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Consensus Quotes

Browse 448 quotes about Consensus.

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Consensus Quotes

“The value of free speech lies not just in the protection of popular opinions but in the shelter it provides for dissenting voices. It is the force that guards against the tyranny of majority thought, ensuring that minority perspectives are not silenced but are given a fair hearing. The true strength of a society is measured by its willingness to embrace discomfort, confront challenging ideas, and forge consensus through open dialogue rather than stifling dissent.”

IdeasFreedomStrengthProtectHearingTyrannyDialogueConsensusDiscomfortMinority
Author:James William Steven Parker
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“Seduction is manipulation, manipulation is half of argument, and therefore many of us shy from it. But seduction offers more than just consensual sex. It can bring you consensus. Even Aristotle, that logical old soul, believed in the curative powers of seduction. Logic alone will rarely get people to do anything. They have to desire the act. You may not like seduction’s manipulative aspects; still, it beats fighting, which is what we usually mistake for an argument.”

DesirePowerArgumentLogicManipulationFightSeductionConsensus
Book:Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion
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“One of the difficulties in raising public concern over the very severe threats of global warming is that 40 percent of the US population does not see why it is a problem, since Christ is returning in a few decades. About the same percentage believe that the world was created a few thousand years ago. If science conflicts with the Bible, so much the worse for science. It would be hard to find an analogue in other societies.”

ThinkingReasonScienceReligionProgressSocietyAtheismIgnoranceBibleLogicClimateClimate ChangeStupidityScriptureThoughtGlobal WarmingApocalypsePublic OpinionConsensusAdvancementScientific MethodTheismPseudoscienceIntelligent DesignDeismScientificSocietiesScripture Will Save Us
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Respectable opinion would never consider an assessment of the Reagan Doctrine or earlier exercises in terms of their actual human costs, and could not comprehend that such an assessment—which would yield a monstrous toll if accurately conducted on a global scale—might perhaps be a proper task in the United States. At the same level of integrity, disciplined Soviet intellectuals are horrified over real or alleged American crimes, but perceive their own only as benevolent intent gone awry, or errors of an earlier day, now overcome; the comparison is inexact and unfair, since Soviet intellectuals can plead fear as an excuse for their services to state violence.”

FearUnited StatesViolenceHypocrisyNationalismSoviet UnionConsensusInternational LawWar CrimesIntellectualsAmerican ImperialismRonald ReaganState TerrorismReagan DoctrineState Sponsored Terrorism
Book:The Culture of Terrorism
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“Until now, human organization could only be based upon something negative which could not be conquered: SCARCITY, and something false: PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY... No wonder instead of producing stability, it produced the exact opposite. The current human organization based upon dealing with the consequences of scarcity and being considered responsible for our individual characteristics which we could never have chosen (our nature, our nurture, our “soul”, and all the choices they engender), will always lead to an irrational, hence unstable human organization causing perpetual conflicts, which is no organization at all. Today, we have the luxury to initiate a rational self-organization based upon two positives: -our HUMAN CONSENSUS; our common desires shared by all, and -the SCIENTIFIC PROJECT to achieve them.”

ScienceOrganizationHumanismRationalAccountabilityFree WillIrrationalConsensusUnreasonableScarcityDeterminismFalsePersonal AccountabilityHuman Organization
Book:The Human Consensus and The Ultimate Project Of Humanity
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“This isn't to deny that there were fierce arguments, at the time and ever since, about the causes and goals of both the Civil War and the Second World War. But 1861 and 1941 each created a common national narrative (which happened to be the victors' narrative): both wars were about the country's survival and the expansion of the freedoms on which it was founded. Nothing like this consensus has formed around September 11th.... Indeed, the decade since the attacks has destroyed the very possibility of a common national narrative in this country.”

WarCausesGoalsCivil WarWorld War IiConsensus9 119 11 10th AnniversaryNational Narrative
Author:George Packer
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“All humanity needs, is to be reminded that there has always existed a human consensus on all common human needs and desires (extremely long life in perfect health, abundance, well-being), and that now, transgressing the religious option, he has achieved the scientific option of working for all of them, and for much more. His rationality, guided by both his ambition and inspiration, will do the rest. WHATEVER RELIGION PROMISES, SCIENCE WILL DELIVER.”

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Book:The Human Consensus and The Ultimate Project Of Humanity
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“Fanaticism can often be a normalized phenomenon, and the unwritten recipe suggests that it starts and ends with absolute certainty. If you are always certain about everything, you might just live in an echo chamber, or there might be a lack of ideological diversity among your sources and friends. Only, there is no size limit to this echo chamber as long as there is consensus: and the bigger the chamber the more solidified the fanaticism, and the more solidified the fanaticism the more the outlier will be seen the liar and the fanatic.”

