[fella]

How many meals do they say a nation is away from collapse?

[Kartographer]

"They say that every society is only three meals away from revolution. Deprive a culture of food for three meals, and you'll have an anarchy. And it's true, isn't it? You haven't eaten for a couple of days, and you've turned into a barbarian."

British Sci Fi comedy series Red Dwarf Series III, Episode 2 said by the character Rimmer, which was first broadcast in the UK around 1988.

This is what I call a 'truism' quotable words so true that the source itself may or may not even realize how powerfully true they are. Especially sources that one would consider unconventional. That's the trouble with truth it seems to come out in the strangest ways, places, and people.