Daily Inspiration Quote by Jasmine Guy

Jasmine Guy’s line lands like a calm backstage note that turns out to be the whole show. She isn’t describing power as a static thing you “have,” but as a relationship you constantly have to manage. The verb choice matters: “need to control” frames domination as dependency, not strength. Power, in her telling, is anxious. It survives by narrowing other people’s options, then calling that narrowing “safety,” “order,” or “common sense.”

The sharpest move is the pivot to “that which is threatening.” She doesn’t say “violent” or “illegal.” She keeps it broad enough to include anything that unsettles the hierarchy: a protest, a new idea, a changing culture, a minority gaining visibility, a woman refusing a script. Threat here isn’t objective danger; it’s disruption. That’s the subtext: the system treats difference as risk because difference exposes that the system is contingent, not natural.

“Demonize” is the mechanism, and it’s culturally loaded. It’s not just critique or disagreement; it’s moral theater. Turn opponents into monsters and you don’t have to argue with them, empathize with them, or share space with them. You can police them, censor them, or erase them while feeling virtuous.

Coming from an actress, the insight has an extra edge: she’s naming the narrative trick. Demonization is a casting decision. Once you’ve assigned the villain role, the audience is primed to applaud control as heroism. That’s how soft propaganda becomes everyday reflex.