--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Experience has taught me that the…" description: "\"Experience has taught me that the shallowest of communist platitudes contains more of a hierarchy of meaning than contemporary bourgeois profundity.\" —..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d4e/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallo_758789.jpg" --- # Experience has taught me that the shallowest of communist… ![“Experience has taught me that the shallowest of communist platitudes contains more of a hierarchy of meaning than contemporary bourgeois profundity.” quote by Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d4e/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallo_758789.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d4e/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallo_758789.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d4e/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallo_758789.jpg) > “Experience has taught me that the shallowest of communist platitudes contains more of a hierarchy of meaning than contemporary bourgeois profundity.” [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote suggests that even simplistic communist slogans can carry layered, deeper significance than the often superficial depth of modern bourgeois ideas. **In simple terms:** Simple ideas can be deeper than complex ones. Key Takeaway Look beyond surface meaning. Themes politics philosophy culture class meaning Mood critical analytical thoughtful Type critical philosophical interpretive When to use this quote - political discourse - academic analysis - media criticism - social media commentary - public debates Key Concepts dialectics hierarchy depth ideology critique Questions to Reflect On - How do you assess depth in political statements? - Can simplicity ever be truly profound? A Different Perspective The claim may overgeneralize and ignore nuanced bourgeois thought. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bourgeois](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bourgeois/) [Bourgeois Profundity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bourgeois-profundity-5888925/) [Communism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communism/) [Communism and socialism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communism-and-socialism/) [Communist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communist/) [Communist Platitudes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communist-platitudes-5888923/) [Contemporary](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/contemporary/) [Hierarchy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hierarchy/) [Platitudes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/platitudes/) [Profundity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/profundity/) [Shallowest Communist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shallowest-communist-5888924/) [Taught](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/taught/) [Taught Shallowest](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/taught-shallowest-5888926/) ## Related quotes > [There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/there-is-no-difference-between-communism-and-socialism-except-in-the/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-steinbeck/socialism-never-took-root-in-america-because-the-poor-see-themselves/) [John Steinbeck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-steinbeck/) > [Communism is the opiate of the intellectuals.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clare-boothe-luce/communism-is-the-opiate-of-the-intellectuals/) [Clare Boothe Luce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clare-boothe-luce/) > [ Communism and socialism is \[sic\] seductive. 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One cannot be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/milovan-ilas/the-terrible-thing-is-that-one-cannot-be-a-communist-and-not-let/) [Milovan ?ilas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/milovan-ilas/) > [Socialism never took root in America.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-steinbeck/socialism-never-took-root-in-america/) [John Steinbeck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-steinbeck/) > [Communism and socialism, programs for intellectual control over society ... fascism, a program for the social control of intellect.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-m-pirsig/communism-and-socialism-programs-for-intellectual-control-over/) [Robert M. Pirsig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-m-pirsig/) ## More by Walter Benjamin > [All efforts to render politics aesthetic culminate in one thing: war.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/all-efforts-to-render-politics-aesthetic-culminate-in-one-thing-war/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [“The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than of convictions, and of such facts as have scarcely…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/the-construction-of-life-is-at-present-in-the-power-of-facts-far-more/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [“It should be pointed out that certain correlative concepts retain their meaning, and possibly their foremost significance, if they are referred exclusively to man.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/it-should-be-pointed-out-that-certain-correlative-concepts-retain/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Allegories are, in the realm of thought, what ruins are in the realm of things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/allegories-are-in-the-realm-of-thought-what-ruins-are-in-the-realm-of/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Things are only mannequins and even the great world-historical events are only costumes beneath which they exchange glances with nothingness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/things-are-only-mannequins-and-even-the-great-world-historical-events/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [“to great writers, finished works weigh lighter than those fragments on which they labor their entire lives.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/to-great-writers-finished-works-weigh-lighter-than-those-fragments-on/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [All religions have honored the beggar. 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But in its tenacious self-absorption it embraces dead objects in its contemplation, in order to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/melancholy-betrays-the-world-for-the-sake-of-knowledge-but-in-its/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [For what is the program of the bourgeois parties? A bad poem on springtime, filled to bursting with metaphors.