Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce | ELECTOR, n. One who enjoys the sacred privilege
"ELECTOR, n. One who enjoys the sacred privilege of voting for the man of another man's choice."
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
Posts
Prof. Christoph Degenhart | The broadcasters adopt government lines in an undifferentiated manner
in Professor Christoph Degenhart"In the portrayal of political processes, I often see a certain political one-sidedness. For example, when it comes to the topics of ecology or Europeanization, critics are always put in the right-wing corner. [....] The broadcasters adopt government lines in an undifferentiated manner. ARD and ZDF are increasingly acting as an acclamation forum for politics."
Professor Christoph Degenhart
Edmund Burke | Their passions forge their fetters
in Edmund Burke"Until you could make out practically that great work, a combination of opposing forces, "a work of labour long, and endless praise," the utmost caution ought to have been used in the reduction of the royal power, which alone was capable of holding together the comparatively heterogeneous mass of your states. But at this day, all these considerations are unreasonable. To what end should we discuss the limitations of royal power? Your king is in prison. Why speculate on the measure and standard of liberty? I doubt much, very much indeed, whether France is at all ripe for liberty on any standard. Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, — in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, — in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption, — in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."
Edmund Burke
Barack Obama | Ordinary men and women are too small-minded
in Barack Obama"Ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs, that order and progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all-powerful sovereign."
Barack Obama
George Bernard Shaw | We want a few mad people now
in George Bernard Shaw"We want a few mad people now. See where the sane ones have landed us!"
George Bernard Shaw
George Orwell | If you want a picture of the future
in George Orwell"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever."
Friedrich August von Hayek | all forms of collectivism lead eventually to tyranny
in Friedrich August von Hayek"Through the inevitable mismanagement of resources and goods at the disposal of the state, all forms of collectivism lead eventually to tyranny."
Friedrich August von Hayek
Tom Clancy | What the government is good at is collecting taxes
in Thomas Leo Clancy Jr."What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else."
Tom Clancy
Erich Fromm | Indeed, freedom and the capacity for disobedience are inseparable
in Erich Fromm"Indeed, freedom and the capacity for disobedience are inseparable; hence any social, political, and religious system which proclaims freedom, yet stamps out disobedience, cannot speak the truth."
Erich Fromm
Roland Baader | Let us free ourselves from the true evil (state counterfeit money)
in Roland Baader"It may be too late to avert the financial disaster that lies ahead of us, but we must at least prevent the road to financial ruin from also becoming a road to servitude. Let's talk our heads off and write our fingers to the bone, let's make ourselves outsiders and ridiculed figures if necessary, but let's fight to ensure that the basis of people's freedom, the market economy, is not presented to them as the alleged culprit and executed by the henchmen of power under the false pretext. Otherwise, it is we ourselves, our happiness and prosperity and freedom, who die with the market. Let us free ourselves from the true evil, from the fuel of presumptuous domination and destructive lies: from state counterfeit money."
Roland Baader
Klaus Kinski | If the government was replaced by the mafia
in Klaus Kinski"If the government was replaced by the mafia we'd probably have half as much corruption and twice as much fun."
Klaus Kinski
Benjamin Constant | When you pay the representatives of the people
in Benjamin Constant"When you pay the representatives of the people, you do not arouse in them an interest in performing their functions conscientiously; rather, you interest them only in continuing to secure for themselves the exercise of those functions."
Benjamin Constant
John Edgar Hoover | a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists
in John Edgar Hoover"The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. It rejects even the assumption that human creatures could espouse a philosophy which must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent."
John Edgar Hoover
Albert Einstein | The masses are never militaristic
in Albert Einstein"The masses are never militaristic until their minds are poisoned by propaganda."
Albert Einstein
Erich Fromm | The holders of authority and those who take advantage of it
in Erich Fromm"The holders of authority and those who take advantage of it must convince people of this fiction and put to sleep their realistic, that is to say, critical, faculty of thought. Every thinking person knows the methods of propaganda, methods by which critical judgment is destroyed and the mind is lulled until it submits to clichés that stultify people because they make them dependent, depriving them of the ability to trust their eyes and their judgment. This function, in which they believe, blinds them to reality."
