Life & Wisdom Quote by Ben Hecht

Prejudice, in Hecht's hands, isn't just a moral failing; it's an emergency tool. The metaphor is brutal and oddly sympathetic: a mind in crisis will grab whatever floats. A raft is crude, unstable, and built for survival, not beauty. That choice matters. Hecht frames bigotry as something people use when they're overwhelmed by complexity, loss, humiliation, or social change - the cognitive equivalent of flailing in cold water and mistaking direction for deliverance.

The subtext is less about excusing prejudice than diagnosing its appeal. A raft simplifies. It narrows the ocean into one mission: keep your head above water. Prejudice does the same by offering a ready-made map of blame and belonging. It tells you who you are, who did this to you, and who deserves punishment. That clarity can feel like "safety", especially when institutions fail or personal narratives fracture. The mind "clambers" - undignified, instinctive - suggesting prejudice is adopted in panic, then defended as if it were reason.

Contextually, Hecht lived through mass propaganda, nativism, fascism's rise, and Hollywood's industrial mythmaking. He understood how stories can anesthetize fear and how crowds outsource thinking to slogans. The line lands because it refuses the comforting idea that only monsters are prejudiced. It implies ordinary people reach for it when they feel shipwrecked - and that the real danger is mistaking flotation for a shore. A raft keeps you alive; it also keeps you stuck, paddling in circles, convinced the drift is progress.