“The honest and serious student of American history will recall that our Founding Fathers managed to write both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution without using the term 'democracy' even once. No part of any of the existing state Constitutions contains any reference to the word. [The men] who were most influential in the institution and formulation of our government refer to 'democracy' only to distinguish it sharply from the republican form of our American Constitutional system.” MenWritingStatesGovernmentFormFatherTermDemocracyHonestStudentsHe ManSeriousRepublicanConstitutionIndependenceInstitutionsHistoricalRecallsAmerican HistoryDeclarationFoundingInfluentialOur Founding FathersDeclaration Of Independence Author:Clarence Manion
“To be a film director is not a democracy, it's really a tyranny. You're the head of the project, for better rather than worse. I write the film and I direct the film, I decide who's going to be in it, I decide on the editing, I put in the music from my own record collection.” WritingFilmMy OwnDemocracyRecordsDirectorsProjectsDirectTyrannyCollectionsEditingFilm Directors Author:Woody Allen
“What is the elephant in all our rooms? It is the global triumph of capitalism. Democracy is fiercely disputed. Freedom is under threat even in old-established democracies such as Britain. Western supremacy is on the skids. But everyone does capitalism. Americans and Europeans do it. Indians do it. Russian oligarchs and Saudi princes do it. Even Chinese communists do it... Karl Marx would be turning in his grave. Or perhaps not, since some of his writings eerily foreshadowed our era of globalised capitalism. His prescription failed but his description was prescient.” WritingDoeWould BeRoomsDemocracyCapitalismThreatWesternGravesErasChineseTriumphBritainDescriptionCommunistElephantsPrescriptionsSaudisSupremacy Author:Timothy Garton Ash
“As more and more citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will change the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and criticism improves democracy.” PeopleThinkingWayWritingMindHumansHas BeensIdeasCoursesEasyDemocracyIssuesProductsCitizensArgumentCriticismHarderProvenMisguidedProven Wrong Book:Free Culture Source: Free Culture
“Uncontrollable consumerism has become a watchword of our culture despite regular and compelling calls for its end. The United States has more malls than high schools; Americans spend more time shopping than reading. ... Some of the most insightful writing about the American character over the nation's history has been about neither freedom nor democracy but about the crazed impulse to acquire things.” WritingHas BeensEndsStatesCharacterSchoolCultureReadingNationsUnitedUnited StatesDemocracyHigh SchoolDespiteImpulseAcquireMore TimeInsightfulShoppingCompellingConsumerismMallsUncontrollableAmerican Character Book:Loud and Clear Source: Loud and Clear
“They've been screaming about the death of literacy for years, but I think TV is the Gutenberg [printing] press. I think TV is the only thing that keeps us vaguely in democracy even if it's in the hands of the corporate culture. If you're an artist you write in your time. Moaning about the fact that maybe people read more books a hundred years ago - that's not true. I think the same percentage has always read.” PeopleIfsThinkingWritingYearsBookFactsHandsArtistCultureDemocracyTvsHundredYears AgoPressesCorporateLiteracyPercentagesPrintingCorporate CulturePrinting PressMoaningGutenberg Author:Sherman Alexie
“Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy - which many believe goes hand in hand with it - will be dead as well.” IfsWritingBelieveWellsHandsYoungCoursesReadingPracticeDemocracyReaderLiteracyHand In HandReading And Writing Author:Margaret Atwood
“We teach reading, writing and math by [having students do] them. But we teach democracy by lecture.” WritingReadingTeachDemocracyStudentsMathLecturesReading Writing Author:Shelley Berman
“He [Mencken] was an autodidact, with all the misplaced confidence and all the astonishing gaps that characterize that breed. Not many of us would venture to write a book about democracy without ever having read de Tocqueville, nor embark on a translation of Nietzsche with only a sketchy knowledge of German.” WritingBookDemocracyGapsVentureTranslationsAstonishingMisplacedSketchy Author:John Derbyshire
“Today, when we live in a what is called Western democracy here... you're not taken seriously all the time. You can write what you want because nobody cares about it. But at that time, they cared very much about what you wrote, so that's an entirely different feeling.” WantWritingDifferentFeelingsCareTodayDemocracyTakenWesternWhat You WantNobody CaresDifferent Feelings Author:Stefan Heym
“I didn't want to be either the cre`me de la cre`me or a martyr. I'd rather be a novelty, especially in a democracy that doesn't understand the language I write in.” WantWritingLanguageDemocracyMartyrNovelty Author:Joseph Brodsky
“Seeing that the 97's are a democracy through and through, inevitably, some of these tons of songs I write will get vetoed. The first time that happened (and every time thereafter), I consoled myself with the thought that sooner or later I'd make a solo record” WritingFirstsSongDemocracyRecordsSeeingHappenedFirst TimeSooner Or LaterSolo Author:Rhett Miller
“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
“I also did a great amount of writing while doing research. It gave me the opportunity to meet and talk to people other than family, but also to explore my own memory deeper by comparing it to the memories of others who were in my home town during, for example, the political transition from socialism to a nationalistic "democracy" or during the bombings.” PeopleWritingHomePoliticalOpportunityMemoriesMy OwnDemocracyExampleAmountResearchTownsDeeperSocialismCompareTransitionBombingNationalisticHome Town Author:Sasa Stanisic
“Whenever I felt tempted to, I don’t know, watch cat videos or bad Netflix TV instead of writing this Brandeis biography, I thought of his stern but kindly visage and buckled down and wrote the damn thing, because there’s so much information out there, and these are such anxious times in democracy, such unreasonable times.” KnowsWritingFeltWatchesDemocracyInformationTvsCatDown AndVideoDamnAnxiousBiographiesTemptedUnreasonableNetflixDamn ThingsLouis Brandeis Author:Jeffrey Rosen