically-every-country-outside_2236125.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bbd/pankaj-mishra-2875_1960s_today-practically-every-country-outside_2236125.jpg) > “Today, practically every country outside the West is undergoing an intellectual, political, and cultural churning, from China to Bolivia, Egypt to Indonesia, but we haven't really had, after the 1960s, a major oppositional culture in Western Europe and America. The Occupy movement was so startling and welcome partly because it was the first such eruption of mass protests in decades.” [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Western societies have lacked a unifying oppositional culture since the 1960s, making recent mass protests striking. **In simple terms:** West lacks a strong dissenting culture; recent protests feel fresh. Key Takeaway Recognize and nurture diverse dissent to revitalize democracy. Themes politics culture social movements Western society global trends Mood critical reflective hopeful Type analytical observational commentary When to use this quote - academic analysis - public debate - activist organizing - media commentary Key Concepts oppositional culture mass protest intellectual churn Questions to Reflect On - How can sustained dissent be organized beyond flash protests? - What role should intellectuals play in shaping oppositional culture? A Different Perspective Recent protests may be fragmented and lack lasting impact. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [1960s](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/zz-1960s-426/) [America](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/america/) [America Occupy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/america-occupy-5049196/) [Bolivia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bolivia/) [China](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/china/) [Churning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/churning/) [Country](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/country/) [Culture](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/culture/) [Decades](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/decades/) [Egypt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/egypt/) [Eruption](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eruption/) [Europe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/europe/) [Europe and america](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/europe-and-america/) [Firsts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/firsts/) [Havens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/havens/) [Indonesia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indonesia/) [Intellectual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intellectual/) [Majors](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/majors/) [Mass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mass/) [Movement](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/movement/) [Occupy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/occupy/) [Occupy movement](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/occupy-movement/) [Oppositional Culture](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/oppositional-culture-5049198/) [Political](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/political/) [Protest](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/protest/) [Protests Decades](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/protests-decades-5049197/) [Today](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/today/) [Welcome](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/welcome/) [West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/west/) [Western](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/western/) [Western europe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/western-europe/) ## Related quotes > [Some Iranian doctors from Europe and America go to Iran and operate for free or teach medical students there. 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Truman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/harry-s-truman/) > [I want to make all Europe and America know it – I want to make England feel her weakness if she refuses to give…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-o-connell/i-want-to-make-all-europe-and-america-know-it-i-want-to-make-england/) [Daniel O'Connell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-o-connell/) > [Whether we live by the seaside, or by the lakes and rivers, or on the prarie, it concerns us to attend to the nature…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/whether-we-live-by-the-seaside-or-by-the-lakes-and-rivers-or-on-the/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [ Japan, Europe, \[and\] America probably \[are\] better than last year \[2015\], not China. ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jamie-dimon/japan-europe-and-america-probably-are-better-than-last-year-2015-not/) [Jamie Dimon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jamie-dimon/) > [Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noah-webster/before-a-standing-army-can-rule-the-people-must-be-disarmed-as-they-2/) [Noah Webster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noah-webster/) > [Confronting this regime and opposing Zionists are a national duty, as well as religious and Islamic duty, and a human duty. Even the people…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahmoud-ahmadinejad/confronting-this-regime-and-opposing-zionists-are-a-national-duty-as/) [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahmoud-ahmadinejad/) > [To say that the whole of the industrial experience of Europe and America just shows the rewards of exploiting the Third World is a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amartya-sen/to-say-that-the-whole-of-the-industrial-experience-of-europe-and/) [Amartya Sen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amartya-sen/) > [In our day we don't allow a hundred and thirty years to elapse between glimpses of a marvel. If somebody should discover a