Ken Burns: I Think We Too Often Make Choices Based On the Safety of Cynicism

Ken Burns is a national and global treasure. Deepest bow of respect and gratitude for his integrity and wisdom, courage and curiosity, caring and compassion, and the deep and far ranging work that he does in the world. A gift to us all. ― Molly

 Quotes from Ken Burns

I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're led to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear ― it's active disengagement.

 

It's difficult to dispel arrogance if you retain ignorance.

 

Read. The book is still the greatest man-made machine of all — not the car, not the TV, not the smartphone.

 

History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence can challenge our popular assumptions."

 

World War II is smothered in sentimentality and nostalgia. What's interesting about Vietnam is that sentimentality is just not there, so you're given kind of a clean access to it in one way. It's also a war that represents a failure for the United States. Many people came back feeling like they never wanted to talk about it again. And so we developed a national amnesia. 

 

War is essentially dehumanizing. It's trying to portray your enemy as less human than you are. 

 

I am passionately interested in understanding how my country works. And if you want to know about this thing called the United States of America you have to know about the Civil War.

 

The black-white rift stands at the very center of American history. It is the great challenge to which all our deepest aspirations to freedom must rise. If we forget that ― if we forget the great stain of slavery that stands at the heart of our country, our history, our experiment ― we forget who we are, and we make the great rift deeper and wider. 

 

There is no communication in this world except between equals. 

 

People tend to forget that the word "history" contains the word "story".

 

The stories from 1975 on are not finished and there is no resolve. I could spend 50 hours on the last 25 years of jazz and still not do it justice. 

 

In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans? 

 

The flame is not out, but it is flickering. 

 

Do something that will last and be beautiful. It doesn't have to be a bridge ― or a symphony or book or a business. It could be the look in the eye of a child you raise or a simple garden you tend. Do something that will last and be beautiful.

 

https://kenburns.com/the-films/