Can anybody telll me the meaning of this quote?

Question

"On a level plain, simple mounds look like hills; and the insipid flatness of our present bourgeoisie is to be measured by the altitude of its 'great intellects.' "

Answer 1

I believe it's saying that when you're comparing little mounds to the flat plains or prarie, they look like hills. In this way, when you compare our society's middle class to the middle class' "little mounds" or "great intellects" it makes them seem higher or better than the others, because the middle class is so bland and flat.

So basically, it's saying that people we herald as being amazing, actually aren't and that the only reason we see them as such is that everyone else is so boring, and bland.

Just my take on it, I'm sure it could be interpreted in many ways. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

On a level plain simple mounds look like hills……..
It is easy to have a superior outlook if everything is easy…..or if you are used to walking on level ground small mounds are hills for you, if you have never seen a hill

& the insipid flatness (dull flat plane) of our present bourgeoisie (the social class that owns the means of producing wealth) is to be measured by the altitude of its ‘great intellects’


SO it is saying that you can be poor and very smart and have a more superior mind than someone of more wealth than you.

Answer 3

It means when a civilization's standard of excellence is diminished to the mediocre then an a$$ looks clever and a moderately clever person looks brilliant. The bourgeoisie are the middle class - the average- and if their taste is established as the standard of acceptability then "great intellects" will be no more than average and cultural achievement will be so diluted that "everybody will get a prize" for pretty near nothing. If you don't believe that this is true - watch the top rated television shows or witness the popularity of things like Nascar(sitting in the sun and being deafened while you watch cars driving in circles for hours), tatoos (having you body permanently scarred with pictures that will bore you and everybody else in 6 months) and Big Macs (something to feed your face even though it is going to make you ugly and diabetic).

Answer 4

I don't know the source of this quote, and I don't know the society refered to, but I will comment on the meaning. It is setting up a comparison and comparing intellects of our high class part of society (bourgeoisie) to little mounds. Mounds are very small, but they may appear to be big on a flat ground (or they may appear interesting like a few flowers in a desert). This reminds me of a Bible verse: if any man thinks himself to be anything he is nothing compared to what he should be. The quote suggests that it would be great if there were really great intellects (which would be compared to mountains, rather than small mounds. Actually it is saying that the intellects are so small in their outstanding intellect that the supposed "cultured" bourgeoise is nothing in intellect.

Answer 5

This is a quote by Karl Marx. Marx appears to be criticizing the state of the German Academy, arguing that when intellectuals (who are the highest measure of cultural and social achievement) fail to produce anything other than a facsimile or impression of great discoveries, one has evidence as to why the society at large (the bourgeoisie) also present themselves as unremarkable. Marx appears to argue that one needs only look at the state of intellectual achievement in a given society in order to understand the reasons behind corrosion and insipidness in the greater society as a whole.

Answer 6

It means that life and its experiences are all a matter of perception. What looks like a mountain may actually only be a small bump on the road. If your life seems "flat" then it's up to you to raise your intellect and make your life more grand. Then again, other may not perceive your life as being "flat" - maybe it's just how you perceive it and compared to someone else your life is full of exciting bumps. In the end, though, it's up to you to make your life what you want it to be. If you think it's flat, it's up to you to change something, or change your perception.

Answer 7

"Bourgeoisie" is a french word used usually by communist radicals to describe (disparagingly) the massive "middle" class of shopkeepers,. tradesmen and government bureaucrats. These people are indispensable to the functioning of our world and provide much of the investment and jobs that keep the economy moving. These radicals see these people as villains, "oppressing" a worker class and generally creating poverty and misery. This quote describes the bourgeoisie as a "sea" of moral and intellectual emptiness, from which even small ideas seem like mountains. It is both an indictment of the middle class and those who would propose to lead that group.

Answer 8

Everyone begins on the path in life but they must choose their roads and those who chose te best road ae the great intellects that measure what life means to the whole of the people.

Answer 9

I'm not sure, but the person who wrote it definitely sounds gay.
He probably was comparing smart people to hills, and all the rest of us to flat ground. Maybe work at making yourself better was his point. He definitely had an inferiority complex!

Answer 10

i think its saying... when everything around is flat.. you take note of even small things just cuz they stand out at all...making them seem like hills

yet now days.. our "intelligence" is like the flat plain. we're all a dim nowadays, and so people who are onlya little smarter stand out like geniuses (or hills on the plain) though they really arent that smart.

theyre opinion seems very pessimistic! lol