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1

Martha Gellhorn | to keep any control over our world and lives

“People often say, with pride, ‘I’m not interested in politics.’ They might as well say, ‘I’m not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.’ … If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics.” Martha Gellhorn “Die Menschen sagen oft mit Stolz: “Ich interessiere mich nicht für Politik”. Sie könnten genauso gut sagen: ‘Ich interessiere mich nicht für meinen Lebensstandard, meine Gesundheit, meinen Arbeitsplatz, meine Rechte, meine Freiheiten, meine…

2

Max Nordau | The citizen is in chains

“The form in which all European states are governed today allows the services demanded of citizens to be squandered on foolish, frivolous and criminal undertakings. The whim of individuals, the self-interest of vanishingly small minorities, all too often determines the goal towards which the efforts of the whole are directed. Thus the individual citizen works and bleeds so that wars may be waged which destroy his life or his prosperity, so that fortresses, palaces, railroads, harbors or canals may be built from which neither he nor nine-tenths of the nation…

3

Nick Cohen | Compulsive liars shouldn’t frighten you

“Compulsive liars shouldn’t frighten you. They can harm no one, if no one listens to them. Compulsive believers, on the other hand: they should terrify you. Believers are the liars’ enablers. Their votes give the demagogue his power. Their trust turns the charlatan into the president. Their credulity ensures that the propaganda of half-calculating and half-mad fanatics has the power to change the world.” Nick Cohen | is a British journalist. “Zwanghafte Lügner sollten Ihnen keine Angst einjagen. Sie können niemandem schaden, wenn niemand auf sie hört. Zwanghafte Gläubige hingegen…

4

George Orwell | Who controls the past controls the future

“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” George Orwell “Wer die Vergangenheit kontrolliert, kontrolliert die Zukunft. Wer die Gegenwart kontrolliert, kontrolliert die Vergangenheit.” Nützliche und hilfreiche Links…

5

Milosz Matuschek | Permanent Toxic Rape of Consciousness

“Almost a hundred years ago, the philosopher John Dewey said that we are living in the greatest flood of mass suggestion that mankind has ever seen. But in 100 years, the superlative has only swelled, albeit without this being publicized today. Edward Bernays called propaganda the “executive arm of the invisible government”. And he recognized that propaganda is to democracies what violence is to dictators. Perhaps that would be a contemporary definition of propaganda: it is a Permanent Toxic Rape of Consciousness, or PTRC for short. It is a permanent…

6

Stephen Hawking | but one has to be careful not to be labelled a crank

“Since we can’t change the way the universe began, the question of whether time travel is possible is one of whether we can subsequently make space–time so warped that one can go back to the past. I think this is an important subject for research, but one has to be careful not to be labelled a crank. If one made a research grant application to work on time travel it would be dismissed immediately. No government agency could afford to be seen to be spending public money on anything as…

7

Aristoteles | It is also in the interests of the tyrant

“It is also in the interests of the tyrant to make his subjects poor… the people are so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for plotting.” Aristoteles “Es liegt im Interesse des Tyrannen, seine Untertanen arm zu machen… dann sind sie so sehr mit ihren täglichen Aufgaben beschäftigt, dass sie keine Zeit haben, Pläne zu schmieden.” Nützliche und hilfreiche Links…

8

Prof. Dr. Franz Ruppert | Anyone who actually feels the need to get their hands on the levers of power

“Anyone who actually feels the need to get their hands on the levers of power in order to control other people, to tell them what to do, to scare them, is mentally disturbed.” Prof. Dr. Franz Ruppert | The traumatized society! Prof. Dr. Franz Ruppert in conversation (1:16:50) “Wer tatsächlich das Bedürfnis danach verspürt, an die Schalthebel der Macht zu kommen, um andere Menschen zu kontrollieren, ihnen Vorschriften zu machen, ihnen Angst einzujagen, der ist psychisch gestört.” Nützliche und hilfreiche Links…

9

Prof. Rainer Mausfeld | The public debating chamber is at the heart of democracy

“The public debating chamber is at the heart of democracy. However, it can only fulfill its function if it is intact in the sense you mentioned. Since the media constitute the public debate space in the first place, they must be designed in such a way that they do not distort it in favor of powerful interest groups. By their very nature, corporate media cannot perform such a task, as their integration into economic power structures almost inevitably makes them an instrument with which powerful economic lobby groups can covertly…