CertaintyConsensusFringeExtremismFanaticismEcho Chamber
Book:Healology
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“In contrast to positional bargaining, the principled negotiation method of focusing on basic interests, mutually satisfying options, and fair standards typically results in a wise agreement. The method permits you to reach a gradual consensus on a joint decision efficiently.”

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Book:Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
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“The jangling, dissonant sound of modern politics; the anger on cable television and the evening news; the fast pace of social media; the headlines that clash with one another when we scroll through them; the dullness, by contrast, of the bureaucracy and the courts; all of this has unnerved that part of the population that prefers unity and homogeneity. Democracy itself has always been loud and raucous, but when its rules are followed, it eventually creates consensus. The modern debate does not. Instead, it inspires in some people the desire to forcibly silence the rest.”

PoliticsDemocracyMediaNewsAngerSocial MediaBeliefsBureaucracyConsensusCourts
Book:Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
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“So many of the professional foreign policy establishment, and so many of their hangers-on among the lumpen academics and journalists, had become worried by the frenzy and paranoia of the Nixonian Vietnam policy that consensus itself was threatened. Ordinary intra-mural and extra-mural leaking, to such duly constituted bodies as Congress, was getting out of hand. It was Kissinger who inaugurated the second front or home front of the war; illegally wiretapping the telephones even of his own staff and of his journalistic clientele. (I still love to picture the face of Henry Brandon when he found out what his hero had done to his telephone.) This war against the enemy within was the genesis of Watergate; a nexus of high crime and misdemeanour for which Kissinger himself, as Isaacson wittily points out, largely evaded blame by taking to his ‘shuttle’ and staying airborne. Incredibly, he contrived to argue in public with some success that if it were not for democratic distempers like the impeachment process his own selfless, necessary statesmanship would have been easier to carry out. This is true, but not in the way that he got newspapers like Rees-Mogg’s Times to accept.”

PoliticsUnited StatesDemocracyCrimeJournalismPropagandaVietnamForeign PolicyDiplomacyConsensusVietnam WarAcademiaWatergateImpeachmentHenry KissingerRichard NixonForeign Policy Of The UsThe TimesUnited States CongressWalter IsaacsonNews LeaksWilliam Rees MoggWiretappingHenry Brandon
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“The desire to “do more in less time” is not a neutral force in our culture; it is the handmaiden of miserable experts, specialists, and leaders. Not everyone has rushed to become efficient. Something else exists on the periphery: an inefficient utopia, a culture of consensus, collectives, and do-it-yourself ethics. A place where time is not bought, sold, or leased and no clock is the final arbiter of our worth. For many people in North America, the problem is not just poverty but lack of time to do the things that are actually meaningful. This is not a symptom of personal failures but the consequence of a time-obsessed society. Today, desire for efficiency springs from the scarcity model, which is the foundation of capitalism. Time is seen as a limited resource when we get caught up in meaningless jobs, mass-produced entertainment, and – the common complaint of activists – tedious meanings.”

TimeCapitalismEntertainmentAnarchyEfficiencyConsensusAnarchismCollectiveCrimethinc
Author:Curious George Brigade
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“Mais si le leader a la conscience claire de sa vision et de ses ambitions stratégiques, il n’a pas encore résolu les enjeux liés au consensus, à la mobilisation, aux stratégies individuelles et individualistes. Son défi, qui aussi une nécessité, c’est d’éviter d’être Hercule aux douze travaux ; c’est de construire des portefeuilles judicieusement répartis dans le court, le moyen et le long terme, comme je disais, antérieurement : « Avoir un pied dans le passé qui n’est jamais tout à fait mort, un autre dans le présent, la tête dans l’avenir… ».”

LeadershipLeaderConsensusMobilisationStratégieGouvernance De ConsensusStratégie De MobilisationVision Claire
Author:Abdou Karim GUEYE Ecrivain Le Coeur et l'Esprit
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“Det var i Genève som de sex Oslostaternas utrikesministrar sammanträdde. Före det första plenarmötet fördes en del interskandinaviska samtal, varvid man fick intrycket att det rådde en hel del meningsskiljaktigheter. När de sex signatärmakterna sammanträdde, uppträdde emellertid de tre skandinaviska ministrarna med förklaringar som angav den mest rörande enighet. Då jag sade något härom till utrikesminister [Fredrik] Ramel efter sammanträdets slut, skrattade han belåtet. "Det är ju det, som är finessen med Oslokonventionen. Vill man få skandinaverna att bli eniga, måste man alltid konfrontera dem med några icke-skandinaver.”

