"The main goal of the future is to stop violence. The world is addicted to it"
About this Quote
A comedian talking like a futurist is always a bit of a swindle, and that tension is the engine here. Cosby frames violence not as a tragic inevitability but as a habit: "addicted". That word is doing heavy cultural work. It yanks violence out of the realm of morality tales and into the realm of compulsion, reward cycles, relapse. The implication is bleakly modern: we do not merely tolerate violence; we consume it, repeat it, build industries around it, then act surprised when it returns.
The first sentence has the blunt, bumper-sticker clarity of stand-up setup language: "The main goal of the future..". as if tomorrow were a project plan with a single KPI. It's funny because it's impossible and because it's true enough to sting. The subtext is frustration with a society that treats progress as technology and convenience while leaving the oldest human reflexes untouched. "Stop violence" is childlike phrasing on purpose, a moral demand stripped of policy detail, as if the adult world keeps hiding behind complexity to avoid accountability.
In the context of late-20th-century media saturation, the line reads like a pre-streaming diagnosis: violence as entertainment, as news currency, as political leverage. It also carries a performer's instinct for the uncomfortable pivot: make the audience nod, then realize they're implicated. With Cosby specifically, any present-day reading is inevitably shadowed by his own legacy, turning "addicted" into an unintended mirror: a warning about harm that circles back to the harm we excuse, deny, or only name when the story becomes too loud to ignore.
The first sentence has the blunt, bumper-sticker clarity of stand-up setup language: "The main goal of the future..". as if tomorrow were a project plan with a single KPI. It's funny because it's impossible and because it's true enough to sting. The subtext is frustration with a society that treats progress as technology and convenience while leaving the oldest human reflexes untouched. "Stop violence" is childlike phrasing on purpose, a moral demand stripped of policy detail, as if the adult world keeps hiding behind complexity to avoid accountability.
In the context of late-20th-century media saturation, the line reads like a pre-streaming diagnosis: violence as entertainment, as news currency, as political leverage. It also carries a performer's instinct for the uncomfortable pivot: make the audience nod, then realize they're implicated. With Cosby specifically, any present-day reading is inevitably shadowed by his own legacy, turning "addicted" into an unintended mirror: a warning about harm that circles back to the harm we excuse, deny, or only name when the story becomes too loud to ignore.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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