10

George Orwell | abolition of private property

“After the revolutionary period of the fifties and sixties, society regrouped itself, as always, into High, Middle, and Low. But the new High group, unlike all its forerunners, did not act upon instinct but knew what was needed to safeguard its position. It had long been realized that the only secure basis for oligarchy is collectivism. Wealth and privilege are most easily defended when they are possessed jointly. The so-called ’abolition of private property’ which took place in the middle years of the century meant, in effect, the concentration of…

11

George Carlin | Politicians

“Now, there’s one thing you might have noticed I don’t complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don’t fall out of the sky. They don’t pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It’s what our…

12

Wolfgang Reinhard | But it is the central ritual of the democratic theater state

“Politicians who want to stay in power have to keep the voters happy, even though the election itself is only symbolic. But it is the central ritual of the democratic theater state. After all, it is no longer about substantive decisions, but only about the confirmation or replacement of political figureheads, who are legitimized by the fact that citizens are allowed to perform this ritual. This symbolically reinforces the fiction of popular sovereignty on which modern constitutional states are founded. In this way, and not through substantive decisions, elections contribute…

13

Emma Goldman | do you not realize that the State is the worst enemy you have?

“Men and women … do you not realize that the State is the worst enemy you have? It is a machine that crushes you in order to sustain the ruling class, your masters. Like naïve children you put your trust in your political leaders. You make it possible for them to creep into your confidence, only to have them betray you to the first bidder. But even where there is no direct betrayal, the labour politicians make common cause with your enemies to keep you in leash, to prevent your…

14

Michael Rivero | Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker

“Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one’s self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to…

15

Peter Hübner | It’s an industrial arrangement based on the idea of mass filling

“I am always irritated by the fact that they are not really schools at all. We don’t see places for living and learning, but barracks. Along long corridors, one room stands at attention next to the other. All the classrooms have the same shape. The children are crammed in, all facing the blackboard. The teacher writes, the children copy. It’s an industrial arrangement based on the idea of mass filling.” Peter Hübner | Architect “Mich irritiert stets, dass sie in Wahrheit gar keine Schulen sind. Wir sehen keine Orte für…

16

Anita Hofmann | by practicing a state on a small scale, namely at school

“This is about: What is actually best for children and young people? And how do they get their education and how do they become citizens? Because that is also the goal of our schooling, that I am an educated person who can also fulfill my civic duties and for that I need appropriate behavior and I learn that not only explicitly through knowledge, but also implicitly by practicing a state on a small scale, namely at school.” Anita Hofmann | Head of the State School Office for the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district…

17

Charles H. Spurgeon | Es wird eine Zeit kommen

“A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” Charles H. Spurgeon “Es wird eine Zeit kommen, in der die Kirche keine Hirten mehr hat, die die Schafe füttern, sondern Clowns, die die Ziegen unterhalten.” Nützliche und hilfreiche Links…

18

Max Weber | All political entities are violent entities

“All political entities are violent entities. But the type and degree of the use or threat of external violence against other similar entities plays a specific role in the structure and fate of political communities. Not every political entity is equally “expansive” in the sense that it seeks power externally, i.e., making force available for the purpose of acquiring political power over other territories and communities, whether in the form of incorporation or [of] dependency. The political entities are thus, to varying degrees, outwardly turned entities of violence.” Max Weber…

19

Konrad Lorenz | To the extent that handicrafts are wiped out by the competition of industry

“To the extent that handicrafts are wiped out by the competition of industry, and to the extent that the smaller entrepreneur, including the farmer, becomes unable to exist, we are all quite simply forced to submit in our way of life to the wishes of the large producers, to eat the food and put on the clothes they think good for us, and what is worst of all, by virtue of the conditioning bestowed upon us, we do not even realize that they are doing so.” Konrad Lorenz “In dem…

