Ludwig Erhard | Inflation does not come upon us as a curse or as a tragic fate

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"Inflation does not come upon us as a curse or as a tragic fate; it is always caused by reckless or even criminal policies." Ludwig Erhard

Gib ihnen am Morgen eine Lügenzeitung

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"Give them a lying newspaper in the morning, let them work a lot during the day for little money and bring the latest manipulated news on TV in the evening, alternating with dumbed-down shows, movies and commercials. Thus they have no more time to think consciously." Autor Unbekannt

Walter Ulbricht | it must look democratic

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"it must look democratic but we must control everything" Walter Ulbricht

Edward Bernays | motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda

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"The American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world today. It is a great distributor for ideas and opinions. The motion picture can standardize the ideas and habits of a nation. Because pictures are made to meet market demands, they reflect, emphasize and even exaggerate broad popular tendencies, rather than stimulate new ideas and opinions. The motion picture avails itself only of ideas and facts which are in vogue. As the newspaper seeks to purvey news, it seeks to purvey entertainment." Edward Bernays

Thomas Sowell | More whites were brought as slaves to North Africa

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"More whites were brought as slaves to North Africa than blacks brought as slaves to the United States or to the 13 colonies from which it was formed. White slaves were still being bought and sold in the Ottoman Empire, decades after blacks were freed in the United States." Thomas Sowell

Carl Gustav Jung | The Concept of the Collective Unconscious

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"My thesis, then, is as follows: In addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as an appendix), there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents." Carl Gustav Jung

Aldous Huxley | Impersonal forces over which we have almost no control

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"Impersonal forces over which we have almost no control seem to be pushing us all in the direction of the Brave New Worldian nightmare; and this impersonal pushing is being consciously accelerated by representatives of commercial and political organizations who have developed a number of new techniques for manipulating, in the interest of some minority, the thoughts and feelings of the masses." Aldous Huxley

Mahatma Gandhi | The state represents violence

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"The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The individual has a soul, but as the state is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence." Mahatma Gandhi

Milton Friedman | Every friend of freedom

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"Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence." Milton Friedman

Vladimir Lenin | While the State exists, there can be no freedom

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"While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State." Vladimir Lenin

Thomas Jefferson | ignorant and free

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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson

Steve Jacobson | Political and economic power

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"Political and economic power in the United States is concentrated in the hands of a “ruling elite” that controls most of U.S.-based multinational corporations, major communication media, the most influential foundations, major private universities and most public utilities. Founded in 1921, the Council of Foreign Relations is the key link between the large corporations and the federal government. It has been called a “school for statesmen” and “comes close to being an organ of what C. Wright Mills has called the Power Elite – a group of men, similar in interest and outlook shaping events from invulnerable positions behind the scenes. The creation of the United Nations was a Council project, as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank." Steve Jacobson

Walter Lippmann | The process by which public opinions arise

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"That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements no one, I think, denies. The process by which public opinions arise is certainly no less intricate than it has appeared in these pages, and the opportunities for manipulation open to anyone who understands the process are plain enough. . . . as a result of psychological research, coupled with the modern means of communication, the practice of democracy has turned a corner. A revolution is taking place, infinitely more significant than any shifting of economic power. . . . Under the impact of propaganda, not necessarily in the sinister meaning of the word alone, the old constants of our thinking have become variables. It is no longer possible, for example, to believe in the original dogma of democracy; that the knowledge needed for the management of human affairs comes up spontaneously from the human heart. Where we act on that theory we expose ourselves to self-deception, and to forms of persuasion that we cannot verify. It has been demonstrated that we cannot rely upon intuition, conscience, or the accidents of casual opinion if we are to deal with the world beyond our reach." Walter Lippmann

Jacques Ellul | propaganda refines its techniques.

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"It is with knowledge of the human being, his tendencies, his desires, his needs, his psychic mechanisms, his automatisms as well as knowledge of social psychology and analytical psychology that propaganda refines its techniques." Jacques Ellul

Tony Cartalucci | Your Real Government

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"These organizations represent the collective interests of the largest corporations on earth. They not only retain armies of policy wonks and researchers to articulate their agenda and form a consensus internally, but also use their massive accumulation of unwarranted influence in media, industry, and finance to manufacture a self-serving consensus internationally. To believe that this corporate-financier oligarchy would subject their agenda and fate to the whims of the voting masses is naive at best. They have painstakingly ensured that no matter who gets into office, in whatever country, the guns, the oil, the wealth and the power keep flowing perpetually into their own hands. [....] The real revolution will commence when we identify the above equation as the true brokers of power and when we begin systematically removing our dependence on them, and their influence on us from our daily lives. The global corporate-financier oligarchy needs us, we do not need them, independence from them is the key to our freedom." Tony Cartalucci

Jacques Ellul | It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale

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"It is the emergence of mass media which makes possible the use of propaganda techniques on a societal scale. The orchestration of press, radio and television to create a continuous, lasting and total environment renders the influence of propaganda virtually unnoticed precisely because it creates a constant environment. Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society." Jacques Ellul

