Karl Kraus | loathing journalism and the intellectual corruption
"I have spent many years loathing journalism and the intellectual corruption that emanates from it with all the strength of my soul."
Karl Kraus
Zitate
Mahatma Gandhi | who dare to question authority
"The world cannot be improved if everyone blindly follows the majority. It needs people who have the courage to question the seemingly irrefutable, who dare to question authority and use their own minds."
Mahatma Gandhi
Dr. Tim O’Shea | The shackles of mental control
"The shackles of mental control, perceptual filtering and cultural conditioning are harder to throw off today than ever before.
We are the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever seen. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our entire consciousness seems to be subtly and relentlessly erased. The doors of our perception are carefully and precisely controlled.
It is an exhaustive and endless task to constantly explain to people how most things of their everyday wisdom are scientifically planted in the public consciousness via a thousand media clips."
Dr. Tim O’Shea
Albert Schweitzer | I am a free man
"Under no circumstances do I want to be merely a ′common′ man. I have the right to be exceptional – if I can. I want opportunities, not security. I do not want to be a citizen who is humiliated and dulled by government support. I want to encounter risk, have desires and fulfill them, suffer disaster and enjoy success. I refuse to sell my own determination for a pittance. I would prefer to face life’s difficulties rather than lead a secure existence. I prefer the exciting tension of my own success to the dull calm of Utopia. I want neither to sacrifice my freedom for benefits nor my human dignity for charity. I have learned to think and act for myself, to look the world squarely in the face and to recognize that this is my achievement. This is what is meant when we say: I am a free man!"
Albert Schweitzer
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann | a manufactured reality constructed by the media
"What you find in people's minds today is often not reality at all, but a manufactured reality constructed by the media"
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
José Luis Sampedro | Public opinion is influenced by the media
"Public opinion is influenced by the media and the media are in the hands of those who rule and those who rule favor those who say what is convenient for them and erase everything that does not suit them. So public opinion is, above all, media opinion."
José Luis Sampedro
Edward Bernays | The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind."
Edward Bernays
Johann Gottfried Seume | Slavery begins with fear
"Slavery begins with fear, but also with confidence and carelessness."
Johann Gottfried Seume
Hermann Göring | to enslave people is to scare them
"It was very easy, it has nothing to do with Nazism, it has something to do with human nature. You can do it in a Nazi, socialist, communist regime, in a monarchy and even in a democracy. The only thing that needs to be done to enslave people is to scare them. If you manage to find a way to scare people, you can make them do what you want."
Hermann Göring
Yuval Noah Harari | The chief value of science is power
Die Wahrheit war nie die höchste Priorität der menschlichen Gesellschaft. Sie war die höchste Priorität einiger Individuen, aber niemals der Gesellschaft als Ganzes – denn die Gesellschaft funktioniert nicht auf der Basis von Wahrheit. Wenn man zwei der mächtigsten Institutionen der Menschheit betrachtet – die Wissenschaft (und ihre Gemeinschaft) sowie die Religion (und ihre Kirchen) –, dann hat keine von ihnen die Wahrheit als ihren zentralen Wert. Für einzelne Menschen mag das gelten, aber nicht für die Institutionen als solche.
Der Hauptwert der Wissenschaft ist Macht; der Hauptwert der Religion ist Ordnung und Organisation. Religion dient dazu, Ordnung in der Gesellschaft aufrechtzuerhalten, während es der Wissenschaft in erster Linie um Macht über die Welt geht.