20

John Henry Mackay | I am an Anarchist

“Ever reviled, accursed, ne’er understood, Thou art the grisly terror of our age. “Wreck of all order,” cry the multitude, “Art thou, and war and murder’s endless rage.” O, let them cry. To them that ne’er have striven The truth that lies behind a word to find, To them the word’s right meaning was not given. They shall continue blind among the blind. But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so pure, Thou sayest all which I for goal have taken. I give thee to the future! Thine secure…

21

Murray Rothbard | not for equal freedom but for equal slavery

“The egalitarians are arguing not for equal freedom but for equal slavery or equal robbery in the name of “fairness.” Murray Rothbard “Die Egalitären argumentieren nicht für gleiche Freiheit, sondern für gleiche Sklaverei, bzw. gleichen Raub, im Namen der „Fairness” Nützliche und hilfreiche Links…

22

Smedley Darlington Butler | Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys

“Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. The was the “war to end wars.” This was the “war to make the world safe for democracy.” No one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason. No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships…

23

Lysander Spooner | agents of the people

“If a man is my servant, agent, or attorney, I necessarily make myself responsible for all his acts done within the limits of the power I have intrusted to him. If I have intrusted him, as my agent, with either absolute power, or any power at all, over the persons or properties of other men than myself, I thereby necessarily make myself responsible to those other persons for any injuries he may do them, so long as he acts within the limits of the power I have granted him. But…

24

C.S. Lewis | Of all tyrannies

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a…

25

Ingolfur Blühdorn | Politics is losing ground dramatically to the power of the markets

“It has long been obvious in the Western tribal countries of democracy that the promises inherent in this concept will probably remain unfulfilled: Politics is losing ground dramatically to the power of the markets; supposedly democratic systems are firmly in the hands of powerfully organized interests and have less and less to do with popular sovereignty – if there ever was any. Social inequality and the disenfranchisement and reification of citizens as mere administrative objects or human resources are advancing inexorably – though every step of disenfranchisement is communicated as…

26

Jacques Élisée Reclus | the policy of hatred always breeds hatred

“History permits the well-founded observation that the policy of hatred always breeds hatred and fatally complicates the general situation, if not leads to final ruin. How many nations perished in this way. Oppressors as well as oppressed! Should we also be doomed? I hope not! And I owe this hope also to the anarchist thinking, which penetrates day by day more and more into the light and renews the human initiative.” Jacques Élisée Reclus was a French geographer and anarchist. (1830-1905) “Die Geschichte lässt die wohlbegründete Feststellung zu, dass die…

27

Howard Zinn | Our problem is civil obedience

“As soon as you say the topic is civil disobedience, you are saying our problem is civil disobedience. That is not our problem…. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. And our problem is that scene in All Quiet on the Western Front where the schoolboys march off dutifully in a line to war. Our problem…

28

Coudenhove-Kalergi | Today, democracy is a façade of plutocracy

“The form of constitution that replaced feudalism and absolutism was democracy; the form of government, plutocracy. Today, democracy is a façade of plutocracy: since nations would not tolerate a pure form of plutocracy, they were granted nominal powers, while the real power rests in the hands of plutocrats. In republican as well as monarchical democracies, the statesmen are puppets, the capitalists are the puppeteers; they dictate the guidelines of politics, rule through purchase the public opinion of the voters, and through professional and social relationships, the ministers. Instead of the…

29

Roland Baader | It is … a naivety that cannot be excused by anything to believe

“It is … a naivety that cannot be excused by anything to believe that a state can be total in the economic sphere without being so at the same time in the political and spiritual sphere ….” … Democracy and socialism are not a tautology (à la Oskar),but radical, mutually exclusive opposites. Democracy is a method of limiting and controlling power. Socialism, on the other hand, always denies the individual freedom of choice of individuals over their economic preferences and life goals (supposedly in favor of the general public, the…

30

Michael Wendler | We are living at the peak of the time of the false world

“We are living at the peak of the time of the false world. That’s why being real gets you shunned. Why speaking truth gets you scorned and banned. Society is at the tipping point of the height of illussion. It takes serious courage to be real right now. Please be brave!” Michael Wendler | (Supposedly | Telegram post) “Wir leben auf dem Höhepunkt der Zeit in einer falschen Welt. Deshalb wird man gemieden, wenn man echt ist. Deshalb wird man, wenn man die Wahrheit sagt, verachtet und verbannt. Die Gesellschaft…