“Industrial capitalism brought representative democracy, but with a weak public mandate and inert citizenry. The digital age offers a new democracy based on public deliberation and active citizenship.” AgeDemocracyOffersCapitalismWeakActiveDigitalRepresentativesCitizenshipMandatesDigital AgeDeliberationCitizenryActive Citizenship Author:Don Tapscott
“We live in the age of "Everything Has Rights." Now, I'm not denying that the concept of rights is valid, but I wonder whatever happened to obligations? One rarely hears the term anymore. Indeed, have you ever heard of a "human obligations movement?" The very ideal that holds a democracy together--the willingness to make personal sacrifice for the common good--is going quickly by the wayside.” HumansAgeTogetherTermCommonResponsibilityWonderDemocracyRightsHappenedHeardSacrificeMovementConceptsIdealsObligationWillingnessCommon GoodPersonal Sacrifice Author:John Rosemond
“You want sanity, democracy, community, an intact Earth? We can't get there, obeying Constitutional theory and law crafted by slave masters, imperialists, corporate masters, and Nature destroyers. We can't get there, kneeling before robed lawyers stockpiling class plunder precedent up their venerable sleeves. So isn't disobedience the challenge of our age? Principled, inventive, escalating disobedience to liberate our souls, to transfigure our work as humans on this Earth.” WantHumansSoulAgeEarthLawCommunityChallengesClassDemocracyMastersTheorySlaveLawyerCorporateSanityDisobedienceSleevesPrecedentDestroyersObeyingPlunderKneelingPrincipledEscalating Author:Richard Grossman
“In Europe democracy is a falsehood. I do not know where it will end, but it cannot end in a quiet old age.” KnowsEndsGovernmentAgeDemocracyQuietEuropeOld AgeFalsehood Author:Klemens von Metternich
“Obama is not just a powerful speaker, but a thinker engaged with the ideas of his country and his age--this argument by historian James Kloppenberg should therefore fascinate anyone interested in American politics or how ideas shape public life. Tracing the influences of Obama's family, educational, and work experiences on his ideas, Reading Obama locates a unique individual in the crosscurrents of American democracy and continuing fights over American ideals.” ShouldIdeasCountryAgeFightingReadingIndividualPowerfulDemocracyInfluenceShapesUniqueIdealsArgumentEducationalEngagedThinkerHistorianSpeakersContinuingAmerican PoliticsPublic LifeAmerican DemocracyTracingUnique IndividualsWork Experience Author:Martha Minow
“Dandyism is the last flicker of heroism in decadent ages.... Dandyism is a setting sun; like the declining star, it is magnificent, without heat and full of melancholy. But alas! the rising tide of democracy, which spreads everywhere and reduces everything to the same level, is daily carrying away these last champions of human pride, and submerging, in the waters of oblivion, the last traces of these remarkable myrmidons.” HumansAgeLastsStarsWaterLevelsSunDemocracyPrideSpreadSettingSettingsHeatChampionRisingRemarkableMelancholyTidesHeroismMagnificentAlasOblivionFlickerDandyism Author:Charles Baudelaire
“There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.” MadeStillsCountryStatesRealityGovernmentAgeDemocracyConquestMonarchy Author:Baron de Montesquieu
“The interesting thing about that is one of the greatest critics of socialism and leftwing writings was Robert Michels who wrote a series of essays called "The Iron Law of Oligarchy" and in these essays he discusses how no matter what sorts of freedoms are advertised or put into a society structure, that all societies, all form of governments - whether they be a Roman republic, whether they be a democracy, whether they be a Russian communist system, whatever, a tribe... a tribal council - all of the continuously, throughout the ages, have all converted back into an oligarchy.” WritingMatterGovernmentAgeFormLawInterestingDemocracyNo Matter WhatStructureSeriesCriticsSocialismIronRepublicCommunistTribesEssaysCouncilInteresting ThingsForms Of GovernmentOligarchy Author:Immortal Technique