--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: For what is the program of the bourgeois…" description: "\"For what is the program of the bourgeois parties? A bad poem on springtime, filled to bursting with metaphors.\" — Walter Benjamin" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/762/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_for-what-is-the-program-of-the-bourgeois_125535.jpg" --- # For what is the program of the bourgeois parties? A bad… ![“For what is the program of the bourgeois parties? A bad poem on springtime, filled to bursting with metaphors.” quote by Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/762/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_for-what-is-the-program-of-the-bourgeois_125535.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/762/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_for-what-is-the-program-of-the-bourgeois_125535.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/762/walter-benjamin-1723_bourgeois_for-what-is-the-program-of-the-bourgeois_125535.jpg) > “For what is the program of the bourgeois parties? A bad poem on springtime, filled to bursting with metaphors.” [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 critiques bourgeois political programs as superficial, poetic, and metaphor‑laden, lacking substantive action or critique. **In simple terms:** Bourgeois politics are empty, decorative rhetoric. Key Takeaway Political discourse can be hollowly aesthetic. Themes politics critique bourgeoisie rhetoric Mood critical skeptical Type political satirical When to use this quote - campaign speeches - corporate CSR statements - media op‑eds Key Concepts satire Practical Applications - Demand concrete policies over poetic slogans - Analyze language for substantive content Questions to Reflect On - How does metaphor mask political intent? - When does aesthetic language become manipulative? ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bourgeois](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bourgeois/) [Metaphor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/metaphor/) [Party](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/party/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Programming](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/programming/) [Springtime](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/springtime/) ## Related quotes > [In good times, people turn to Left wing parties, in bad times, they say, well, possibly Left-wing parties can't make those tough decisions... 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I seem to remember comparing her to a tarantula.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simon-schama/i-wrote-a-staggeringly-bad-poem-when-i-was-19-after-a-girlfriend/) [Simon Schama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simon-schama/) > [Sometimes you have to be less ashamed about writing a bad poem than you would be about being silent.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-hass/sometimes-you-have-to-be-less-ashamed-about-writing-a-bad-poem-than/) [Robert Hass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-hass/) > [A bad poem is one that vanishes into meaning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/a-bad-poem-is-one-that-vanishes-into-meaning/) [Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/) > [The usual bad poem in somebody's Collected Works is a learned, mannered, valued habit, a habit a little more careful than, and little emptier…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/randall-jarrell/the-usual-bad-poem-in-somebody-s-collected-works-is-a-learned/) [Randall Jarrell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/randall-jarrell/) > [“When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. 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They forget that they too…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nate-saint/and-people-who-do-not-know-the-lord-ask-why-in-the-world-we-waste-our/) [Nate Saint](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nate-saint/) > [The energy of the stars becomes us. We become the energy of the stars. Stardust and spirit unite and we begin: one with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dennis-kucinich/the-energy-of-the-stars-becomes-us-we-become-the-energy-of-the-stars/) [Dennis Kucinich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dennis-kucinich/) > [Early humans, bursting with questions about Nature but with limited understanding of its dynamics, explained things in terms of supernatural persons and person-animals who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ursula-goodenough/early-humans-bursting-with-questions-about-nature-but-with-limited/) [Ursula Goodenough](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ursula-goodenough/) > [All the earth is at rest and is quiet: they are bursting into song. Even the trees of the wood are glad over you,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isaiah/all-the-earth-is-at-rest-and-is-quiet-they-are-bursting-into-song/) [Isaiah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isaiah/) > [The spring came suddenly, bursting upon the world as a child bursts into a room, with a laugh and a shout and hands full…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-wadsworth-longfellow/the-spring-came-suddenly-bursting-upon-the-world-as-a-child-bursts/) [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-wadsworth-longfellow/) > [Like many other scientists who hold the Catholic faith, I see the Creator's plan and purpose fulfilled in our universe. I see a planet…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kenneth-r-miller/like-many-other-scientists-who-hold-the-catholic-faith-i-see-the/) [Kenneth R. Miller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kenneth-r-miller/) ## 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/) > [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/) > [Taking food alone tends to make one hard and coarse. 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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 > [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/) > [What have we achieved since the end of the Second World War? 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