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Michael Parenti

Michael Parenti Quotes

Political scientist

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Famous Michael Parenti Quotes

“In order that a select few might live in great opulence, millions of people work hard for an entire lifetime, never free from financial insecurity, and at great cost to the quality of their lives. The complaint is not that the very rich have so much more than everyone else but that their superabundance and endless accumulation comes at the expense of everyone and everything else, including our communities and our environment.”

WealthCapitalismInequalityBourgeoisie
Book:Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
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“All conservative ideologies justify existing inequities as the natural order of things, inevitable outcomes of human nature. If the very rich are naturally so much more capable than the rest of us, why must they be provided with so many artificial privileges under the law, so many bailouts, subsidies and other special considerations - at our expense? Their "naturally superior talents" include unprincipled and illegal subterfuge such as price-fixing, stock manipulation, insider training, fraud, tax evasion, the legal enforcement of unfair competition, ecological spoliation, harmful products and unsafe work conditions. One might expect naturally superior people not to act in such rapacious and venal ways. Differences in talent and capacity as might exist between individuals do not excuse the crimes and injustices that are endemic to the corporate business system.”

ClassCapitalismCompetitionSocialismClass StruggleAnticapitalism
Book:Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
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“During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime's atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn't go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them. If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.”

FreedomRevolutionCapitalismPropagandaCommunists
Book:Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
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“For those local and international elites who maintain control over most of the world's wealth, social revolution is an abomination. Whether it be peaceful or violent is a question of no great moment to them. Peaceful reforms that infringe upon their profitable accumulations and threaten their class privileges are as unacceptable to them as the social upheaval by revolution.”

PoliticsRevolutionCapitalismSocial JusticeClass StruggleClass Warfare
Book:Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
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“Ecology's implications for capitalism are too momentous for the capitalist to contemplate. The plutocrats are more wedded to their wealth than to the Earth upon which they live, more concerned with the fate of their fortunes than with the fate of humanity. The present ecological crisis has been created by the few at the expense of the many.”

Has BeensEarthPoliticalHumanityWealthFateCapitalismConcernedCrisisFortuneExpensesCapitalistContemplatingEcologyImplicationsEcologicalEcological Crisis
Book:Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader
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“The essence of capitalism is to turn nature into commodities and commodities into capital. The live green earth is transformed into dead gold bricks, with luxury items for the few and toxic slag heaps for the many. The glittering mansion overlooks a vast sprawl of shanty towns, wherein a desperate, demoralized humanity is kept in line with drugs, television, and armed force.”

EarthPoliticalHumanityTurnsForceNatureLinesMoneyTelevisionDrugCapitalismGoldEssenceArmyTownsGreenLuxuryDesperateToxicTransformedCommodityBricksItemsMansionsArmed ForcesGreen EarthDemoralizedSlagLuxury Items
Author:Michael Parenti
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“The problem with capitalism is that it best rewards the worst part of us: the ruthless, competitive, conniving, opportunistic, acquisitive drives, giving little reward and often much punishment-or at least much handicap-to honesty, compassion, fair play, many forms of hard work, love of justice, and a concern for those in need.”

NeedsGivingLittlesHardPlayProblemFormJusticeCompassionWorstHonestyHard WorkCapitalismConcernFairsRewardsPunishmentGlobalizationRuthlessHandicapsThose In NeedFair PlayWork LoveConniving
Author:Michael Parenti
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