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/for-what-is-the-program-of-the-bourgeois-parties-a-bad-poem-on/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [There was the pedestrian who wedged himself into the crowd, but there was also the flneur who demanded elbow room and was unwilling to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/there-was-the-pedestrian-who-wedged-himself-into-the-crowd-but-there/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [The power of a text is different when it is read from when it is copied out. Only the copied text thus commands the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/the-power-of-a-text-is-different-when-it-is-read-from-when-it-is/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Quotations in my work are like wayside robbers who leap out armed and relieve the stroller of his conviction.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/quotations-in-my-work-are-like-wayside-robbers-who-leap-out-armed-and/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [Each morning the day lies like a fresh shirt on our bed; this incomparably fine, incomparably tightly woven tissue of pure prediction fits us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/each-morning-the-day-lies-like-a-fresh-shirt-on-our-bed-this/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) [Explore all 207 Walter Benjamin quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) ## More Bourgeois quotes > [“Economists have a singular method of procedure. 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Even great women artists, like Louise Bourgeois and Lee…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siri-hustvedt/with-almost-no-exceptions-art-by-men-is-much-more-expensive-than-art/) [Siri Hustvedt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siri-hustvedt/) > [The bourgeois thinkers of the eighteenth century thus turned Aristotle's formula on its head: satisfactions which the Greek philosopher had identified with leisure were…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alain-de-botton/the-bourgeois-thinkers-of-the-eighteenth-century-thus-turned/) [Alain de Botton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alain-de-botton/) > [Where there is no danger of overt action there is rarely any interference with freedom. That is why there has so often been amazing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-lippmann/where-there-is-no-danger-of-overt-action-there-is-rarely-any/) [Walter Lippmann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-lippmann/) > [Advancing bourgeois society liquidates memory, time, recollection as irrational leftovers of the past.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodor-adorno/advancing-bourgeois-society-liquidates-memory-time-recollection-as/) [Theodor Adorno](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodor-adorno/) > [ Avant-garde theatre, with its distrust of the individual (that bourgeois invention), tends to go beyond \[character\] and the psychological approach in search of a… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patrice-pavis/avant-garde-theatre-with-its-distrust-of-the-individual-that/) [Patrice Pavis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patrice-pavis/) > [One's existence should be in two parts: one should live like a bourgeois and think like a demigod.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gustave-flaubert/one-s-existence-should-be-in-two-parts-one-should-live-like-a/) [Gustave Flaubert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gustave-flaubert/) > [I think of myself as being a bit of a wimp deep down - a bourgeois wimp - and I'm fighting that. I think…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helen-mirren/i-think-of-myself-as-being-a-bit-of-a-wimp-deep-down-a-bourgeois-wimp/) [Helen Mirren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helen-mirren/) > [Conformity may not always reign in the prosperous bourgeois suburb, but it ultimately always governs.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-kronenberger/conformity-may-not-always-reign-in-the-prosperous-bourgeois-suburb/) [Louis Kronenberger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louis-kronenberger/) > [We can say farewell to 10 years of bourgeois rule... now we have the opportunity to change Denmark.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/helle-thorning-schmidt/we-can-say-farewell-to-10-years-of-bourgeois-rule-now-we-have-the/) [Helle Thorning-Schmidt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/helle-thorning-schmidt/) > [In a higher phase of communist society... only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be fully left behind and society inscribe on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karl-marx/in-a-higher-phase-of-communist-society-only-then-can-the-narrow/) [Karl Marx](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karl-marx/) > [For what is the program of the bourgeois parties? A bad poem on springtime, filled to bursting with metaphors.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/for-what-is-the-program-of-the-bourgeois-parties-a-bad-poem-on/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [What have we achieved since the end of the Second World War? We have allowed petty, bourgeois regimes in which everything is average, mediocre.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tahar-ben-jelloun/what-have-we-achieved-since-the-end-of-the-second-world-war-we-have/) [Tahar Ben Jelloun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tahar-ben-jelloun/) [Browse all 304 Bourgeois quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bourgeois/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Experience has taught me that the shallowest of communist platitudes contains more of a hierarchy of meaning than contemporary bourgeois profundity.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Walter Benjamin" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallowest-of-communist-platitudes/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Bourgeois" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallowest-of-communist-platitudes/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d4e/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallo_758789.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d4e/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallo_758789.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d4e/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallo_758789.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Experience has taught me that the shallowest of communist platitudes contains more of a hierarchy of meaning…” — Walter Benjamin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Walter Benjamin", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Experience has taught me that the...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallowest-of-communist-platitudes/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/experience-has-taught-me-that-the-shallowest-of-communist-platitudes/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```