“Americans cannot escape a certain responsibility for what is done in our name around the world. In a democracy, even one as corrupted as ours, ultimate authority rests with the people. We empower the government with our votes, finance it with our taxes, bolster it with our silent acquiescence. If we are passive in the face of America's official actions overseas, we in effect endorse them.” PeopleIfsWorldDoneGovernmentActionAmericaFacesCertainNamesResponsibilityDemocracyEffectsTaxesAuthorityVoteUltimateSilentFinanceAround The WorldOfficialsEmpoweringPassiveAcquiescence Book:The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World Source: The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World
“We must face the bitter fact that we have forsaken our great dream of a life of, for, and by the people; that the burning passions and ideals of the American dream lie congealed by cold cynicism. Great parts of the masses of our people no longer believe that they have a voice or a hand in shaping the destiny of this nation. They have not forsaken democracy because of any desire or positive action of their own; they have been driven down into the depths of a great despair born of frustration, hopelessness, and apathy. A democracy lacking in popular participation dies of paralysis.” PeopleBelieveHas BeensFactsDreamHandsActionAmericaFacesLyingDesireDiesPassionNationsVoiceBornDestinyDemocracyColdDespairMassIdealsDepthDrivenBitterBurningFrustrationApathyCynicismAmerican DreamLackingParticipationHopelessnessParalysisForsakenBurning Passion Author:Saul Alinsky
“The basis of democracy is tolerance to criticism. If you can't face criticism, if you can't accept it, then you cannot guard democracy, you are not eligible for it.” IfsFacesAcceptingDemocracyCriticismIndiaBasesElectionTolerance Author:Narendra Modi
“It took six weeks of debate in the Senate to get the Arms Embargo Law repealed--and we face other delays during the present session because most of the Members of the Congress are thinking in terms of next Autumn's election. However, that is one of the prices that we who live in democracies have to pay. It is, however, worth paying, if all of us can avoid the type of government under which the unfortunate population of Germany and Russia must exist.” IfsThinkingGovernmentFacesLawNextTermPayDemocracyWeekArmsTypeMembersSixElectionCongressPopulationDebateRussiaGermanyAutumnSenateDictatorshipUnfortunateDelaySessionDemocracies HaveEmbargo Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The government may change faces from time to time, but it's not like we fight wars for democracy - we fight wars for capitalism and for oil.” MayWarGovernmentFacesFightingDemocracyCapitalismOil Author:Woody Harrelson
“There is always an element of realpolitik that has to be present in the conduct of any nation's national security affairs. At the same time, we have to also have a balance between realpolitik and Wilsonian principles of freedom and democracy and human rights. And maintaining that balance is the greatest challenge that we in the West, including the Federal Republic of Germany, have to face because it's many times a very difficult decision-making process.” HumansFacesNationsProcessDifficultChallengesDecisionPrinciplesDemocracyRightsSecurityBalanceElementsWestIncludingAffairHuman RightsGermanyDecision MakingRepublicNational SecurityMaintainingDifficult DecisionsDecision Making ProcessDemocracy And Human RightsRealpolitik Author:John McCain
“What created democracy was Thomas Paine and Shays Rebellion, the suffragists and the abolitionists and on down through the populists and the labor movement, including the Wobblies. Tough, in your face people... Mother Jones, Woody Guthrie... Martin Luther King and Caesar Chavez. And now it’s down to us.” PeopleFacesMotherDemocracyMovementKingsToughLaborIncludingRebellionYour FaceLutherWoodyPopulistAbolitionistLabor MovementPaineChavezShaySuffragists Author:Jim Hightower
“The great multinationals are unwilling to face the moral and economic contradictions of their own behavior - producing in low-wage dictatorships and selling to high-wage democracies. Indeed, the striking quality about global enterprises is how easily free-market capitalism puts aside its supposed values in order to do business. The conditions of human freedom do not matter to them so long as the market demand is robust. The absence of freedom, if anything, lends order and efficiency to their operations.” IfsHumansLongMatterFacesValuesOrderQualityMoralDemocracyEconomicConditionsDemandBehaviorLowsCapitalismAbsenceSellingOperationsEnterpriseContradictionDictatorshipEfficiencyFree MarketUnwillingRobustHuman FreedomMultinationalsFree Market Capitalism Author:William Greider
“As Americans, we have shown ourselves to have the greatest military on the face of the planet, but we are not so very good at anticipating threats and appreciating just how difficult it is to build up stable democracies, to make the investments and sustainable development that we must as a nation if we are to attack the root causes of these sorts of instability.” IfsFacesNationsCausesDifficultDemocracyMilitaryPlanetsDevelopmentAppreciateRootsThreatInvestmentVery GoodStableSustainable DevelopmentInstabilityRoot CauseGreatest Military Author:Martin O'Malley
“If we had had time and the occasion to develop a new socialism in the GDR, socialism with a human face, with democracy, this might have been an example also to West Germany. The development would have run the other way.” IfsWayHumansHas BeensMightRunningFacesDemocracyExampleDevelopmentWestSocialismOccasionsGermanyMight Have BeenHuman FacesWest Germany Author:Stefan Heym
“If you've got on the one hand death, dogmatism, domination, and on the other you've got desire in the face of death, dialogue in the face of dogmatism, democracy in the face of domination, then philosophy itself becomes a critical disposition of wrestling with desire in the face of death, wrestling with dialogue in the face of dogmatism, and wrestling with democracy, trying to keep alive a very fragile democratic experiment.” IfsTryingPhilosophyHandsFacesDesireDemocracyAliveDemocraticCriticalExperimentsDialogueWrestlingFragileDispositionDominationDogmatism Author:Cornel West
“We all have a responsibility, and as Rabbi Heschel, one of my prophets, has put it: "Those who condone, or are silent, in the face of injustice, are more guilty than the perpetrators." And so, to the degree we pretend to be a democracy, we have a corresponding duty to be activist enough to prevent our human rights form being infringed upon.” HumansEnoughFacesFormResponsibilityDemocracyRightsDutyDegreesSilentInjusticeHuman RightsGuiltyProphetActivistCorrespondingRabbiPerpetrators Author:Ray McGovern
“American democracy faces a massive challenge. I don't think it is a certainty that we're headed toward Putin's Russia, as some commentariat does. But people need to mobilize and build up small-d democratic institutions to prepare against that eventuality.” PeopleThinkingNeedsDoeFacesChallengesDemocracyInstitutionsDemocraticRussiaCertaintyMassivePutinAmerican Democracy Author:Jonathan Chait