"But, you know, the issues of humanity and what is fair treatment and good treatment of a fellow human being should not really be based on a personal sense of right and wrong or judgment"
About this Quote
Debbie Harry is pushing back on the most seductive kind of moral argument: the one that feels true because it feels personal. Framed in her casual, conversational “But, you know,” she’s not delivering a manifesto so much as puncturing a reflex. The line targets a familiar move in public debates about rights and dignity, where people treat ethics like a private playlist: if it doesn’t resonate with my gut, it doesn’t count. Harry’s point is that “fair treatment” can’t hinge on individual taste, mood, or tribal loyalty, because that’s exactly how cruelty gets dressed up as sincerity.
The subtext is anti-authoritarian in the small, everyday sense. She’s wary of the person who insists they’re “just being honest” while using personal judgment as a loophole to deny others basic regard. By separating humane treatment from “a personal sense of right and wrong,” she implies a thicker standard: something closer to shared obligations, civic norms, and lived consequences. It’s a musician’s phrasing, not a philosopher’s, but the cultural punch lands because it rejects the self as the ultimate court of appeal.
Context matters: Harry comes out of punk and new wave scenes where identity, sexuality, and gender presentation were not abstract issues but nightly negotiations. In that world, “judgment” isn’t a neutral word; it’s what gets people policed, excluded, or endangered. The quote reads like a reminder that decency isn’t a vibe. It’s a practice, and it has to survive contact with people you didn’t build your worldview around.
The subtext is anti-authoritarian in the small, everyday sense. She’s wary of the person who insists they’re “just being honest” while using personal judgment as a loophole to deny others basic regard. By separating humane treatment from “a personal sense of right and wrong,” she implies a thicker standard: something closer to shared obligations, civic norms, and lived consequences. It’s a musician’s phrasing, not a philosopher’s, but the cultural punch lands because it rejects the self as the ultimate court of appeal.
Context matters: Harry comes out of punk and new wave scenes where identity, sexuality, and gender presentation were not abstract issues but nightly negotiations. In that world, “judgment” isn’t a neutral word; it’s what gets people policed, excluded, or endangered. The quote reads like a reminder that decency isn’t a vibe. It’s a practice, and it has to survive contact with people you didn’t build your worldview around.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|
More Quotes by Debbie
Add to List
