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Authoritarianism Quotes

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Authoritarianism Quotes

“More and more commonly, the strongest public sentiment is one of profound loathing - subversive loathing of 'the hegemonic discourse,' Western loathing of the East, Eastern loathing of the West, secular loathing of believers, religious loathing of the secular. Sweeping, unmitigated loathing surges like vomit from the depths of this or that misery. Such extreme loathing is a component of fanaticism in all its guises.”

HateExtremismFanaticismLoathingAuthoritarianismZealotryDear Zealots
Book:שלום לקנאים
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“Fanaticism ... is contagious: a person may catch it even as he fights to cure other people of it. There is no shortage of anti-fanaticism fanatics in the world. All sorts of crusades to stop jihad, and jihads to subjugate the new crusaders. This includes the zeal so prevalent in Israel and in the West these days to deliver a knockout blow that will finish off all the bloodthirsty fanatics and anyone like them once and for all. To eradicate every last bastion of zealotry.”

HateExtremismFanaticsAuthoritarianismPolarizationDear ZealotsAnti Muslim
Book:שלום לקנאים
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“We can choose to try to persuade people who are repeating demagogic talking points while choosing not to get into arguments with them. Demagoguery about 'them' is undone by empathy. Generalizations about 'them' are complicated, and sometimes shattered, by experiences with individual members of 'them,' or even humanizing stories. Tell those stories, mention those friends, talk about those experiences, and just refuse to argue. Invite your interlocutor to meet 'them,' point out the individuals who don't fit the stereotype, and, if you are a member of their out-group, then resist your interlocutor's desire to treat you as an exception. Many of the people who explain how they came to reject demagoguery about some out-group say they were changed when they got to know (and love) people in that group, or when they discovered that people whom they had long loved were members of the out-group. Just bear witness to the glory of diversity and pluralism.”

HatePoliticsDiversityArgumentPrejudiceBigotryFascismMulticulturalismAuthoritarianism
Book:Demagoguery and Democracy
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“It is easy to fight power, when you have none, when you feel like the victim. The real battle begins when you start to have a taste of power. It takes an impossible character to stand by their principles till their last breath, rejecting the pressure of oppression, as well as the convenience of power.”

ActivismOppressionDictatorshipPolitical ScienceAuthoritarianismPower CorruptsPolitical PsychologyPoliticians And PoliticsPolitical RevolutionFight The System
Book:Mucize Misafir Merhaba: The Peace Testament
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“As one might expect, authoritarianism will at times cause children and students to adopt rebellious positions, defiant of any limit, discipline, or authority. But it will also lead to apathy, excessive obedience, uncritical conformity, lack of resistance against authoritarian discourse, self-abnegation, and fear of freedom.”

ChildrenSelfMightCausesSocietyPositionStudentsDisciplineLimitsAuthorityResistanceObedienceConformityApathyDiscourseRebelliousAuthoritarianismAbnegation
Book:Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those who Dare Teach
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“Weak logic, inconsistencies and alienation from the people are common features of authoritarianism. The relentless attempts of totalitarian regimes to prevent free thought and new ideas and the persistent assertion of their own rightness bring on them an intellectual stasis which they project on to the nation at large. Intimidation and propaganda work in a duet of oppression, while the people, lapped in fear and distrust, learn to dissemble and to keep silent.”

PeopleIdeasNationsCommonProjectsIntellectualWeakLogicSilentOppressionFeaturesPropagandaRegimesNew IdeasDistrustPersistentAlienationRelentlessAssertionAuthoritarianismIntimidationLightnessInconsistencyFree ThoughtDuetsStasisTotalitarian Regimes
Author:Aung San Suu Kyi
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“Even the most humane and compassionate of the monotheisms and polytheisms are complicit in this quiet and irrational authoritarianism: they proclaim us, in Fulke Greville's unforgettable line, "Created sick Commanded to be well." And there are totalitarian insinuations to back this up if its appeal should fail.”

IfsShouldWellsLinesFailingQuietSickAppealsCompassionateIrrationalHumaneAuthoritarianismUnforgettableMonotheismPolytheism
Book:Letters to a Young Contrarian
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“America needs fewer laws, not more prisons. By trying to seize far more power than is necessary over American citizens, the federal government is destroying its own legitimacy. We face a choice not of anarchy or authoritarianism, but a choice of limited government or unlimited government .”

