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Quote by John Gilmore

“Now, I’d like to ask people in the room, please raise your hand if you have not broken a law, any law, in the past month... That’s the kind of society I want to build. I want to guarantee — with physics and mathematics, not with laws — that we can give ourselves real privacy of personal communications.”

Quote by John Gilmore

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John Gilmore

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“Sex is only one part of life, it is only one expression of companionship, it is something that needs to be accepted and fought for in order to live a life of human dignity. Gender expression or gender identity is also a matter of a person’s choice. Laws that criminalize gender identity and sexual orientation have no place in a democracy and must be struck down. Everyone must join hands to fight for equal rights for all of us to live in a just society.”

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“It is seven months since a thirty-two-year-old Oslo man, the racist extremist Anders Behring Breivik, single-handedly doubled Norway's average annual homicide rate in one afternoon, killing a total of seventy-seven people ... From my seat in the bus nothing appears to have changed. What did I expect? That the Norwegians would have put up razor wire and enforced constant police patrols? Hardly likely in a land where the then prime minister, at the memorial service to the dead of Utoya and the Oslo bomb, gave one of the most courageous speeches in defense of public freedom I have ever heard. Jens Stoltenberg had called for 'more openness, more democracy,' at a time when most politicians elsewhere in the world would have used an attack of that nature to pledge revenge, exploit the anxieties of the electorate, garner greater authority and power, and then compromise civil liberties. His speech was a reminder that the political leaders of the north have often served as the moral compass of the world.”

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Book:The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia
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“To the Victorian public, proud of their national tradition of liberal policing and of Britain as a beacon of tolerance, the very idea of a political police carried the stigma of foreign despotism. In the nineteenth century, Britain’s elected politicians would never have dared venture anything resembling the kind of legislation that recent years have seen passed with barely a blink of the public eye, to threaten civil liberties that have for generations been taken for granted. That changing times demanding changing laws is hard to dispute, but if new powers are to be conceded it is essential that we be ever more vigilant in guarding against their abuse. Likewise, if our political leaders are allowed blithely to insist that ‘history’ should be their judge, then we should at least be in no doubt that the historians of the future will have access to the material necessary to hold those leaders to account for any deceptions they may have practiced. Histories bearing an official sanction, of the kind that appeal to today’s security services, are not a satisfactory alternative. This book is a pebble cast on the other side of the scales.”

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Book:The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists, and Secret Agents
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“Civil Liberty (The Sonnet) Policy is not the precursor to civil liberty, Civic duty is the precursor to civil liberty. If there is no civic duty, there is no civil liberty, If there is no civic duty, civilians are but catastrophe. Contrary to unwritten political law of abuse, Civilians are not the doormats of democracy. Civilians are the doors, civilians are the buildings, Civilians are the whole of the social anatomy. Problem is, it's more convenient to live life as doormat, Than take responsibility and turn politicians obsolete. The war-mongers know this uncivilized tenet of the apes, Hence they can turn living beings into moronic nationalist. So I repeat, civic duty is the alpha and omega of civil liberty. Till we realize this, there is no peace, justice and equality.”

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“Harper smiles just a little. “You know...” Oren tilts his head. “Um, never mind.” “Man, don’t do that. It’s the worst.” Harper shakes his head, cheeks turning hot. He rubs his face against his shoulder. “Just pointless, sentimental what-ifs.” “What-ifs can be like wishes. You don’t have to squash them.”

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“The Patriot Act vastly expanded our domestic security apparatus and allowed the government to surveil Americans under the guise of combating terrorism. Americans are historically fine with castrating their own civil liberties, because we'd rather feel safe than actually be free, especially when our illusory feelings of safety can come at the expense of people of color, immigrants, and Muslims--you know, "them.”

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Book:Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
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