Political Quotes

[wil]

Boy oh boy does this one speak to me.


A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbors.

William Inge (1860 - 1954)


Patriotism- the delusion that you are better than another by the chance of sperm.

wil (1957- )

[Joedjr]

Originally Posted by wil

Patriotism- the delusion that you are better than another by the chance of sperm.

wil (1957- )

Hi Wil,
Would this be like also religion too?
Joe

[wil]

Originally Posted by Joedjr

Hi Wil,
Would this be like also religion too?
Joe

I can see the link if one subscribes to the "My religion is better than your religion, or my religon is the only one and true religion" Yeah.

[Pathless]

Here's an interesting one related to the discussion in the By A Vote of the People thread:

"[Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani] opposes the US plan to hold regional caucuses [in Iraq], which appeared to many as just another device for perpetuating American rule, albeit under the table, because the US could manipulate the caucases much more easily than if there was a direct vote. The US acknowledges the caucus system is less than democratic but insists this method will hasten matters and speed up the process of turning over the government to Iraqis by June 30 [of 2004]."

--James Ridgeway, introducing the 2004 entries of Riverbend's blog, in the compilation book, Baghdad Burning

[wil]

Originally Posted by Pathless

Here's an interesting one related to the discussion in the By A Vote of the People thread:

"[Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani] opposes the US plan to hold regional caucuses [in Iraq], which appeared to many as just another device for perpetuating American rule, albeit under the table, because the US could manipulate the caucases much more easily than if there was a direct vote. The US acknowledges the caucus system is less than democratic but insists this method will hasten matters and speed up the process of turning over the government to Iraqis by June 30 [of 2004]."

--James Ridgeway, introducing the 2004 entries of Riverbend's blog, in the compilation book, Baghdad Burning

Did the caucuses ever happen, or did 60% of the voting populaton over there get ink on their fingers?

[Pathless]

Originally Posted by wil

Did the caucuses ever happen, or did 60% of the voting populaton over there get ink on their fingers?

I simply found it amusing the way that Ridgeway said, "The US acknowledges the caucus system is less than democratic." Here we have primaries and caucuses. My take on the (one) caucus I went to is that it's a pathetic excuse for democracy. Our single-vote system is totally screwed up at this point, too, to judge from the past two presidential elections and the presence of trade-secreted voting machines.

[wil]

Originally Posted by Pathless

I simply found it amusing the way that Ridgeway said, "The US acknowledges the caucus system is less than democratic." Here we have primaries and caucuses. My take on the (one) caucus I went to is that it's a pathetic excuse for democracy. Our single-vote system is totally screwed up at this point, too, to judge from the past two presidential elections and the presence of trade-secreted voting machines.

I think the caucus system is powerful for small group decisions. I think the problem with it is that it is one night, one time. It leaves a lot of people out of the process. ie no absentee ballot, if you can't make it that night your vote doesn't count etc.

I've only attended one in a third party situation and I found it feeling like politics, hands on, and exhillerating...of course it was small a few hundred people, but you really got to feel like you were part of some process.

[China Cat Sunflower]

"Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings.
Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they'll make you king."

Bob Dylan

[wil]

Oh my, what have we done?

this thread has spawned a banner which read...

Sign up now, get Ann Coulters latest articles in email for free...click here.

wonder what her bots are searching for that we brought forth, hmmmm

[Pathless]

This next one is both political and spiritual. Blending the two is nice.

Let the streams of life flow in peace.
Turn from violence.
Learn to think for a long time how to change the world
How to make it better to live in.

--Quetzalcoatl

[dauer]

Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security.

- Bene Gesserit Coda

[Pathless]

Originally Posted by dauer

Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security.

- Bene Gesserit Coda

Ah, Dune. Sweet.

"The sleeper must awaken."

[Pathless]

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

"Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class -- whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy."

Politics as Repeat Phenomenon:
Bene Gesserit Training Manual

"If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true of false, you believe the assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced."

The Open-Ended Proof from The Panoplia Prophetica

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva
Text QIV (decto)

"All states are abstractions."

Bene Gesserit Archives
Octun Politicus


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[dauer]

The last three books in Herbert's original series were imo pretty terrible as novels go, but they were still great for the ideas that they presented. I learned a lot about the psychological effects of architecture on the masses and other such subjects thanks to Leto II's inane babbling.

Spice was meant as an analogy for oil and the fremen were a way to deal with the subject of religious fanaticism and messianism in the ME. Paul was called the Mahdi. After book I they lead a massive jihad through the known universe.

I wrote the initial lit for a Dune RP in Second Life but unfortunately politics and egos got in the way. The original RP folded and three sprang up in its absence to fill a void that could not fit them all. Lately though I do run around SL in a stillsuit and the eyes of the ibad. I still have a functioning weirding module and a thumper that I take out sometimes for funs.



The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed. We feel threatened by such demands. "I already know the important things!" we say. Then Changer comes and throws our old ideas away.
-The Zensufi Master

You cannot manipulate a marionette with only one string.
-The Zensunni Whip

The writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from the secret influences behind great events.
-The Bashar Teg

To know a thing well, know it limits. Only when pushed beyond its tolerances will true nature be seen.
-The Amtal Rule

Answers grip on the universe. They can appear sensible yet explain nothing.
-The Zensunni Whip

Quotes from CHAPTERHOUSE: DUNE
-Mentat Text Two (dicto)

[Pathless]