NeedsTryingGovernmentAmericaFacesLawChoicesCitizensPrisonAnarchyDestroyingFewerFederal GovernmentUnlimitedAuthoritarianismLimited GovernmentAmerican CitizensLegitimacyAuthoritarian Government
Book:Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty
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“We must nevertheless present all possible interpretations for each observation, so that competing theories can be formulated and defended. In science, as elsewhere, intellectual inertia, the fashions of the moment, the weight of institutions, and authoritarianism are always to be feared. Heresies play an essential role by keeping our minds argumentative and alert.”

MindPlayMomentsRolesFashionTheoryEssentialsIntellectualWeightInstitutionsObservationInterpretationElsewhereNeverthelessCompetingHeresyAuthoritarianismInertia
Author:Hubert Reeves
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“If people want consultative government, the price is increased complexity and delay in arriving at decisions. If they want speed of government, then they must accept a greater degree of authoritarianism. I suspect that the real answer is that most people prefer the latter so long, that is, as government's decisions conform with their own views.”

PeopleIfsWantLongRealGovernmentDecisionAnswersViewsAcceptingGreaterDegreesSpeedComplexityLatterSuspectsConformDelayAuthoritarianismArrivingAuthoritarian Government
Author:John James Cowperthwaite
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“The use of the word royalty, as fee to a proprietor for the exploitation of a work or property, derives from the period when the sovereign assumed title to all wealth of the realm. It was the struggle for freedom from these encroachments of the state that chiefly marked the Nineteenth Century, and established everywhere constitutional regimes of limited authority. In the Twentieth Century, however, we have witnessed a gradual and almost unrestricted movement back to state authoritarianism, primarily in the economic sphere, accompanied by the spread of state monopoly and intervention.”

StatesUseWealthStruggleEconomicCenturyMovementPeriodsAuthorityPropertySpreadTitlesRealmsSpheresRegimesExploitationSovereignMonopolyInterventionRoyaltyTwentieth CenturyNineteenth CenturyAuthoritarianismFeesEncroachmentStruggle For Freedom
Author:Elgin Groseclose
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“We must move from ... the primacy of technology toward considerations of social justice and equity, from the dictates of organizational convenience toward the aspirations ofself realization and learning, from authoritarianism and dogmatism toward more participation, from uniformity and centralization toward diversity and pluralism, from the concept of work as hard and unavoidable, from life as nasty, brutish, and short toward work as purpose and self~fulfillment, a recognition of leisure as a valid activity in itself.”

HardMovingPurposeSocialJusticeTechnologyActivityDiversityConceptsSocial JusticeSelf RealizationRealizationRecognitionFulfillmentAspirationConsiderationLeisureNastyParticipationEquityConvenienceAuthoritarianismUniformityOrganizationalDogmatismPluralismPrimacyCentralizationSelf Fulfillment
Author:Warren G. Bennis
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“In the '30s and '40s, the search for Hungarian national identity led famously to an alliance with Hitler and the destruction of more than a half million of the nation's Jews. And here we are now, more than 70 years later, witnessing a resurgence of xenophobia and authoritarianism, and not just in Eastern Europe.”

YearsNationsHalfMillionsIdentityEuropeDestructionJewEasternAlliancesAuthoritarianismXenophobiaEastern EuropeResurgenceHungariansNational Identity
Author:Susan Faludi
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“Modern authoritarianism, as it's growing inside Europe and now coming to the United States, rests much more on the use of power to protect the guilty than to persecute the innocent. And its motive is not crazy totalitarian utopianism, it's motive is repressive kleptocracy. To steal and to use the powers of the state to protect theft.”

StatesUseUnitedUnited StatesGrowingCrazyModernProtectEuropeStealingInnocentGuiltyMotiveTheftAuthoritarianismUse Of Power
Author:David Frum
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“I think what we are confronting now is a new war of ideas. It's not communism versus capitalism, but it is authoritarianism versus democracy and representative government. And that is a threat that here in Europe, they feel acutely. They've seen their countries interfered with, bombarded by cyber-attacks, by Russian propaganda, indeed, by Russian troops.”

