Gore Vidal | We are the United States of Amnesia
"We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing."
Gore Vidal
Posts
Stefan Zweig | The tales of gouged-out eyes
in Stefan Zweig"The tales of gouged-out eyes and severed hands which appear on the third or fourth day of every war filled the newspapers. They did not know, those innocents who spread such lies, that the accusation of every possible cruelty against the enemy is as much war materiel as are munitions and planes, and that they are systematically taken out of storage at the beginning of every war. War does not permit itself to be coordinated with reason and righteousness. [...] Shakespeare was banned from the German stage, Mozart and Wagner from the French and English concert halls, German professors declared that Dante had been Germanic, the French that Beethoven had been a Belgian, intellectual culture was requisitioned without scruple from the enemy countries like grain and ore. [...] After a few weeks, determined to escape this dangerous mass psychosis, I moved to a rural suburb to commence my personal war in the midst of war, the struggle against the betrayal of Reason by the current mass passion."
Stefan Zweig
Michael Jackson | Sadly, sadly, we live in a state of fear
in Michael Jackson“Sadly, sadly, we live in a state of fear. Everyday we hear of war on the news, on the radio and television and the newspapers, always of war. We hear of nations hurting each other, of neighbours hurting each other, of families hurting each other and the children killing each other. We must learn to live and love each other before its too late. We have to stop! We have to stop the prejudice, we have to stop the hating, we have to stop living in fear of our own neighbours. [...] Together … together we can make a change of the world. Together we can help to stop racism. Together we can help to stop prejudice. We can help the world live without fear. Its our only hope, without hope we are lost.”
Michael Jackson
Henry A. Wallace | the bulk of the common people everywhere do not want a third world war
in Henry A. Wallace"...My brother-in-law, Charles Bruggmann, told me about some friends who were in Dublin, Ireland, recently. At a social gathering were present several Jesuit priests who indicated that one of their supreme purposes was to bring about a war between the United States and Russia. Later on I began to speculate about the forces that are interested in trying to bring about such a war. In addition to a small group in the Catholic hierarchy there is also a small group among the English Tories and a small group in the American Army... a small group among the American big-business hierarchy, a substantial group among the Chinese Nationalists, the London Poles, and in general the more wealthy people who live in the countries close to Russia. Also there is a small group in the Navy (note for example Admiral Stark’s68 statement in the Pearl Harbor hearings with regard to communism being a greater danger than Naziism);..."
Henry A. Wallace
Henry A. Wallace
Lysander Spooner | The greatest of all crimes are the wars
in Lysander Spooner"The greatest of all crimes are the wars that are carried on by governments, to plunder, enslave, and destroy mankind."
Lysander Spooner
Anatoliy Golitsyn | Believers think ideology is dying or already dead
in Anatoliy Golitsyn"Believers think ideology is dying or already dead and that Gorbachev has abandoned the class struggle and taken the 'capitalist road'. They do not realise that 'perestroika' is an expression of ideological strategy and a practical means of reviving ideology. It is not the abandonment of class struggle but a finesse to secure the defeat of the capitalist democracies by the use of capitalist weapons. The class struggle will yet have its bloody feasts. The Western elite believe they are helping the cause of democracy. In fact they are financing their own demise and digging their own graves. The tragedy is that they will probably not see it until it is too late."
Anatoliy Golitsyn
Paul Valéry | War: a massacre of people who don’t know
in Paul Valéry„War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other.“
Paul Valéry
Benjamin Franklin | War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is.
in Benjamin Franklin"War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself"
Benjamin Franklin
Julian Assange | when asked “Who do you think is the number-one enemy?”
in Julian Assange„Our number-one enemy is ignorance. And I believe that is the number-one enemy of everyone. It’s not understanding what is actually going on in the world. It’s only once you start to understand that you can make effective decisions and effective plans. Now the question is: who is promoting this ignorance? […] It is bad media. It really is my opinion that the media in general are so bad we have to question whether the world wouldn’t be better off without them all together. They’re so distortive to how the world actually is that the result is we see wars and we see corrupt governments continue on. One of the hopeful things that I have discovered is that nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been a result of media lies. The media could have stopped it if they had searched deep enough — if they hadn’t reprinted government propaganda — they could have stopped it. But what does that mean? Well, that means, basically, populations don’t like wars. Populations have to be fooled into wars. Populations don’t willingly, with open eyes, enter into war. So, if we have a good media environment, we might also have a peaceful environment.“
Julian Assange