Political Quotes

[Pathless]

A place for political quotes of all colors, flavors, and smells. Probably also a place to discuss/debate/get irritated about said quotes.

[Pathless]

"Socieities willingly go to war when they have been primed to do so by an already existing mass internal dynamic that is easily manipulated by scheming rulers."

--Malcom X

[Pathless]

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces towards change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable."

--Helen Keller

[Pathless]

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

--Socrates

[Pathless]

"I could make the choice to believe that the USA is the land of abundance and freedom, and that the people who live here are inherently better at flourishing and thriving than people in poor countries. This choice, of course, would require that I also choose to remain completely ignorant of the realities of people in ghettos, barrios, prison, the sex work industry and rural coal mining/farming/logging towns, and on reservations here in the USA.

Or I could make the choice to believe that the victors of history's present telling have constructed a self-sustaining environment, which they present as the world, that is easily palmed off on a population whose imaginations have been colonized ever since the bible, US history, and Hollywood were allowed to define what is considered to be sacred, celebratory, and beautiful.

I tried the first choice when I was younger, and I never met much success with it, largely because it bored me to tears.

The second choice, however, serves me well.

It inspires me to seek knowledge, to listen closely, to imagine, and to dream of existing in an environment that is an engaged aspect of the world."

--Inga Muscio

[Pathless]

Article 1

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibitng the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

--United States Bill of Rights
(Ammendments to the Constitution)

[Pathless]

"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even tacitly take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears, upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all."

--Mario Savio

[flowperson]

Pathless...thanks so much for this thread.

"Good and evil grow up together and are bound in an equilibrium that cannot be sundered. The most we can do is try to tilt the equilibrium toward the good." Eric Hoffer

[Pathless]

No problem, Flo. Thanks for posting.

Here's an amusing one:

"There's no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds on the horizon were getting nearly directly overhead."

--Dubya
Washinton, D.C.; May 11, 2001

[Pathless]

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful commited citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."

--Margaret Mead

[Pathless]

"We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world--a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight."

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Pathless]

"Some would blame our current problems on an organized conspiracy. I wish it were so simple. Members of a conspiracy can be rooted out and brought to justice. This system, however, is fueled by something far more dangerous than conspiracy. It is driven not by a small band of men but by a concept that has been accepted as gospel: the idea that all economic growth benefits humankind and that the greater the growth, the more widespread the benefits. This belief also has a corollary:that those people who excel at stoking the fires of economic growth should be exalted and rewarded, while those born at the fringes are available for exploitation."

and

"I also realized that my college professors had not understood the true nature of macroeconomics: that in many cases helping an economy grow only makes those few people who sit atop the pyramid even richer, while it does nothing for those at the bottom except to push them even lower. Indeed, promoting capitalism often results in a system that resembles medieval feudal socieities."

--John Perkins
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

[Pathless]

"The economics that disregard moral and sentimental considerations are like wax-works that being life-like still lack the life of the living flesh. At every crucial moment these new-fangled economic laws have broken down in practice. And nations or individuals who accept them as guiding maxims must perish."

and

"The extension of the law of non-violence in the domain of economics means nothing les than the introduction of moral values as a factor to be considered in regulating international commerce."

and

"I wholeheartedly detest this mad desire to destroy distance and time, to increase animal appetites and go to the ends of the earth in search of their satisfaction. If modern civilization stands for all this, and I have understood it to do so, I call it Satanic."

and

"It is my firm belief that Europe today represents not the spirit of God or Christianity but the spirit of Satan. And Satan's successes are the greatest when he appears with the name of God on his lips. Europe is today only nominally Christian. In reality it is worshipping Mammon."

and

"Economics that hurt the moral well-being of an individual or a nation are immoral and therefore sinful. Thus, the economics that permit one country to prey upon another are immoral. It is sinful to buy and use articles made by sweated labor."

--Mahatma Mohandis K Gandhi
(all these quotes are from the 1920s)

[China Cat Sunflower]

"Get them by the balls, and their hearts and minds will follow." Richard M. Nixon

[Prober]

"As man draws nearer to the stars, why should he not also draw nearer to his neighbor?" Lyndon Johnson