“I think of the old slavery, and of the way The Economy has now improved upon it. The new slavery has improved upon the old by giving the new slaves the illusion that they are free. The Economy does not take people's freedom by force, which would be against its principles, for it is very humane. It buys their freedom, pays for it, and then persuades its money back again with shoddy goods and the promise of freedom. "Buy a car," it says, "and be free. Buy a boat and be free." Is this not the raw material of bad dreams? Or is it maybe the very nightmare itself?” PeopleThinkingWayGivingDoeDreamWould BeForcePayPrinciplesEconomyCarMaterialsPromiseIllusionSlaverySlaveBoatNightmareGoodsConsumerismHumaneBack AgainOverconsumptionRaw MaterialsBad Dream Book:Jayber Crow: A Novel Source: Jayber Crow: A Novel
“The old freedom sufficiently survives in the mind of the wage earner to give him the illusion that, while accepting insurance and maintenance from the capitalist state, he can still be a full citizen. He thinks he can have his cake and eat it too. He is mistaken. The great capitalists who procured these regulations from the politicians knew what they were at. They were catching their proletariat in a net, and now they hold it fast.” ThinkingGivingMindStillsStatesWisdomPoliticsAcceptingEconomyCitizensPoliticianIllusionLiberalismCakeCapitalistRegulationMistakenCatchingMaintenanceProletariat Book:Essays of a Catholic Source: Essays of a Catholic
“The rising productivity of labor is a myth, a statistical illusion created by measuring combined output in terms of labor input.” WisdomPoliticsTermEconomyIllusionLaborMythProductivityRisingLiberalismInputMeasuringOutput Author:Louis O. Kelso
“Marxism was the social creed and the social cry of those classes who knew by their miseries that the creed of the liberal optimists was s snare and a delusion... Liberalism and Marxism share a common illusion of the "children of light." Neither understands property as a form of power which can be used in either its individual or its social form as an instrument of particular interest against the general interest.” ChildrenWisdomLightFormUsedPoliticsIndividualSocialInterestCommonClassEconomyShareCryParticularIllusionInstrumentsPropertyMiseryLiberalismDelusionCreedsOptimistMarxismSnares Author:Reinhold Niebuhr
“Liberalism makes this mistake in regard to private property and Marxism makes it in regard to socialized property... The Marxist illusion is partly derived from a romantic conception of human nature... It assumes that the socialization of property will eliminate human egotism... The development of a managerial class in Russia, combing economic with political power, is an historic refutation of the Marxist theory.” HumansWisdomPoliticalPoliticsMistakeClassEconomyEconomicHuman NatureTheoryDevelopmentIllusionRegardAssumingPropertyRussiaLiberalismConceptionHistoricMarxismEgotismPrivate PropertyPolitical PowerMarxistSocializationRefutationMarxist Theory Author:Reinhold Niebuhr
“First of all, developed countries have basically expropriated the atmosphere of the world community. But one must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world's wealth by climate policy. Obviously, the owners of coal and oil will not be enthusiastic about this. One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore.” WorldFirstsCountryNatureCommunityWealthEconomyEconomicPolicyDevelopmentIllusionClimateEnvironmentalInternationalOneselfOilAtmosphereOwnersEcologyCoalDistributionEnthusiasticDeveloped CountryRedistribution Of WealthEnvironmental PolicyEnvironmental Justice Author:Ottmar Edenhofer
“Even in an intensely mediated world, in a world that offers at least the illusion of radical self-invention and radical freedom of choice, I as a novelist am drawn to the things you can't get away from. Because much of the promise of radical self-invention, of defining yourself through this marvelous freedom of choice, it's just a lie. It's a lie that we all buy into, because it helps the economy run.” WorldSelfHelpingRunningLyingChoicesEconomyPromiseOffersIllusionInventionRadicalNovelistsGet AwayMarvelousDefiningFreedom Of ChoiceDefine Yourself Author:Jonathan Franzen
“The illusion that consumption - and its correlative, income - is desirable probably stems from too great preoccupation with what Knight calls "one-use goods," such as food and fuel, where the utilization and consumption of the good are tightly bound together in a single act or event. ... any economy in the consumption of fuel that enables us to maintain warmth or to generate power with lessened consumption again leaves us better off. ... there is no great value in consumption itself.” UseTogetherValuesEconomyEventsIllusionBoundsIncomeFuelGoodsWarmthConsumptionConsumerismStemDesirableBetter OffKnightsPreoccupationOverconsumptionGreat ValueUtilization Author:Kenneth E. Boulding
“The economy is a ponzi scheme. People are working harder than they ever have for less wages, but we have so many bobbles because manufacturing has come up so quickly over the past hundred years that people have the illusion of wealth.” PeopleYearsPastWealthEconomyIllusionHundredHarderCome UpSchemesWagesManufacturingOver The PastPonzi Scheme Author:Alex Jones
“Either the material order is the whole of being, wherein all transcendence is an illusion, or it is the phenomenal surface - mysterious, beautiful, terrible, harsh, and haunting - of a world of living spirits.... One should... be able to recognize that it is only the latter view that has ever had the power - over centuries and in every realm of human accomplishment - to summon desire beyond the boring limits marked by mortality, to endow the will with constancy and purpose, and to shape imagination towards ends that should not be possible within the narrow economies of the flesh.” WorldShouldHumansEndsWholeAbleBeautifulSpiritDesirePurposeOrderImaginationViewsEconomyCenturyMaterialsTerribleShapesLimitsIllusionBoringSurfaceFleshMysteriousAccomplishmentRealmsLatterMortalityHarshHauntingTranscendencePhenomenalConstancy Author:David Bentley Hart