ThinkingFeelsIdeasWarCountryGovernmentDemocracyCapitalismEuropeThreatCommunismPropagandaTroopsRepresentativesVersusAuthoritarianismConfrontingCyberBombardedRepresentative GovernmentBombarded ByCyber Attacks
Author:Adam Schiff
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“I think the media in America have been absolutely fantastic about the rise of Trump, they've kept a firm eye on the ball: this constitutes democracy, this constitutes transparency, this constitutes fairness, this constitutes the way to behave in a civic society, this constitutes fascism, this constitutes authoritarianism. They're drawing that line, and they're calling him out every time. That's really what needs to happen, and you just have to do that.”

ThinkingWayNeedsHas BeensHappensEyeAmericaLinesDemocracyMediaTrumpCallingBallsDrawingFantasticFirmBehaveFascismFairnessTransparencyCivicsAuthoritarianism
Author:Irvine Welsh
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“liberty, which means resisting all forms of cultural authoritarianism, be it from the right wing church, black ideologues, black nationalists, or mainstream white media. We have to accent liberty and freedom of expression and thought in all their forms.”

MeanFormBlackChurchWhiteLibertyMediaExpressionWingsMainstreamAccentsRight WingFreedom And LibertyResistingFreedom Of ExpressionAuthoritarianismIdeologues
Book:Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life
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“But let it not be said that we did nothing. Let not those who love the power of the welfare/warfare state label the dissenters of authoritarianism as unpatriotic or uncaring. Patriotism is more closely linked to dissent than it is to conformity and a blind desire for safety and security. Understanding the magnificent rewards of a free society makes us unbashful in its promotion, fully realizing that maximum wealth is created and the greatest chance for peace comes from a society respectful of individual liberty.”

SaidStatesDesireIndividualUnderstandingRealizingWealthChanceLibertySecuritySafetyBlindRewardsLabelsWelfareConformityWarfareMagnificentLinkedMaximumPromotionDissentRespectfulFree SocietyAuthoritarianismIndividual LibertyUncaringUnpatrioticSafety And Security
Author:Ron Paul
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“Good design today requires more vision (a larger point of view versus the single brilliant idea), more consistency (a deeper underlying structure of language and form versus the simple, uniform application of visual elements) and more patience (persistence over time versus creative authoritarianism).”

IdeasTodayFormLanguageSimpleViewsVisionCreativeDesignElementsStructureDeeperPoint Of ViewBrilliantPersistenceVisualsApplicationUniformsConsistencyVersusAuthoritarianismBrilliant IdeasGood Design
Author:William Drenttel
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“If you say that you reject violence when it exceeds the limits imposed by the needs of defense, they accuse you of pacifism, without understanding that violence is the whole essence of authoritarianism, just as the repudiation of violence is the whole essence of anarchism.”

IfsNeedsWholeUnderstandingViolenceLimitsEssenceDefenseRejectsExceedAnarchismAuthoritarianismPacifism
Book:Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta
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“No wonder psychedelics are threatening to an authoritarian religious hierarchy. You don’t need faith to benefit from a psychedelic experience, let alone a priest or even a shaman to interpret it. What you need is courage—courage to drink the brew, eat the mushroom, or whatever it is, and then to pay attention, and make of it what you will. Suddenly, the tools for direct contact with the transcendent other (whether you call it God or something else) is taken from the hands of an anointed elite and given to the individual seeker.”

NeedsHandsIndividualGivenReligiousPayAttentionWonderCourageTakenDrinkDrugBenefitsToolsDirectExperienceContactPay AttentionPriestsElitesThreateningHierarchySeekersPsychedelicTranscendentAuthoritarianismMushroomsInterpretingPsychedelic Experience
Author:Dennis McKenna
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“We have power... Our power isn’t in a political system, or a religious system, or in an economic system, or in a military system; these are authoritarian systems... they have power... but it’s not reality. The power of our intelligence, individually or collectively IS the power; this is the power that any industrial ruling class truly fears: clear coherent human beings.”

HumansRealityPoliticalReligionReligiousHuman BeingsClassPowerClearSocietyEconomicMilitaryIntelligenceRulingPolitical SystemsAuthoritarianismEconomic SystemsCoherenceCollectivity
Author:John Trudell
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