Arundhati Roy, Come September Speech, Santa Fe, NM, (29 Sep 2002)

To fuel yet another war – this time against Iraq – by cynically manipulating people’s grief, by packaging it for TV specials sponsored by corporations selling detergent and running shoes, is to cheapen and devalue grief, to drain it of meaning. What we are seeing now is a vulgar display of the business of grief, the commerce of grief, the pillaging of even the most private human feelings for political purpose. It is a terrible, violent thing for a State to do to its people.

— Arundhati Roy on September 11 attacks

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "To fuel yet another war – this time against Iraq – by cynically manipulating people’s grief, by packaging it for TV specials sponsored by corporations selling detergent and running shoes, is to cheapen and devalue grief, to drain it of meaning. What we are seeing now is a vulgar display of the business of grief, the commerce of grief, the pillaging of even the most private human feelings for political purpose. It is a terrible, violent thing for a State to do to its people." in the context of "Arundhati Roy, Come September Speech, Santa Fe, NM, (29 Sep 2002)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "September 11 attacks" (Quotes: (Sorted alphabetically by author/source)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Arundhati Roy

About Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian writer and social activist