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Quote by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Work

The Myth of Independence

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Author

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (January 5, 1928 – April 4, 1979) was a Pakistani politician and the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). He served as President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and as Prime Minister from 1973 to 1977. Born into a wealthy Sindhi family, Bhutto was educated at the University of California, Berkeley and Oxford University. He entered politics after returning to Pakistan and established the PPP in 1967, advocating "Islamic socialism." During his tenure, he oversaw the independence of Bangladesh in 1971 and introduced the 1973 Constitution, establishing Pakistan's parliamentary system. Bhutto implemented land reforms and industrialization policies. He was overthrown in a military coup in 1977 and executed in 1979 after being convicted of murder. His legacy remains controversial, but he is remembered as a champion of democracy in Pakistan. more

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“For the peculiarity of historical consent won from the masses within modern capitalist social formations is by no means to be found in its mere secular reference or technical awe. The novelty of this consent is that it takes the fundamental form of a belief by the masses that they exercise an ultimate self-determination within the existing social order. It is thus not acceptance of the superiority of an acknowledged ruling class (feudal ideology), but credence in the democratic equality of all citizens in the government of the nation - in other words, disbelief in the existence of any ruling class.”

“The term white "supremacy" creeps around, infecting and affecting everything around us, yet so few would even admit to agreeing with it. I replace the word supremacy with hegemony because white hegemony is a more accurate expression of the act and process of european-enforced global systematic colonialism. white hegemony is the actual process of systematized white domination, which is continually enacted upon the world and maintained daily.”

“Strange are the ways of democracy; everyone disagrees with everyone else and such dissent is considered a good thing. Stranger are the ways of dictators; once they have coerced all their subjects to agree with them, they spread their evil wings across their borders to secure the nod of the rest of the humanity. That is how dictatorships usually end. If a dictator does not aspire to be a world hegemon, he could be forever, limited only by the fact that even dictators are mortal.”

“I don't incidentally suggest that the deceit is conscious. Much more likely, it's just the enormous power of conformity to convention, to what Gramsci called hegemonic "common sense." Some ideas are not even rejected; they are unthinkable. Like the idea that US aggression is aggression; it can only be "a mistake," "a tragic error," "a strategic blunder." I also don't want to suggest this is "American exceptionalism." It's hard to find an exception to the practice in the history of imperialism.”