John Seabrook Quotes:

The net poses a fundamental threat not only to the authority of the government, but to all authority, because it permits people to organize, think, and influence one another without any institutional supervision whatsoever.

source: - "My First Flame". Brave New World Dept., www.newyorker.com. June 6, 1994.

Topics: Thinking, Government, People, Supervision

Clothes are not so much about who you are as who you want to be.

Topics: Clothes, Want, Who You Are

Don't Shoot is a work of moral philosophy that reads like a crime novel - Immanuel Kant meets Joseph Wambaugh. It's a fascinating, inspiring, and wonderfully well written story of one man's quest to solve a problem no one thought could be solved: the scourge of inner city gang violence This is a vitally important work that has the potential to usher in a new era in policing.

Topics: Philosophy, Men, Cities, Inner City, Crime Novels

We live in a consumer culture, and Black Friday is like the July 4th of that culture. It might be good not to live in this culture, but it terms of what we can do to make people safer at big sales, it seems more useful to try to avoid dangerous crowd conditions.

source: - "Ask the Author Live: John Seabrook on Crowds". live chat, www.newyorker.com. January 28, 2011.

Topics: Friday, 4th Of July, People, Consumer Culture, Black Friday

Far more people die in the developing world than in the West. At religious festivals mainly. That's not a myth - the numbers don't lie. I think it's just because in the West crowds tend to be manufactured by commercial interesting, and they have, or at least should have, a responsibility for keeping people safe.

source: - "Ask the Author Live: John Seabrook on Crowds". live chat, www.newyorker.com. January 28, 2011.

Topics: Religious, Lying, Responsibility, Don't Lie

Crowds of minds can be wise, but crowds of bodies just aren't.

source: - "Ask the Author Live: John Seabrook on Crowds". live chat, www.newyorker.com. January 28, 2011.

Topics: Wise, Mind, Body

I don't think you can hold someone accountable for trampling someone else, because that person was probably pushed from behind. But if someone picks your pocket in a crowd, it's no different from any other act of that kind, in another situation.

source: - "Ask the Author Live: John Seabrook on Crowds". live chat, www.newyorker.com. January 28, 2011.

Topics: Thinking, Pockets, Different