Prof. Rainer Mausfeld | the illusion of democracy

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"But what could make democracy attractive to the powerful, whose very power it limits and threatens? The answer is quite simple: Nothing! For democracy means precisely to restrict the power needs of the powerful and the rich, in which they naturally have no interest. This now results in a tension between the needs of the rulers to stabilize their status and our need to feel socially autonomous and self-determined with regard to our social situation. In history, this fundamental tension has often been discharged in the form of revolutions. From the point of view of the rulers, how can this tension be defused if we want to avoid bloody revolutions? The solution lies in 'satisfying' the citizens' need for freedom with a surrogate, with a substitute drug, namely the illusion of democracy. To create such an illusion of democracy, one needs above all - and this is where the herd metaphor comes into play again - an ideology of justification that justifies why the people are immature and in need of leadership. Furthermore, the idea of democracy, which is so attractive to the people, must be emptied of its meaning so that it is limited only to an electoral act. And finally, continuous democracy management is needed to ensure that the people want what they are supposed to want in the act of voting." Prof. Rainer Mausfeld

Noam Chomsky | Voting is not an option

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"It’s about what you would expect from a bipartisan democracy campaign — it’s an attempt to impose what is called democracy, meaning rule by the rich and the powerful, without interference by the mob but within the framework of formal electoral procedures." Noam Chomsky

Gustave de Molinari | Anarchy is no guarantee

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"Anarchy is no guarantee that some people won't kill, injure, kidnap, defraud, or steal from others. Government is a guarantee that some will." Gustave de Molinari

Nassim Nicholas Taleb | gap between journalists and the public

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"The fact that there is a gap between journalists and the public is shown above all by the fact that the former are much more interested in the opinion of their colleagues than in the judgment of their readers. Compare this with a healthy system, for example that of restaurants. As we [...] have seen, restaurant owners care about the opinions of their diners, not those of other restaurant owners, which keeps restaurant owners doing what their job is; it prevents the industry as a whole from moving away from diners' interests. In addition, skin in the game creates diversity, and monoculture is prevented. Economic uncertainty exacerbates the situation. Journalists currently work in the most insecure profession imaginable: the majority live hand-to-mouth, and ostracism by colleagues would be fatal. This makes them easy victims for manipulative lobbyists, as has been seen in connection with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the wars in Syria, and more. In this profession, if you say something unpopular about Brexit, GMOs, or Putin, you're toast. It's the exact opposite of professions where being a follower is punished." Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Henry Hazlitt | The whole gospel of Karl Marx in a single sentence

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"The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are. Never under any circumstances admit that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to his own defects - his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or stupidity." Henry Hazlitt

Ernst Jünger | The most horrifying prospect is that of technocracy

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"The most horrifying prospect is that of technocracy, controlled rule exercised by maimed and mutilating minds." Ernst Jünger

Paul Stanley | für die Macht des allmächtigen Rock ‘n’ Roll

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"I’m testifying and getting everybody riled up for the power of almighty rock ‘n’ roll" Paul Stanley

John Denver | As a self appointed messiah

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"As a self appointed messiah, I view music as far more than just entertainment" John Denver

Phillip Chapman Lesh | devery place we played was church

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"In those days we used to say that every place we played was church and that's what it was like. A pretty far out church but that's how we felt." Phillip Chapman Lesh

Gary Greenberg | The band was the high priest

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"it was not just a concert. It was a place of worship. The band was the high priest, the songs the liturgy, the dancing the prayer, the audience the congregation. Out of these simple ingredients we created a tradition and enacted a ritual that was at once entirely familiar and thoroughly mysterious." Gary Greenberg

Hans Hermann Hoppe | the greatest threat to human security

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"The recently ended twentieth century was characterized by a level of human rights violations unparalleled in all of human history. In his book Death by Government, Rudolph Rummel estimates some 170 million government-caused deaths in the twentieth century. The historical evidence appears to indicate that, rather than protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of their citizens, governments must be considered the greatest threat to human security." Prof. Hans Hermann Hoppe

Hans Hermann Hoppe | Democracy is a soft variant of communism

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"Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else." Prof. Hans Hermann Hoppe

Kwai Chang Caine | the prison is within you

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"If you trust me completely…I can help you. If I tell you you are not within a prison the prison is within you can you believe that?" Kwai Chang Caine

Kwai Chang Caine | If you plant fear, fear will grow

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"If you plant rice, rice will grow. If you plant fear, fear will grow." Kwai Chang Caine

Pater Brennan | The book of Revelations predicted it all.

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"When the Jews return to Zion and a comet fills the sky, and the Holy Roman Empire rises; then you and I must die. From the eternal sea he rises, creating armies on either shore, turning man against his brother, 'til man exists no more. The book of Revelations predicted it all." Pater Brennan

Roland Baader | The only true human right

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"The only true human right is the right to be left alone - by anyone you didn't invite or welcome" Roland Baader