Tag Archive for: Society

Zitate

C.S. Lewis | I do not like the pretensions of Government

“I do not like the pretensions of Government -- the grounds on which it demands my obedience -- to be pitched too high. I don't like the medicine-man's magical pretensions nor the Bourbon's Divine Right. This is not solely because I disbelieve in magic and in Bossuet's Politique. I believe in God, but I detest theocracy. For every Government consists of mere men and is, strictly viewed, a makeshift; if it adds to its commands 'Thus saith the Lord', it lies, and lies dangerously. On just the same ground I dread government in the name of science. That is how tyrannies come in. In every age the men who want us under their thumb, if they have any sense, will put forward the particular pretension which the hopes and fears of that age render most potent. They 'cash in'. It has been magic, it has been Christianity. Now it will certainly be science. Perhaps the real scientists may not think much of the tyrants' 'science'-- they didn't think much of Hitler's racial theories or Stalin's biology. But they can be muzzled.”

C.S. Lewis

Gabriel Laub | The slave does not want to be free. He wants to become a slave master

"The slave does not want to be free. He wants to become a slave master."

Gabriel Laub

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

ZUBY | One of the biggest problems with college degrees

"One of the biggest problems with college degrees is they've made a lot of people think they are much smarter than they truly are. This arrogance and smugness makes them dumber because they think they're too smart to receive new information from anybody with fewer 'credentials'."

ZUBY

André Gide | It is better to be hated for what you are

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."

André Gide

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

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

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

Edmund Burke | Their passions forge their fetters

"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

Idi Amin Dada | cannot guarantee freedom after speech

"There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech."

Idi Amin Dada

Terence McKenna | We are at war with our own nature

"We are, literally, a schizophrenic species. We are at war with our own nature"

Terence McKenna

Mark Twain | No amount of evidence

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot."

Mark Twain

Gilbert Keith Chesterton | Feminism is a muddled idea

"Feminism is a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands."

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Fjodor Dostojewski | The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping

"The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison."

Fjodor Dostojewski

Don Pettit | The only limit to human future is in our own imagination

"I'd go to the moon in a Nanosecond, but the Problem is that we no longer have that technology to do that anymore, we used to have it, but we destroyed it and it's a painful process to build it back again, but going to Mars should be one of the next series of steps that humans do. The first step should be going back to the Moon for a number of technical reasons and exploration reasons. And then after that Mars, maybe high orbit in Venus atmosphere maybe going to Europa. There's all kinds of targets to go to, places of interest in our solar system. The only limit to human future is in our own imagination."

Don Pettit (Nasa „Astronaut“)

Barack Obama | Ordinary men and women are too small-minded

"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

Napoleon Bonaparte | A higher power is pushing me to a goal

"A higher power is pushing me to a goal i don’t know. Until it is reached, i will be invulnerable, unshakeable. As soon as i’m no longer needed, one fly will be enough to knock me down."

Napoleon Bonaparte

George Bernard Shaw | We want a few mad people now

"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

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever."

George Orwell

Friedrich August von Hayek | all forms of collectivism lead eventually to tyranny

"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

"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

"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)

"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

"If the government was replaced by the mafia we'd probably have half as much corruption and twice as much fun."

Klaus Kinski

Dr Mike Yeadon | have taken as fact that viruses exist without ever reviewing the original papers

"I’m aware this two page backgrounder & experimental proposal aims to show whether or not viruses exist, focussing on SARS-CoV-2. I’m a signatory because, having given a lot of thought to the entire proposition, I now believe it’s yet another of the lies to which we’ve been subject. In the case of scientists, even those in commercial drug discovery, have taken as fact that viruses exist without ever reviewing the original papers."

Dr Mike Yeadon

Benjamin Constant | When you pay the representatives of the people

"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