Zitate

Charles MacKay | simultaneously impressed with one delusion

"We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first."

Charles MacKay

Richard P. Feynman | To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven

"To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell. And so it is with science."

Richard P. Feynman

Russel Brand | the mainstream media is not your friend

"I’ve made a lot of mistakes, I’ve been wrong many times but I’m beginning to think I’m right about this: the mainstream media is not your friend, the culture is not your friend, the government is not your friend, big business is not your friend. They are operating collegiately in unison to create a set of systems that are beneficial to them and disadvantage you."

Russel Brand

Walter Lippmann | a drifting apart of public opinion and published opinion

"...a drifting apart of public opinion and published opinion when the selection rules of the journalists who have been brought into line largely coincide. This creates a consonance of reporting that acts like a confirmation to the audience (everyone says it, so it has to be right) and installs a stereotype-supported pseudo-environment"

Walter Lippmann

Prof. Rainer Mausfeld | The leading media as well as the mass media are business models

"The leading media as well as the mass media are business models and serve no more to convey "truth" than the pharmaceutical industry serves to promote public health. Indoctrination is part of the essence of media."

Prof. Rainer Mausfeld

Julius Evola | The inner victory against the deepest forces

"The inner victory against the deepest forces that surface in one’s consciousness during times of tension and mortal danger is a triumph in an external sense, but it is also the sign of a victory of the spirit against itself"

Julius Evola

Prof. Christoph Degenhart | The broadcasters adopt government lines in an undifferentiated manner

"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

Ulrich Baretzky | The most beautiful thing for me about Formula E

"The most beautiful thing for me about Formula E is the great sound of the diesel generators that are used to charge the batteries of the racing cars!"

Ulrich Baretzky

Erich Fromm | The holders of authority and those who take advantage of it

"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

Marcus Aurelius | The happiness of your life

"The happiness of your life depends on the nature of your thoughts"

Marcus Aurelius

Thomas Jefferson | When government fears the people

"When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."

Thomas Jefferson

George Orwell | If you can feel that staying human is worth while

"If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can't have any result whatever, you've beaten them."

George Orwell

Noam Chomsky | Therefore it’s important to distract them

"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

Bertrand Russell | Fear is the main source of superstition

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."

Bertrand Russell

Noam Chomsky | bludgeon is to a totalitarian state

"Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state."

Noam Chomsky

Lao Tzu | Care about what other people think

"Care about what other people think, and you will always be their prisoner"

Lao Tzu

Arnold Gehlen | devilish is he who erects the kingdom of lies

"And last: devilish is he who erects the kingdom of lies and forces other people to live in it. This still goes beyond the humiliation of spiritual separation, then the kingdom of the perverse world is erected, and the Antichrist wears the mask of the Savior (...). The devil is not the slayer, he is Diabolos, the slanderer, is the 'God' in whom the lie is not cowardice, as in man, but domination. He spills the last resort of despair, the knowledge, he instigates the realm of madness, because it is madness to settle in the lie."

Arnold Gehlen

Jürgen Trittin | which attacks are the responsibility of terrorists and which are the responsibility of the state

"It may be that the history of terrorism needs to be rewritten. It is no longer known which attacks are the responsibility of terrorists and which are the responsibility of the state."

Jürgen Trittin

Stephen C. Perkins | psychological warfare, economic and political transformation

"The cavalier expression of such sentiments, the resurrection of a dormant specter from the crypt of America’s “cold war” with the former Soviet Union, is meant purely to foster the viral spread of collective apprehension in the fragile heart of the population which, over the centuries, has proved to be the Jesuit order’s most effective tool in the execution of psychological warfare, economic and political transformation (AKA order out of chaos), and social behavioral modification. Turns out, the looming threat of annihilation at the hands of “nuclear weapons” or viral infection due to the Covid-19 “pandemic” are both hoaxes."

Stephen C. Perkins

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

"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

Milton Friedman | Every friend of freedom

"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

Tony Cartalucci | Your Real Government

"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

Nassim Nicholas Taleb | gap between journalists and the public

"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

Kwai Chang Caine | the prison is within you

"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

"If you plant rice, rice will grow. If you plant fear, fear will grow."

Kwai Chang Caine

Ursula von der Leyen | Thank you for your leadership

"Thank you Melinda & Bill for your leadership and dedication!"

Ursula von der Leyen

John Adams | Fear is the foundation of most governments

"Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it."

John Adams

Napoleon Bonaparte | There is no more good-natured, but also no more gullible people

"There is no more good-natured, but also no more gullible people than the Germans. No lie can be conceived treacherous enough, the Germans believe it. They follow a slogan which was given to them, to act against their own countrymen, rather than the real enemies of their country."

Napoleon Bonaparte

Hannah Arendt | The real goal of totalitarian ideology

“The real goal of totalitarian ideology is not the transformation of the external conditions of human existence and not the revolutionary reorganization of the social order, but the transformation of human nature itself, which, as it is, constantly opposes the totalitarian process. … What is at stake in total domination is really the essence of man.”

Hannah Arendt

Paul Claudel | Truth has nothing to do

"Truth has nothing to do with the number of people it convinces."

Paul Claudel