“The economy is still substantially that of the fur trade, still based on the same general kinds of commercial items: technology, weapons, ornaments, novelties, and drugs. The one great difference is that by now the revolution has deprived the mass of consumers of any independent access to the staples of life: clothing, shelter, food, even water. Air access remains the only necessity that the average user can still get for himself, and the revolution has imposed a heavy tax on that by way of pollution. Commercial conquest is far more thorough and final than military defeat.” WayKindStillsWaterDifferencesTechnologyEconomyAirMilitaryRevolutionDrugTaxesWeaponsMassIndependentRemainsTradeFinalsDefeatAverageHeavyAccessConsumersClothingsUsersPollutionShelterConsumerismConquestItemsDeprivedNoveltyFurThoroughOrnamentsOverconsumptionStaples Book:The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture Source: The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture
“In France everything is a matter for jest. People make quips about the scaffold, about Napoleon's defeat on the banks of The Beresina, and about the barricades of our revolutions. So, at the assizes of the Last Judgment, there will always be a Frenchmen to crack a joke.” PeopleMatterLastsRevolutionJudgmentJokesDefeatFranceCracksJestFrenchmenQuipBarricades Author:Honore de Balzac
“The anarchists put the thing upside down. They declare that the proletarian revolution must begin by doing away with the political organization of the state. But to destroy it at such a moment would be to destroy the only organism by means of which the victorious proletariat can assert its newly-conquered power, hold down its capitalist adversaries, and carry out that economic revolution of society without which the whole victory must end in a new defeat and a mass slaughter of the workers similar to those after the Paris commune.” MeanEndsStatesWholeMomentsWould BePoliticalEconomicRevolutionVictoryMassOrganizationWorkersDefeatParisAnarchyCapitalistOrganismsAdversariesAnarchismAnarchistSlaughterUpside DownProletariatCommunesThings Upside Down Author:Friedrich Engels
“We said that each time a country is liberated it is a defeat for the world imperialist system. But we must agree that the break is not achieved by the mere act of proclaiming independence or winning an armed victory in a revolution. It is achieved when imperialist economic domination over a people is brought to an end.” PeopleWorldRealEndsCountryWinningEconomicRevolutionVictoryAgreeIndependenceMereDefeatLiberationDominationProclaimingBreaking Away Author:Che Guevara
“There is a cultural norm on the left of being afraid to declare victory, which is related to the binary of reform/revolution. Whereas reformists are winning small gains, revolutionaries don't want people to be satisfied with those small victories because they worry this will lead to acceptance of the bigger picture of capitalism domination, and so they find a way to turn every victory into a defeat. In the book, I call for a culture of declaring victory wherever we can.” PeopleWayWantBookTurnsCultureWinningLeftWorryAcceptanceRevolutionVictoryCapitalismGainsBiggerDefeatSatisfiedReformRevolutionaryRelatedNormDominationBeing AfraidDeclaringBinaryBigger PictureSmall Victories Author:Cynthia Kauffman
“Old truths and ancient magic, revolution and invention, all conspire to distract us from the passion that in one way or another defeats us all.” WayPassionMagicRevolutionDefeatAncientInventionOne Way Book:Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles Source: Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles
“Only the defeat of the proletariat in Germany in 1923 gave the decisive push to the creation of Stalin's theory of national socialism: the downward curve of the revolution gave rise to Stalinism, not to the theory of the permanent revolution, which was first formulated by me in 1905. This theory is not bound to a definite calendar of revolutionary events; it only reveals the world-wide interdependence of the revolutionary process.” WorldFirstsProcessEventsCreationTheoryRevolutionBoundsDefeatWideSocialismPermanentRevolutionaryGermanyDefiniteCurvesCalendarsInterdependenceProletariatStalinism Author:Leon Trotsky
“The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.” EndsHandsGovernmentFallDemocracyRevolutionCapitalismInstitutionsDefeatAmerican RevolutionLendingIncorporation Author:Thomas Jefferson
“From Caesar's legions to the Napoleonic wars. From the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the industrial revolution to the defeat of nazism. We have helped to write European history, and Europe has helped write ours.” WritingWarRevolutionEnlightenmentEuropeDefeatReformationNazismLegionIndustrial RevolutionEuropean HistoryNapoleonic Author:David Cameron
“Further, an excess of legislation defeats its own ends. It makes the whole population criminals, and turns them all into police and police spies. The moral health of such a people is ruined for ever; only revolution can save it.” PeopleEndsWholeTurnsMoralRevolutionPoliceDefeatPopulationCriminalsExcessLegislationRuinedSpy Author:Aleister Crowley
“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.” PoliticsTeachingDangerousRevolutionSpeechDefeatLibertarianCivil RightsCensorshipFree SpeechFreedom Of SpeechRestrictionFirst AmendmentFreedom And LibertyFreedom Of ThoughtFreedom LibertyCivil LibertiesAmerican RevolutionBannedLimiting GovernmentRights And FreedomsLimited FreedomCensoredSubversionCensoringAmerican LibertyFree ThoughtBanned BooksLimiting FreedomCensorship In BooksAmerican FreedomBook BanningIntellectual FreedomPolitical RevolutionCensoring BooksFreedom To ReadFirst Amendment RightsRights In America Author:William O. Douglas