Georg Orwell | What counts is that we don’t betray each other
"It’s not so much staying alive, it’s staying human that’s important. What counts is that we don’t betray each other."
Georg Orwell
Posts
Frank Zappa | Schools train people to be ignorant
in Frank Zappa"Schools train people to be ignorant, with style. They give you the equipment that you need to be a functional ignoramus. American schools* do not equip you to deal with things like logic; they don’t give you the criteria by which to judge between good and bad in any medium or format; and they prepare you to be a usable victim for military-industrial complex that needs manpower. As long as you’re just smart enough to do a job and just dumb enough to swallow what they feed you, you’re gonna be alright. But if you go beyond that then you’re gonna have these grave doubts that give you stomach problems, headaches…make you want to go out and do something else. So, I believe that schools mechanically and very specifically try and breed out any hint of creative thought in the kids that are coming out."
Frank Zappa
Vince Ebert | Political correctness
in Vince Ebert"Political correctness has now reached a level in our society that I see as highly questionable. It starts with the deletion of more and more postings in the social media. Postings, mind you, with content that is clearly not punishable or otherwise legally actionable. The mere fact that a certain group might feel offended by a text is enough. More and more companies and corporations are joining this unfortunate trend and issuing internal memos about required language rules or how to deal with certain topics, the disregard of which can lead to serious consequences for employees. Again, these are not criminal or justiciable matters (which, of course, should rightly be stopped), but rather some of the most harmless formulations and matters that are actually covered by the right to freedom of expression. What I find most alarming, however, is the development at our universities. Places where the free exchange of ideas and opinions should actually be part of the basic equipment. Almost every day, professors, doctoral students and other university staff tell me that they would now be risking their careers if they were to publicly question or criticize current developments at universities. Theses and assertions have even become established there in the meantime, some of which contradict a fundamental scientific factual basis. Unfortunately, I do not see the end of the line. I think it will get much worse."
Vince Ebert
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
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
Georges Bernanos | violence in the service of the totalitarian state
in Georges Bernanos"It is not the use of violence that seems to me condemnable, but its mysticism, the religion of violence in the service of the totalitarian state, in the service of the dictatorship of the general welfare, considered not as a means but as an end."
Georges Bernanos
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."
Yuval Noah Harari | to gain control over the world
in Yuval Noah HarariI mean science, as an institution, is interested in gaining the power — to gain control over the world
Yuval Noah Harari
Henry Louis Mencken | The whole drift of our law
in Henry Louis Mencken"The whole drift of our law is toward the absolute prohibition of all ideas that diverge in the slightest form from the accepted platitudes, and behind that drift of law there is a far more potent force of growing custom, and under that custom there is a natural philosophy which erects conformity into the noblest of virtues and the free functioning of personality into a capital crime against society."
Henry Louis Mencken
George Orwell | A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing
in George Orwell"At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to state this or that or the other, but it is "not done"… Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals."
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
General Aladeen | Why are you guys so anti-dictators?
in Der Diktator, General Aladeen, Sacha Baron Cohen"Why are you guys so anti-dictators? Imagine if America was a dictatorship. You could let 1% of the people have all the nation's wealth. You could help your rich friends get richer by cutting their taxes. And bailing them out when they gamble and lose. You could ignore the needs of the poor for health care and education. Your media would appear free, but would secretly be controlled by one person and his family. You could wiretap phones. You could torture foreign prisoners. You could have rigged elections. You could lie about why you go to war. You could fill your prisons with one particular racial group, and no one would complain. You could use the media to scare the people into supporting policies that are against their interests."
General Aladeen
George Orwell | These people don’t see that
in George Orwell"These people don’t see that if you encourage totalitarian methods, the time may come when they will be used against you instead of for you."
Bertrand Russell | Fear is the main source of superstition
in Bertrand Russell"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
Bärbel Bohley | the thorough research into the Stasi structures
in Bärbel Bohley"All these investigations, the thorough research into the Stasi structures, the methods with which they worked and still work, all this will fall into the wrong hands. One will examine these structures in detail - in order to then take them over. They will be adapted a little to fit a free Western society. They won't necessarily arrest the troublemakers either. There are more subtle ways to disarm someone. But the secret bans, the watching, the suspicion, the fear, the isolation and exclusion, the branding and muzzling of those who don't conform - that will come back, believe me. Institutions will be created that will work much more effectively, much more finely than the Stasi. The constant lying will also come back, the disinformation, the fog in which everything loses its contour."
Bärbel Bohley
Alice Bailey | The Masonic Movement
in Alice Bailey“The Masonic Movement when it can be divorced from politics and social ends and from its present paralyzing condition of inertia, will meet the need of those who can, and should, wield power. It is the custodian of the law; it is the home of the Mysteries and the seat of initiation. It holds in its symbolism the ritual of Deity, and the way of salvation is pictorially preserved in its work. The methods of Deity are demonstrated in its Temples, and under the All-seeing Eye the work can go forward. It is a far more occult organization than can be realized, and is intended to be the training school for the coming advanced occultists. In its ceremonials lies hid the wielding of the forces connected with the growth and life of the kingdoms of nature and the unfoldment of the divine aspects in man. In the comprehension of its symbolism will come the power to cooperate with the divine plan. It meets the need of those who work on the first Ray of Will or Power.”
Alice Bailey
Harald Schmidt | I also know who among the authors is currently behind with their alimony payments
in Harald Schmidt"I buy the FAZ on paper - and read NZZ, Spiegel and Bild online before the paywall. But I am just as informed as if I had subscribed to it. When I see the headline and the author, I already know what the text says. I also know who among the authors is currently behind with their alimony payments and therefore has to write in a certain direction."
Harald Schmidt
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann | The process of struggling for public opinion
in Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann"The process of struggling for public opinion has nothing to do with truth, but with domination."
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
George Bernard Shaw | I’m known for my irony
in George Bernard Shaw"I'm known for my irony. But the idea of erecting a Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor would not have occurred to even me."
George Bernard Shaw
Leo Tolstoy | The Anarchists are right in everything
in Leo Tolstoi, Leo Tolstoy"The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order and in the assertion that, without Authority there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by a violent revolution. But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require the protection of governmental power and by there being more and more people who will be ashamed of applying this power."
Leo Tolstoy
Arnold Gehlen | devilish is he who erects the kingdom of lies
in Arnold Gehlen"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
Alexander Wagandt | Ideology is what is still holding the whole system together
in Alexander Wagandt"Ideology is what is still holding the whole system together and when that is no longer there.... When people really wake up and realize that they are being held in a mental prison by mental dwarfs, that power dwindles exponentially fast and that is where we are headed. Everything is based on mental, moronic, anti-nature and anti-people concepts. A positive development, however, is that it is becoming more and more transparent."
Alexander Wagandt
W.L. Mackenzie King | Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes the nations laws.
in William Lyon Mackenzie King"Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes the nations laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of parliament and of democracy is idle and futile."
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Thomas Sowell | so many successful politicians are such shameless liars
in Thomas Sowell"The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy."
Thomas Sowell
Ignazio Silone | You can’t beg your freedom from someone
in Ignazio Silone“You can live in a dictatorship and be free – on one condition: that you fight the dictatorship. The man who thinks with is own mind and keeps it uncorrupted is free. The man who fights for what he thinks is right is free. But you can live in the most democratic country on earth, and if you’re lazy, obtuse or servile within yourself, you’re not free. Even without any violent coercion, you’re a slave. You can’t beg your freedom from someone. You have to seize it – everyone as much as he can."
Ignazio Silone