Erich Fromm
Karl Jaspers | Where is the Federal Republic headed?
in Karl Jaspers"Every four years it elects the Bundestag. The lists or persons submitted to it by the parties are already elected beforehand by the parties. The process of this hidden preliminary election, which is the actual election, is convoluted; the names for the constituency lists and the state lists are not drawn up in the same way. But it is always the party committees, never the people, who would be involved in this decisive beginning. One must be a party member in order to participate somewhere in this election and to be able to be set up. Even those who are party members, as such, have little effect in the nominations. The decisive factor is the party hierarchy and bureaucracy.[...] Even the elections are not really elections, but acclamations to the party oligarchy. [....] The parties, which should by no means be the state, make themselves, withdrawn from the life of the people, the state [....] The governance of the state is in the hands of the party oligarchy [....] Their position, not limited by any tension to other power, seduces [....] the parties to want to occupy the seats by their own people. This is the reward for party work, the spoils of victory after the electoral battle [....]"
Karl Jaspers
Ljudmila Ulitzkaya | Whoever comes to power has passed through a filter
in Ljudmila Ulitzkaya"Whoever comes to power has passed through a filter that does not let decent people pass."
Ljudmila Ulitzkaya
Caitlin Johnstone | The empire still fears the public
in Caitlin Johnstone"The empire still fears the public. If it didn't it wouldn't bother rolling out so much propaganda ahead of all its depraved actions—it would just act. They work so hard to manufacture our consent because they're still afraid of what we'll do to them if we decide we don't consent."
Caitlin Johnstone
Woody Harrelson | Of course, we live in a completely corrupted world
in Woodrow Tracy Harrelson, Woody Harrelson"Of course, we live in a completely corrupted world where every government is just a bunch of businessmen working for a bunch of bigger businessmen and none of them give a shit about the people. The sad fact is no one knows how to change it, because no one knows how to take on the corporations. So I guess we’re stuck with this system until the oil runs out."
Woody Harrelson
Thomas Jefferson | When government fears the people
in Thomas Jefferson"When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."
Thomas Jefferson
Karl Kraus | How is the world ruled and led to war?
in Karl Kraus"How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print."
Karl Kraus
Rose Wilder Lane | No state, no government exists
in Rose Wilder Lane"The picture of the economic revolution as the final step to freedom was false as soon as I asked myself that question. For, in actual fact, The State, The Government, cannot exist. They are abstract concepts, useful enough in their place, as the theory of minus numbers is useful in mathematics. In actual living experience, however, it is impossible to subtract anything from nothing; when a purse is empty, it is empty, it cannot contain a minus ten dollars. On this same plane of actuality, no State, no Government, exists. What does in fact exist is a man, or a few men, in power over many men."
Rose Wilder Lane
Noam Chomsky | Therefore it’s important to distract them
in Noam Chomsky"The bewildered herd is a problem. We’ve got to prevent their roar and trampling. We’ve got to distract them. They should be watching the Superbowl or sitcoms or violent movies. Every once in a while you call on them to chant meaningless slogans like "Support our troops." You’ve got to keep them pretty scared, because unless they’re properly scared and frightened of all kinds of devils that are going to destroy them from outside or inside or somewhere, they may start to think, which is very dangerous, because they’re not competent to think. Therefore it’s important to distract them and marginalize them."
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky | why the propaganda system works
in Noam Chomsky"I think there is a good reason why the propaganda system works that way. It recognizes that the public will not support the actual policies. Therefore it is important to prevent any knowledge or understanding of them."
Noam Chomsky
Milton Friedman | shortage of sand
in Milton Friedman"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."
Milton Friedman
Winston Churchill | bodyguard of lies
in Winston Churchill"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
Winston S. Churchill
George Orwell | The most effective way to destroy people
in George Orwell"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."
Niccolò Machiavelli | majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances
in Niccolò Machiavelli"For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are."
Niccolò Machiavelli
Gore Vidal | The modern dictatorship doesn’t come with brown or black uniforms
in Gore Vidal"What is a president, then? He is the mouthpiece of the corporations - and nothing else. [....] We are no longer a democracy. We gave up our constitution long ago. [....] The modern dictatorship doesn't come with brown or black uniforms. We do it with entertainment, with television, with fun, fun. And an education that dumbs down."
Gore Vidal
Clarence Darrow | You can only be free if I am free
in Clarence Darrow"You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free. "
Clarence Darrow