John Hargreaves: Dr. Jim Cairns

Quotes 

• Dr. Jim Cairns : We've all been conditioned by society to concern ourselves with trivia. Quite often the really important things get overlooked.

• Dr. Jim Cairns : If we haven't got our message across this time, I'll give another interview, and another, and another, until we do.

• Dr. Jim Cairns : Love is, uh, a word that has many meanings... can range from the kind of thing I might have for the Vietnamese people... to the kind of thing his boss had for money. I mean, surely you can't trust somebody in this world unless you feel something akin to, uh, a kind of love for them.

• Dr. Jim Cairns : That first day you came into my office... talked about feelings... I thought you were... talking through your hair. Now I realize how wrong I've been. I mean, God, look at me. I heard no music. I can't dance a step. I'm as clumsy as an elephant. I've spent my life... working for social change... looking for the causes of suppression. I thought it was economic. I thought it was... the unequal distribution of wealth and power. But it's not. The original suppression is in man himself. It's in the individual. It's in me. You taught me that.

• Press Secretary : Okay, now let's talk about my resignation. Which, as sure as hell, man, you'll need a press secretary, with Junie running your PR.

  Dr. Jim Cairns : All right, Jeff. I accept your resignation.

  Press Secretary : Hold on then, mate. You won't be out of it. You're gonna have to sack me.

  Dr. Jim Cairns : All right. You're sacked.

  Press Secretary : Oh, listen, mate. If I'm the first to go, I'm not going to be the last. Pretty soon you're gonna lose everyone who's worked for you and cared about you. You wanna know why? Her. Well one day, mate, when Morosi's prime minister, you're gonna make a bloody good chauffeur.

• Dr. Jim Cairns : Have we ever cared what people thought? People said we were rat bags when we first opposed that war in Vietnam. We were the lunatic fringe. But they soon changed the way they thought about that issue, didn't they?

• Dr. Jim Cairns : As you've read the book, you'll... you'll know that I didn't set out to write an autobiography. I set out to make people think about some issues.

  Junie Morosi : Yes. What do you feel about those issues?

  Dr. Jim Cairns : Well, what I feel about them is irrelevant, surely.

  Junie Morosi : Irrelevant?

  Dr. Jim Cairns : Well, don't you think that, uh, feelings only cloud the issues, that they distort the truth?

  Junie Morosi : No. Feelings lead you to the truth. I have spent 30 years trying to put myself in touch with my feelings.

  Dr. Jim Cairns : Have you? I find that, uh, a remarkably self-centered philosophy of life. I mean, you've spent 30 years exploring yourself?

  Junie Morosi : You've spent 50 years and know nothing about yourself.

• Dr. Jim Cairns : If you only do things the way they've always been done, things don't change. We live in times where nothing's certain. People everywhere are looking for new ways. Even public servants shouldn't cling to the past.

• Dr. Jim Cairns : You can't work with people unless you trust them.