creek…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/in-our-day-we-don-t-allow-a-hundred-and-thirty-years-to-elapse/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [None of the problems that caused the crises in Europe and America have been resolved. They have been delayed and expanded by more debt…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-bonner/none-of-the-problems-that-caused-the-crises-in-europe-and-america/) [Bill Bonner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-bonner/) > [Europe and America should judge Georgia's leadership on the basis of their actions, not just their words and promises. Otherwise Saakashvili will transform Georgia…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bidzina-ivanishvili/europe-and-america-should-judge-georgia-s-leadership-on-the-basis-of/) [Bidzina Ivanishvili](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bidzina-ivanishvili/) > [In Europe and America alike, voters increasingly recognize that the benefits of the green revolution aren't worth the costs, particularly when the revolutionaries don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jonah-goldberg/in-europe-and-america-alike-voters-increasingly-recognize-that-the/) [Jonah Goldberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jonah-goldberg/) > [Seve Ballesteros was a million percent the best Ryder Cupper on either side of Europe and America.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sam-torrance/seve-ballesteros-was-a-million-percent-the-best-ryder-cupper-on/) [Sam Torrance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sam-torrance/) > [The biggest difference as far as Muslims in Europe and America are concerned is that the number of Muslims in America is small compared…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-p-huntington/the-biggest-difference-as-far-as-muslims-in-europe-and-america-are/) [Samuel P. Huntington](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-p-huntington/) ## More by Pankaj Mishra > [“Nationalism has again become a seductive but treacherous antidote to an experience of disorder and meaninglessness: the unexpectedly rowdy anticlimax, in a densely populated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/nationalism-has-again-become-a-seductive-but-treacherous-antidote-to/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [I feel very privileged to get to read and write and not to have to do things that I don't like, and I don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/i-feel-very-privileged-to-get-to-read-and-write-and-not-to-have-to-do/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [There was great political uncertainty in South Asia at the time of the Buddha. The older small tribal societies were cracking up and gave…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/there-was-great-political-uncertainty-in-south-asia-at-the-time-of/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [Buddhism resonated very powerfully with a lot of my preoccupations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/buddhism-resonated-very-powerfully-with-a-lot-of-my-preoccupations/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [Our tolerance of the intolerable found a low threshold as early as the late 1950s with the grotesque excesses of McCarthyism, which destroyed so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/our-tolerance-of-the-intolerable-found-a-low-threshold-as-early-as/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [Freedom of speech doesn't guarantee great literature.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/freedom-of-speech-doesn-t-guarantee-great-literature/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“As Keynes wrote, with devastating understatement, ‘The age of economic internationalism was not particularly successful in avoiding war.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/as-keynes-wrote-with-devastating-understatement-the-age-of-economic/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“Voltaire was soon turned, with Catherine’s encouragement, into a patron saint for the secular Russian aristocracy. Voltairianism, vaguely signifying rationalism, scepticism and reformism, became…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/voltaire-was-soon-turned-with-catherine-s-encouragement-into-a-patron/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“Today, the belief in progress, necessary for life in a Godless universe, can no longer be sustained, except, perhaps, in the Silicon Valley mansions…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/today-the-belief-in-progress-necessary-for-life-in-a-godless-universe/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [We are always boosting or trying to prop up the ego by fulfilling some desire or other, and always craving affirmation from the outside.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/we-are-always-boosting-or-trying-to-prop-up-the-ego-by-fulfilling/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [I don't think of myself as particularly earnest. I have long bouts of cynicism and skepticism. So much of my early life was full…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/i-don-t-think-of-myself-as-particularly-earnest-i-have-long-bouts-of/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“Marx reproduced medieval and Reformation millenarian expectations in his utopia of a classless, stateless society.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/marx-reproduced-medieval-and-reformation-millenarian-expectations-in/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“History, largely experienced previously as a series of natural disasters, could now be seen as a movement in which everyone could potentially enlist.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/history-largely-experienced-previously-as-a-series-of-natural/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [Writers in the nineteenth century - people like George Eliot and Flaubert - were accustomed to addressing particular communities with which they shared not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/writers-in-the-nineteenth-century-people-like-george-eliot-and/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [Most suffering is human-made and avoidable. It's mostly in your head.