“A license cannot be revoked because a man is red-headed or because he was divorced, except for a calling, if such there be, for which red-headedness or an unbroken marriage may have some rational bearing. If a State licensing agency lays bare its arbitrary action, or if the State law explicitly allows it to act arbitrarily, that is precisely the kind of State action which the Due Process Clause forbids.” IfsMenKindMayStatesActionLawProcessCallingLaysDuesRationalAgencyLicenseArbitraryDivorcedUnbrokenClausesDue ProcessLicensing Author:Felix Frankfurter
“The main purpose of advertising is to undermine markets. If you go to graduate school and you take a course in economics, you learn that markets are systems in which informed consumers make rational choices. That's what's so wonderful about it. But that's the last thing that the state corporate system wants. It is spending huge sums to prevent that.” IfsWantStatesSchoolLastsPurposeChoicesCoursesWonderfulHugeEconomicsSpendingRationalAdvertisingConsumersCorporateGraduatesGraduate School Author:Noam Chomsky
“[T]here seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously-after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important ... so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though he proves himself to be ignorant and subliterate every time he opens his mouth.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsYearsHas BeensImportantStatesReasonSeemsPoliticsUnitedLeaderOpinionMillionsUnited StatesMediaPolicyProveMouthsImportancePaidAffairAthleteIgnorantTreatedRationalDeclineMistakenEntertainersRational ThinkingProfessional AthleteForeign AffairsIdolizedDomestic Policy Author:Robert A. Heinlein
“The idea of a rational bureaucracy, of skill, merit, and consistency, is essential to all modern states.” IdeasStatesModernSkillsEssentialsRationalMeritConsistencyBureaucracy Book:In Defense of Politics Source: In Defense of Politics