Tag Archive for: Politics

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George Washington | a frightful despotism

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty."

George Washington

Mind control isn’t hard to understand

"Mind control isn't hard to understand. If you do what the TV says, the TV is controlling your mind and you're not. 2 billion people just pushed an experimental medicine under their skin, which was never healthy, simply because the TV told them to. That's mind control."

Unknown

Friedrich August von Hayek | voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant

"Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom."

Friedrich August von Hayek

G. Edward Griffin | They’ve been programmed

"They've been programmed and I'm sad because I know that it's hard for people like that to take an interest - serious interest in world affairs - taken serious interest in what their elected officials are doing and they're not going to be really inclined to study and or discover the deception that's being used against them and so I'm sad because I I see all of that in the flash in my mind as being an indication of how easy it is for the masses to be manipulated"

G. Edward Griffin

Voltaire | It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere

"It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere."

Voltaire

George Bernard Shaw | Every faltering regime

"Every faltering regime has tried to bind its subjects by war as a last resort."

George Bernard Shaw

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

Bernard Edouard Harcourt | The eternal recurrence of new forms of unbearable servitude

"The eternal recurrence of new forms of unbearable servitude, and with them, new forms of resistance, demonstrates that human history is not a progressive march toward absolute knowledge, the demise of the state, or the end of history, but rather a constant struggle for our own subjugation, a battle that must be fought anew to establish our subjectivity, ourselves as subjects. Once we grasp the recurring nature of this struggle, only then will we recognize the task that confronts us today and in the future: to resist the ever-pressing forms of tyrannical power, that brutal desire for subjugation, and the ongoing, ever-renewed attempts to rule through fear, terror, and absolute domination."

Bernard Edouard Harcourt

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

Roland Baader | We have the entire political elite against us

"We have the entire political elite against us. [...] The development will be a bad one. [...] I see nothing good, nothing good at all, I see no approach anywhere. The problems have been dealt with by the same means that created the problems in the first place. [...]
We will get more and more socialism, new kinds of socialism, new kinds of fascism. In any case, more totalitarianism, less freedom and an overall radicalization. We will also experience riots, we will have unrest and explosive growths in crime."

Roland Baader

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

Lenin | Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world

"Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world."

Vladimir Lenin

Leo Tolstoi | The power of government rests on the ignorance of the people

"The power of government rests on the ignorance of the people, and it knows this and therefore will always fight against enlightenment."

Leo Tolstoi

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 mindfuck by governments and corporate business, mediated by the media, carried out by bought comedians à la Böhmermann, pseudo-journalists à la Lanz, pseudo-intellectuals à la Precht, pseudo-health politicians, such as the pharmaceutical and drugs minister Lauterbach, pseudo-defence politicians such as Strack-Rheinmetall-Zimmermann, and other parvenus such as Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, Eckart von Hirschhausen, Sarah Bosetti and other stirrup holders in editorial offices, theaters or foundations. "

Milosz Matuschek

Reginald McKenna | I am afraid that the ordinary citizen will not like to be told

"I am afraid that the ordinary citizen will not like to be told that the banks can and do create and destroy money. And they who control the credit of a nation direct the policy of governments, and hold in the hollow of their hands the destiny of the people."

Reginald McKenna

Harold Wallace Rosenthal | Our power has been created through the manipulation of the national monetary system

"Our power has been created through the manipulation of the national monetary system.. The Federal Reserve system fitted our plan nicely since it is owned by us, but the name implies that it is a government institution. From the very outset, our purpose was to confiscate all the gold and silver, replacing them with worthless non- redeemable papen notes...
We Jews have put issue upon issue to the American people. Then we promote both sides of the issue as confusion reigns. With their eyes fixed on the issues, they fail to see who is behind every scene. We Jews toy with the American public as a cat toys with a mouse..."

Harold Wallace Rosenthal

Emma Goldman | Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind

"Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion and liberation of the human body from the coercion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals…"

Emma Goldman

Dr. Angela Merkel | Almost all of these decisions were made against the majority of Germans

"Almost all of these decisions were made against the majority of Germans. In many cases, the Germans' attitude has only changed in retrospect. I also think it is reasonable for the population to first look at the result of a measure and then form a judgment about it. I believe this is an expression of the primacy of politics. And that should be upheld."

Dr. Angela Merkel

Frederick B Hodges | everything we have is for our benefit

"The reason we have troops overseas in Germany is not to protect Germans, everything we have is for our benefit."

Frederick Benjamin „Ben“ Hodges

Alice Cooper | I don’t like to mix politics and rock ‘n’ roll

"I don't like to mix politics and rock 'n' roll, i don't look at Bono, Sting and Bruce Springsteen as political. I look at them as being humanitarian. I'll contribute to anything humanitarian. Helping people who can't help themselves. But when musicians are telling people who to vote for, I think that's an abuse of power. You're telling your fans not to think for themselves, just to think like you. Rock 'n' roll is about freedom — and that's not freedom."

Alice Cooper

Benedikt Lux | We replaced the entire leadership of almost all of Berlin’s security

"Measured against what had gone before, we achieved a huge success. We replaced the entire leadership of almost all of Berlin's security agencies and brought in some pretty good people. In the fire department, the police, the public prosecutor's office and also the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. I very much hope that this will have a noticeable effect in the future."

Benedikt Lux

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

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

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 introduce themselves into the public debate."

Prof. Rainer Mausfeld

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 property in far fewer hands than before: but with this difference, that the new owners were a group instead of a mass of individuals. Individually, no member of the Party owns anything, except petty personal belongings. Collectively, the Party owns everything in Oceania, because it controls everything, and disposes of the products as it thinks fit."

George Orwell | 1984

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 system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope."

George Carlin

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 to its stabilization."

Wolfgang Reinhard

Aldous Huxley | … the greater part of the population is not very intelligent

"... the greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled."

Aldous Huxley

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 direct action. The State is the pillar of capitalism, and it is ridiculous to expect any redress from it."

Emma Goldman

Alexis de Tocqueville | democracy | Tyranny | despotism

"Tyranny in democratic republics does not proceed in the same way, however. It ignores the body and goes straight for the soul. The master no longer says: You will think as I do or die. He says: You are free not to think as I do. You may keep your life, your property, and everything else. But from this day forth you shall be as a stranger among us. You will retain your civic privileges, but they will be of no use to you. For if you seek the votes of your fellow citizens, they will withhold them, and if you seek only their esteem, they will feign to refuse even that. You will remain among men, but you will forfeit your rights to humanity. When you approach your fellow creatures, they will shun you as one who is impure. And even those who believe in your innocence will abandon you, lest they, too, be shunned in turn. Go in peace, I will not take your life, but the life I leave you with is worse than death."

Alexis de Tocqueville