ConsensusScandinaviansNegotiationsOslo Convention 1933
Book:Diplomat: memoirs of a Swedish envoy in London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Washington;
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“Once people have that sense that their voice is being recognized, they then are more willing to move to consensus. Once people feel that their ideas are respected, I think that you will find a move toward cooperation. People are much more conciliatory once they feel they've been respected. That's the threshold we need to get to: the idea of respecting different viewpoints. (from the book The NPR Interviews 1995 edited by Robert Siegel)”

PoliticsCooperationConsensusRespect OthersConciliation
Author:Lani Guinier
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“I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had. Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period.”

ScienceEvolutionMajorityGlobal WarmingConsensusScientific MethodDarwinismScientific ResearchScientific DiscoveryIntelligent DesignScientific Theory9 11MinorityScientific RevolutionIdMacroevolutionMacro EvolutionSeptember 11 AttacksFluorideScientific InquiryMsgMajority ViewScientific ProcessMinority ViewExcitotoxinsMan Made Global WarmingBisphenol ABpaManmade Global WarmingMonosodium GlutamateDr Jack Cohen Podiatrist
Author:Michael Crichton
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“I would remind you to notice where the claim of consensus is invoked. Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough. Nobody says the consensus of scientists agrees that E=mc2. Nobody says the consensus is that the sun is 93 million miles away. It would never occur to anyone to speak that way.”

ScienceEvolutionMajorityGlobal WarmingConsensusScientific MethodDarwinismScientific ResearchScientific DiscoveryIntelligent DesignScientific Theory9 11MinorityScientific RevolutionIdMacroevolutionMacro EvolutionSeptember 11 AttacksFluorideScientific InquiryMsgMajority ViewScientific ProcessMinority ViewExcitotoxinsMan Made Global WarmingBisphenol ABpaManmade Global WarmingMonosodium Glutamate
Author:Michael Crichton
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“The theory of phlogiston was an inversion of the true nature of combustion. Removing phlogiston was in reality adding oxygen, while adding phlogiston was actually removing oxygen. The theory was a total misrepresentation of reality. Phlogiston did not even exist, and yet its existence was firmly believed and the theory adhered to rigidly for nearly one hundred years throughout the eighteenth century. ... As experimentation continued the properties of phlogiston became more bizarre and contradictory. But instead of questioning the existence of this mysterious substance it was made to serve more comprehensive purposes. ... For the skeptic or indeed to anyone prepared to step out of the circle of Darwinian belief, it is not hard to find inversions of common sense in modern evolutionary thought which are strikingly reminiscent of the mental gymnastics of the phlogiston chemists or the medieval astronomers. To the skeptic, the proposition that the genetic programmes of higher organisms, consisting of something close to a thousand million bits of information, equivalent to the sequence of letters in a small library of one thousand volumes, containing in encoded form countless thousands of intricate algorithms controlling, specifying and ordering the growth and development of billions and billions of cells into the form of a complex organism, were composed by a purely random process is simply an affront to reason. But to the Darwinist the idea is accepted without a ripple of doubt - the paradigm takes precedence!”

ScienceChanceEvolutionCoincidenceConsensusNaturalismSerendipityDarwinismOrigin Of LifeMacroevolutionMacro EvolutionMajority ViewOrigin Of InformationScientific Consensus
Book:Evolution: A Theory in Crisis
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“Oil policy, policy toward the United States, policy toward Iran, Bahrain, Yemen, very unlikely, I think, to see significant change. These policies were the policies that had a wide family consensus. The question I think would be if the king becomes sick, whether you have weak Saudi leadership in the Arab world and the Middle East rather than strong Saudi leadership, but I think the fundamental policies will continue, the ones we’re familiar with under King Abdullah.”

IfsThinkingWorldStatesWould BeStrongUnitedUnited StatesMiddlePolicyKingsWeakSickFundamentalsWideOilEastSignificantFamiliarIranMiddle EastUnlikelyConsensusSaudisArab WorldYemenSignificant ChangeBahrainKing Abdullah
Author:Elliott Abrams
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“Business leaders, labor unions, governors, mayors, congressmen and presidents have all complained about a lack of funding for years, but aside from a one-time cash infusion from the stimulus program, nothing much has changed. There is still no consensus on how to solve the problem or where to get the massive amounts of money needed to fix it, just another example of political paralysis in Washington.”

YearsStillsProblemPoliticalPresidentLeaderExampleChangedAmountNeededProgramLaborUnionsSolveMassiveOne TimeCashGovernorsConsensusFundingStimulusMayorsCongressmanBusiness LeadersParalysisLabor UnionInfusion
Author:Steve Kroft
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