?Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. Henry Louis MenckenCan someone please explain to me what this quote means?? Thanks!
Everybody gets pissed off sometimes.
The meaning of this quote is: You cannot stop birds from flying over your head, but to allow them to perch and build nests on your head, that's your responsibility.
I would imagine that it essentially means that everybody, at some point, reverts to their primitive nature of being - barbaric - for lack of a better term, and wanting to do the natural thing humans do, which would be: survive. Yay!
'hoist the black flag' refers to piracy. 'begin slitting throats' is rather self-explanatory. In my opinion, the quote means that at times, a normal man can be tempted to resort to violence in order to solve a situation.