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/most-suffering-is-human-made-and-avoidable-it-s-mostly-in-your-head/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) [Explore all 147 Pankaj Mishra quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) ## More 1960s quotes > [We do need different types of propulsion to get to Mars. I wrote one of the first Ph.D. theses on that in the 1960s.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-mitchell/we-do-need-different-types-of-propulsion-to-get-to-mars-i-wrote-one/) [Edgar Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-mitchell/) > [Each year more than 100,000 high school graduates, with proved ability, do not enter college because they cannot afford it. And if we cannot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lyndon-b-johnson/each-year-more-than-100-000-high-school-graduates-with-proved-ability/) [Lyndon B. Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lyndon-b-johnson/) > [Nearly all the writing of our time is likely to disappear in a hundred years. Certainly most readers - and nearly all critics -…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-dirda/nearly-all-the-writing-of-our-time-is-likely-to-disappear-in-a/) [Michael Dirda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-dirda/) > [Sometimes a party must sail against the wind. We cannot heed the call of those who say it is time to furl the sail.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-kennedy/sometimes-a-party-must-sail-against-the-wind-we-cannot-heed-the-call/) [Edward Kennedy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-kennedy/) > [ \[In the 1960s\]...you could take LSD but you couldn't wear a pantsuit. ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/betsey-johnson/in-the-1960s-you-could-take-lsd-but-you-couldn-t-wear-a-pantsuit/) [Betsey Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/betsey-johnson/) > [Is it a coincidence that stories from the private life became more popular just as the grand hope for public redemption through revolution was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-griffin/is-it-a-coincidence-that-stories-from-the-private-life-became-more/) [Susan Griffin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-griffin/) > [I think the general anxiety of the 1960s - '70s spawned our interest in the living dead. When people worry about the end of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/max-brooks/i-think-the-general-anxiety-of-the-1960s-70s-spawned-our-interest-in/) [Max Brooks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/max-brooks/) > [“A friend once told me a story about a former Black Panther leader in a Midwest community who in the 1960s had his phone…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/luis-j-rodr-guez/a-friend-once-told-me-a-story-about-a-former-black-panther-leader-in/) [Luis J. Rodríguez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/luis-j-rodr-guez/) > [I was never bothered about my position in the industry. If I had believed in it, I wouldn't have allowed anyone to get ahead…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dharmendra/i-was-never-bothered-about-my-position-in-the-industry-if-i-had/) [Dharmendra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dharmendra/) > [Under the system that we now have to nominate presidential candidates, for instance, I would prefer that we have a system that is closer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-beschloss/under-the-system-that-we-now-have-to-nominate-presidential-candidates/) [Michael Beschloss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-beschloss/) > [My son Bill, who came to me in 1960-he was 14 then, quoted the old parable to me: "It is not by their words,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/madalyn-murray-o-hair/my-son-bill-who-came-to-me-in-1960-he-was-14-then-quoted-the-old/) [Madalyn Murray O'Hair](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/madalyn-murray-o-hair/) > [There is a book called San Francisco Tape Music Centre:1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde and this book describes everything that you want to know…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pauline-oliveros/there-is-a-book-called-san-francisco-tape-music-centre-1960s/) [Pauline Oliveros](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pauline-oliveros/) > [Much of the art of the 1960s, from body art to video and direct performance, was concerned with similar issues. And then there was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/valie-export/much-of-the-art-of-the-1960s-from-body-art-to-video-and-direct/) [Valie Export](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/valie-export/) > [I went through college in the 1960s without having any idea that I was going to have to make a living. When I graduated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francine-prose/i-went-through-college-in-the-1960s-without-having-any-idea-that-i/) [Francine Prose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francine-prose/) > [“At the beginning of a decade when everything was beginning to seem possible, nothing seemed impossible.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margot-lee-shetterly/at-the-beginning-of-a-decade-when-everything-was-beginning-to-seem/) [Margot Lee Shetterly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margot-lee-shetterly/) [Browse all 486 1960s quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/zz-1960s-426/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Today, practically every country outside the West is undergoing an intellectual, political, and cultural churning, from China to Bolivia, Egypt to Indonesia, but we haven't really had, after the 1960s, a major oppositional culture in Western Europe and America. 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